Maple Questions

[L. D. Jeffries]

I know the difference looking at "soft/sugar" maple and "hard" maple trees, but hopefully some one can answer me this: whats the difference when it comes to lumber. Can soft maple be used for furniture?
Can it be made into veneer? Whats the difference when it comes to using it? I do know that sometimes soft maple is slightly cheaper than hard.
Can someone enlighten me? Thanks gang.

[Daryl]

Soft maple is silver maple or water maple. Hard maple is sugar maple.
My opinion is that they can be pretty much interchangable as soft maple is still pretty darn hard.

[Tom Miller]

Soft maple is silver maple or water maple. Hard maple is sugar maple.
My opinion is that they can be pretty much interchangable as soft maple is still pretty darn hard.

I wonder if soft maple species vary a lot in hardness. I only see soft maple at Home Depot, and it's both soft, and very boring. I don't even consider it, given that I can get hard maple easily enough.

Regards,
Tom

[pelligrini]

If you just look at the janka hardness tests hard maple is about twice as hard as soft maple.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_Wood_Hardness_Rating
http://www.sizes.com/units/janka.htm
The soft maple will dent easier.

I don't know too much about well it finishes. I would bet that more often that not it won't be used for a veeneer. It might have a veeneer put on it. That's just a guess though.

[Mr__Bill]

If someone has not conveniently put a label on it for you, how does one tell hard maple from soft maple. Assuming one does not have a piece of each to whack with a hammer to see which one dents.

Bill, who lives a long way from any maple trees

[L. D. Jeffries]

Thanks for the answers gang, re: maples. When I said I could tell the difference I was talking about the tree not sawn lumber. Generally the soft maple buds out first in spring and has a smoother bark than hard maples. Since I now have a good access to soft maple I was wondering if it would work as well as hard maple for general projects. With a friend who has a bandsaw mill lumber is just a matter of a little work and fuel away.

[cabinetman]

The two look very much alike. You can get an idea from these pages: Soft Maple, and Hard Maple.

Some of the similarities and differences are discussed here.
.

[Mr__Bill]

The two look very much alike. You can get an idea from these pages: Soft Maple, and Hard Maple.

Some of the similarities and differences are discussed here.
.

Thank you sir, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

Bill, over here on the big ocean