Why Does Maple Wood Change Colors Over Time?

Virtually all hardwoods change color as the years go by. Light-colored wood, such as maple, will naturally darken due to exposure to UV light and oxygen. As the years pass, even a white maple piece will develop a honey-gold patina. For this reason, its generally best to purchase sets all at once versus building a collection a little at a time, as pieces added later will have a slightly different hue.

What are the Common Uses of Maple Wood?

Maple wood is commonly used in high-end furniture, flooring, cabinetry, and kitchen accessories. Because of its durability and strength, maple can be found used as flooring in bowling alleys and for bowling pins. It was also once a popular choice for wood baseball bats before being largely replaced by Ash, which is equally as strong but more lightweight.

Its unique color, smooth grain, and strength make maple a popular choice among woodworkers of all types. In its natural state, it can totally brighten a room, yet stained maple looks equally gorgeous and can be dressed up to suit any preferred style. Maple wood also tends to get chosen when durability is a concern because it can take a beating.

Where Does Maple Wood Come From?

There are hundreds of types of maple trees across the globe. The wood used for furniture available through Vermont Woods Studios is usually from the sugar maple tree, unless otherwise specified.

Where Do Sugar Maple Trees Grow?

The sugar maple, or hard maple, is only native throughout the northern United States and parts of Canada. It grows as far west as Minnesota, brushing down through Missouri, then dips as low as Tennessee before sweeping back upward toward the east coast. The greatest concentration of sugar maples is in the Great Lakes area, though theres a great many in Vermont as well. In fact, its the official state tree and is native to the Green Mountain Forest. Because it grows in abundance here, most of our craftsmen source wood locally.

How Big Are Sugar Maple Trees?

Sugar maple trees can exceed 120 feet in height. One of the oldest known ones is the Comfort Maple of Canada. Its estimated to be more than 500-years-old and is 80 feet tall with a trunk circumference of 20 feet.

Is Maple a Hardwood or a Softwood?

Hardness is arguably one of the most misunderstood things about wood in general, but maple wood adds to the confusion.

Technically, hardwood refers to wood harvested from a dicot tree, such as a broadleaf variety. A softwood, on the other hand, comes from a gymnosperm tree, such as a conifer. Its not a reference to the woods ability to withstand force, scratches, or dents.

Softwoods include things like fir, pine, and cedar. Hardwoods include cherry, oak, walnut, and maple, among others.

What gets confusing about maple is that it can also be described as both hard and soft.

What's the Difference Between Hard Maple and Soft Maple?

The term soft maple is used as an umbrella term to describe several different species of maple trees. Hard maple, on the other hand, refers to lumber that comes from the species acer sacharrum and is synonymous with sugar maple. Besides acer sacharrum, the only other species in the maple family which is sometimes referred to as hard maple is the Black Maple (acer nigrum). In fact, the two species are so similar that some consider the black maple a subspecies of acer sacharrum.

Both hard maple and soft maple are harvested from dicot trees, so both types are technically hardwoods.

Hard maple, or sugar maple, is the most durable of the maple species with a janka value of 1,450, which makes it one of the hardest domestic woods used in furniture making.

There are many varieties of soft maple wood, though the most common are the striped maple, silver maple, red maple, bigleaf maple, and box elder. Although called soft maple, its really only about 25% softer than hard maple wood and is still harder than wood from a Douglas fir, southern yellow pine, or California redwood.