Are Maples Hardwood

Prefinished maple hardwood comes in a wide range of hues.

Are maples hardwood. Silver maple red maple and boxelder are soft maples. Hardwoods such as red cedar elm cherry balsa teak mahogany maple and oak. Harder woods can be susceptible to decay while softer wood resists it. The heartwood tends to be a darker reddish brown.

Softwood comes from a conifer cone bearing or evergreen trees such as pine or spruce. Maple is harder than oak but hardness doesn t always translate into durability. Most hardwood trees are deciduous trees which lose their leaves annually like elm or maple. Hardwood maples are categorized as hard or soft hardwood trees.

Maples are distinguished by opposite leaf arrangement. Maple timber is less porous than oak making it more resistant to dents and scratching. If you lean to a more contemporary look for your home maple is frequently chosen for a consistent contemporary look. Hard and soft hardwood maples are used to produce everything from the syrup on a stack of pancakes to the table the plate is sitting on.

Janka ratings for maple range from 700 for silver maple to 1 180 for black maple. Bigleaf maple is moderately hard. That would depend on the type of hardwood but generally the name comes from the tree type. A small number of species differ in having palmate compound pinnate compound pinnate veined or unlobed leaves.

Unlike most other hardwoods the sapwood of hard maple lumber is most commonly used rather than its heartwood sapwood color ranges from nearly white to an off white cream color sometimes with a reddish or golden hue. Hard hardwoods have strong and sturdy wood while the wood of soft hardwoods is more pliable. The specific gravities of sugar maple and black maple are 0 63 and 0 57 respectively. Homeowners attempting to match new portions of maple hardwood with older sections often find the task challenging.

The texture and density of the wood a tree produces puts it in either the hardwood or softwood category. Taking the hardness data within context of other hardwoods soft maple may be used as a valid substitute for hard maple in most situations where a hardwood of moderate density is called for. Also note that black maple not pictured isn t quite as hard as its close relative hard maple and ranks in the mid range with a hardness of 1 180 lb f. Maple cannot absorb stain as well as oak mainly due to its consistency.

Where you use the hardwood is more important than its density and hardness. Prefinished maple hardwood has the longevity to withstand high traffic. The leaves in most species are palmate veined and lobed with 3 to 9 rarely to 13 veins each leading to a lobe one of which is central or apical.