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Hard & Soft Maple

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Question

In making kitchen cabinets, I use both soft and hard maple as the situation calls for. I’m interested to know how they can be distinguished before being milled, and which types of figure are typically found in hard and which, if any, can only be found in soft. – Caleb Dietrich

Answer

Marty Milkovits replies: If the log still has the bark on is the surest way – if not, then weight and hardness. If a lot of figure is showing on live edge, its a good guess that its soft. Typically, soft maples are prone to having more figure than hard maple. Both varieties can have all types of figure known to man, and even some that defy description.

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