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Hard Maple

One of the most common and widely used North American woods, the Hard Maple is an eastern North American maple tree.  While grown in abundance, it is more expensive to get the pure white sap wood.  In flooring, you will get a combination of heart and sap wood in any hard maple. Maple hardwood is a very clean looking wood with not much of a grain at all, and very little colour variation which gives a very consistent look. If you don't like much grain and want a smooth, even tone to your floor, maple is for you.
Botanical Name: Acer Saccharum

Nicknames: Rock Maple, Sugar Maple, Black Maple, White Maple

Growth
The hard maple reigns from the soapberry family (Sapindaceae), and is native to eastern North America.  Widely grown as an ornamental shade tree, the sap of this tree is a commercially important source of maple syrup and maple sugar.
 
Colour
The sapwood of the hard maple is virtually white with perhaps a slight reddish tinge and the heartwood is a uniform light, pale reddish brown.
 
Grain
It is a very dense wood, with white to grey overtones, closed pored with a tight grain.  The sugar maple develops special grain patterns such as bird's eye maple (with dots or elliptical figures resembling the eyes of birds) and there is also the curly & fiddleback maple, with wavy and rippled grain respectively.
Stability
The wider the sapwood the more the lumber is prized.  Hard maple machines well and is hard when dry, it is stable but tends to shrink and swell taking on moisture when there are changes in humidity.  DO NOT acclimatize your maple wood when it arrives at your home.  Install immediately upon arrival.
 
Hardness   
Hard maple is heavy, hard, strong, tough, stiff, and close grained and sands to a beautiful tight finish.  It has excellent resistance to abrasion, indentation and shock.
 

Fun Facts
  • A favoured wood for use in bowling alleys
  • The leaf of the sugar maple is the national emblem of Canada
  • Early  American settlers used maple ashes to make soap
  • Any sugar maple with a trunk diameter greater than 12 inches can be "tapped" for syrup ~ it takes 30 years for a tree to grow to this size
  • Sugar maple and black maples are considered "hard maples"
  • Red maples and silver maples, less dense, are considered "soft maples"

 
Hard Maple Diamond Standard Ratings

Janka 1450 Select & Better

Select

Character		 Semi-gloss

Low-sheen		 Harvested
from Eastern
North America

Wide Content: 

Hard Maple has a variety of grade combinations in different colours.  The only colours available in the select option are, Butterscotch, Cayenne, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Gunstock, Mocha, and Natural. The rest of the colour options are as follows: