What Does Hard Maple Wood Look Like

Unless specified however our furniture will be made with hard maple that has a generally straight grain rather than with figured maple.

What does hard maple wood look like.

The term soft maple is a bit of a comparative misnomer as soft maple is harder than many other hardwoods such as cherry. Distinctive features of the grain produce the famous birds eye and curly figured. The heartwood tends to be a darker reddish brown. It best absorbs medium to dark stains and because of its ability to absorb dark stain with a depth of color brown maple can be finished to look much like cherry wood.

Soft maple which comes from a few different species and hard maple which comes from the sugar maple tree which produces maple syrup. Spalted maple wood is very decorative as it often looks like a pen and ink drawing through the wood. It resists wear and abrasion and is commonly found as flooring in gymnasiums and bowling alleys. The light colored wood is used for furniture flooring cabinets charcoal and firewood.

Soft maple is also often referred to as tiger maple for the tiger like stripes in the wood or curly maple if the stripes are a bit more of the curly nature. Furthermore some maples produce a bird s eye or curly wood which is high prized for its beauty. Soft maple varieties are more comparable to birch in hardness and application than hard maple. Sugar maple wood often known as hard maple is the wood of choice for bowling pins bowling alley lanes pool cue shafts and butcher s blocks.

Brown maple consists of a unique combination of brown tan white and cream streaks. When you hear maple you might be thinking of the distinctive maple tree or even maple syrup but the wood species of maple is actually sold under two distinct types. Hard maple or sugar maple trees produce a high quality timber and yield maple syrup. Acer saccharinum usa known for its clear white sapwood hard maple is a heavy dense and straight grained wood.

Soft maple can be used as a substitute for hard maple to save money in situations where low to moderate density is called for such as profiled moldings trim plaques and carved items hard maple is roughly twice as hard as soft maple and is often reserved for structural items like workbenches and.