Hard or Soft

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Hey Matt,
That's a great price for maple, especially out West. It goes for $8 a board ft around ABQ. Who's your supplier?

To answer your question, I used to use a lot of maple when I lived back East and could get it cheaper. I used both hard and soft. There is nothing "soft" about soft maple, only comparatively softer than hard. I would definitely save the extra bucks.

One thing to look out for in maple, especially soft maple, is how figured it is. The figure is beautiful, but its hard to match figured pieces and the figure makes the wood harder to work - good chance of tearout. So figured is good stuff, but it is a lot more work than straight grained.

Sorry this got so long, bottom line answer is that either will work fine!

I'd go with the soft maple. As Jesse said, it aint soft.

Jim Young said:

I'd go with the soft maple. As Jesse said, it aint soft.

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You're right about that, but it can be durn stringy. If you pull up a splinter on an edge it will run all the way to next Tuesday. Depends on the species, I guess, but the Broadleaf Maple from the northwest is a wood I wouldn't use for fine work. In the trade, a lot of this stuff goes into frames for upholstered furniture. That's one reason you often see soft maple and alder sawn 8/4 to begin with.

You'll need good sharp edges to work either one, but my money's on "the hard stuff"

i agree on the soft maple......i`ve found the grain to be somewhat wilder than with hard maple.....watch for mineral staining and off color wood though....some call it "ambrosia" .....tod

Ian Gillis said:

but it can be durn stringy.

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That might make it easier to get the plinter out of your hands.