The sugar maple has a range of grain patterns. It is less dense than Oak and slightly denser than Cherry. On the Janka Hardness Scale, Sugar Maple falls somewhere in the middle. Their hardness level reaches 1,450 lbf Janka, while soft maple species have a rating of about 700 to 950. Hard maple species like Sugar Maple and Black Maple have the highest Janka Hardness Scale rating of any other maple species. This process causes light-colored woods like maple to darken over time, with the cream hue transitioning to a darker shade resembling honey or light gold. But with sugar maple, it’s the sapwood that furniture makers usually choose due to its light and creamy color.Īs hardwoods age, they experience a change in color due to exposure to oxygen and sunlight. Other trees are valued for their heartwood. The sapwood of a Sugar Maple tree can vary from white to cream, sometimes with hints of gold, while the heartwood is typically a shade of reddish brown. Maple wood is a popular choice for woodworkers and furniture enthusiasts due to its strong and durable nature, beautiful creamy color, and smooth grain pattern, making it ideal for staining. So, for the rest of this article, we’ll focus on Sugar Maple. For our maple furniture, we only use Sugar Maple or Black Maple to ensure that our pieces last for generations. Fine Furniture uses various sustainable, high-quality hardwoods, mainly Oak, Walnut, Cherry, and Maple. Hard maple is often heavier and denser, although this test isn’t always accurate.

One way to tell them apart is to weigh them. Soft maple trees, including red maple, boxelder, silver maple, and bigleaf maple, are commonly used for veneers, crates, and home woodenware due to their soft and lightweight wood.Īs timber, soft maple trees look similar to hard maple. Hard maple refers to Sugar Maple and Black Maple trees and is a popular choice for flooring, furniture, cabinets, and even baseball bats. It grows to about 65 feet and withstands most growing conditions, even in cold climates. It has a rounded crown and dense foliage in the fall that turns a beautiful golden yellow. The black maple is a subspecies of sugar maple native to the midwestern United States. The undersides of its leaves are soft silver, and the fall color is typically a pale yellow. While this tree grows quickly (and tall, at about 80 feet when mature), it is brittle and prone to breaking, and its roots are shallow. Silver maple grows quickly and is commonly planted as shade trees. It’s not as tall as the other maples and typically grows to about 50 feet tall when fully mature. During autumn, the leaves turn bright red, giving the tree its name. Its leaves on top are green, but underneath, they appear silver. Red maple is a common maple tree in North America and grows in urban (common landscape trees) and forest areas. This species grows into an enormous tree, reaching up to 150 feet in height.

The Bigleaf maple is a species native to the Pacific Northwest region of North America and one of the few commercially available hardwoods on the west coast. This tree can reach anywhere between 80 to 110 feet tall. It’s a stunner in the fall when its bright green leaves turn to a lovely mix of red, yellow, and orange. Popular maple species include:Ĭommon in the northeastern United States, the sugar maple tree (also called rock maple) is best known for producing maple syrup. Under the genus Acer are 132 unique “maple” species, many of which are found in Asia and some scattered across Europe, northern Africa, and North America. It’s the broad and common word for a diverse family of trees and shrubs called Acer. There’s so much more you need to know about maple and why it’s a great material to use for furniture. Aside from its durability, sugar maple is sought-after because of its light and creamy appearance, a versatile color to match any home. Now, when people in the industry say maple, they generally refer to sugar maple. Despite being a tough timber, it’s surprisingly easy to mold and shape, making it a top choice among furniture makers. Maple is among the sought-after American hardwoods, boasting incredible strength and density.

Maple wood furniture