Hard Maple

The heartwood is a uniform pale reddish-brown or light tan, the sapwood white with a reddish tinge. It has a typically straight grain, which can sometimes be wavy or curly, and a fine, even texture. The classic bird's-eye form has brownish dots on a whitish background. Other kinds of decorative figuring which are commonly found include fiddleback, leaf, blistered and burr maple.

Properties:

It has medium stiffness, is rated high in all other strength categories, and has very good steam-bending qualities. The hard maples are about 35% harder than the soft maples, and are resistant to abrasion. The wood has a moderate blunting effect and can be quite difficult to work. Sawing and planing can present difficulty, but the wood turns, bores, moulds and paints well. It is rated as satisfactory for gluing and polishing, and requires pre-boring for nailing and screwing.

Seasoning:

Hard maple dries slowly, but is quite easy to season. Shrinkage is high and there is a moderate tendency to warp. Movement in service is rated as medium.

Durability:

Although more durable than some of the other maples, hard maple has little natural resistance to insects and fungi, and can be attacked by common furniture beetle. The sapwood is permeable for preservative treatment, but the heartwood is resistant.

Typical Uses:

Furniture, musical instruments and interior joinery. Because of its resistance to abrasion, hard maple is suitable for heavy-duty flooring, and is used for roller-skating rinks, dance floors, squash courts and bowling alleys. It is also used for butchers' blocks, rollers in the textile industry, sports goods, casks and woodenware. Selected figured stock is peeled for bird's-eye figure, or sliced to make fiddleback, mottled, curly or blistered veneers.

Acer saccharum and A. nigrum (Aceraceae)

Also called:

rock maple, sugar maple, white maple (A. saccharum); black maple, black sugar maple, hard rock maple (A. nigrum). Both are sold as 'hard maple' or 'rock maple'

Grows:

Canada and USA

Weight per Board Foot:

3.7 lbs

Typical dry weight:

45lb/ft3 (720kg/m3)

Specific Gravity:

.72

Typical Height:

A. saccbarum 70-120ft (20-37m); A. nigrum 80ft (24m)

Trunk Diameter:

2-3 ft (0.6-0.9m)