Name That Wood!?

[DevilsAdvocate]

Hi guys,

I'm just wondering if anyone can confirm if this is indeed rock maple, or if someone has maybe told me a little white lie?

http://imageshack.us...3/img0150lg.jpg

http://imageshack.us...9/img0148ey.jpg

I know they're not the best pictures, but I hope they'll do.

Thanks

Troy

[killemall8]

Honestly, its pretty much impossible to tell teh difference between rock maple and soft maple, espeically by looks. Really the only diffrence is weight and stiffness.

[verhoevenc]

Weigh it. You can compare the lbs/BdFt to measurements of unit online for maple density. Remember, density is lb/ft^3. So you need to multiply whatever your lb/BdFt finding was by 12 to match up. Hard maple (rock/sugar and black) will be in the high 30s-low 40s for density. Soft maple in the low to mid 30s.

Chris

[shad peters]

this has just been my experience but from the wood that I have handled sugar maple has a slightly more amber hue to i than silver maple (those are the hard and soft varieties we have around here, not sure about other places), but thats not allways the case and not really much to go on. the main thing is density as Chris pointed out. You might also look at growth rings and rays, growth ring will likely be tighter for a hard maple since they usually grow a lot slower (at least sugar maple does) and I have never seen soft maple with very prominent rays on the quartered side. If you see really strong rays that could be a give away.

[DevilsAdvocate]

Thanks guys, came in at 36 so I'm gonna assume it's hard maple.