Comments on: Differences Between Hard Maple and Soft Maple

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:44:05 +0000

How dumb of me. I got it backwards. If if is a “V” shaped sinus (like red & silver maple), it is a SOFT maple; a “U” shaped sinus (like Sugar, Florida maple), is a HARD maple. My apologies for letting my fingers out-quick my brain on the above post!

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:40:56 +0000

Generally, one good way to tell hard maples from soft maples is to look at the sinuses between the leaf lobes. If the sinus comes to a sharp “V” the tree is a hard maple. If the sinus comes to a rounded “U” shape, it is a hard maple. Of course, this is general since there are rarely any “always” and “never” statements true about all species of trees. As Mr. Mark Twain said, “There are no good generalities, including this one.”

By: Paul Hinds

Paul Hinds — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 18:03:46 +0000

Eric,

One thing you might consider adding is that turners tend to not like soft maple quite as much because if requires SUCH sharp tool edges otherwise it can fuzz up something terrible. Sanding is also a bit more of a problem w/ soft maple for the same reason. Further, if you use it in segmented bowls next to darkers woods, there’s a tendancy for the dust from the darker woods to lodge in the pores of the maple.

Personally, I avoid soft maple, except for flamed box elder.

By the way, nice site.

Paul

By: rance

rance — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:10:38 +0000

You can also tell the difference via wood rays. Hard maple has one size of ray while soft maple has two. A 10X hand lense helps to see this in the end grain. Normally a good clean cut with a sharp knife/razor helps this process. The woods are very similar but try to run a piece of soft maple through a joiner set for hard maple and the fuzz will tell the tale.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 15:50:33 +0000

Bob, I’ve heard the same thing about the Norway Maple on old violins. The trouble is—for whatever reason—I can’t seem to find any reliable information on the wood! I don’t know what it is about European woods, but good data is very hard to come by.

My best guess from general reports that I’ve read is that Norway Maple lies somewhere in between Red Maple and Hard Maple. But for what it’s worth, I know that Sycamore Maple has also been used in Europe for the construction of fine violins as well.

By: bob ginn

bob ginn — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:02:37 +0000

i make musical insturments&find very little difference in well seasoned red maple and sugar maple. does anyone know if norway maple is a strong wood? i have been told that the great strad violins were made from the norway maples. thanks bob ginn