Is A Red Maple A Hardwood Or Softwood

What are hardwood trees.

Is a red maple a hardwood or softwood.

Whether you are choosing between hard or soft maple rest assured that both can produce fantastic results for a variety of hardwood lumber products. Softwood discussion read on. Common soft maples include the silver red and box elder. The specific gravities of sugar maple and black maple are 0 63 and 0 57 respectively.

From angiosperm or flowering plants such as oak maple or walnut that are not monocots the hardwood is formed by these while from gymnosperm trees usually evergreen conifers like pine or spruce the softwood is formed. Grain is generally straight but may be wavy. Unlike most other hardwoods the sapwood of maple lumber is most commonly used rather than its heartwood sapwood color ranges from almost white to a light golden or reddish brown while the heartwood is a darker reddish brown. On a soft maple board the chemical will turn dark blue to black in color.

Janka ratings for maple range from 700 for silver maple to 1 180 for black maple. The most common hard maple is the sugar or rock maple. Generally the sapwood is greyish white sometimes with darker colored pith flecks. Silver maple red maple and boxelder are soft maples.

The term hardwood tree is a botanical grouping of trees with similar characteristics. If you want information about hardwood tree characteristics as well as a hardwood vs. Now it may look like hard maple is heads and tails above the rest and to a certain extent it is but for reference black cherry has a janka hardness of 950 lb f the same as red maple and black walnut is rated at 1 010 lb f 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. The red maple or acer rubrum is classified as a soft hardwood tree.

The wood of soft maple is not as heavy or as strong as that of hard maple. Bigleaf maple is moderately hard. Red maple can also be seen with curly or quilted grain patterns. If it is on a hard maple board iron sulfate will create a pale blue or green coloration on the board.

The heartwood varies from light to dark reddish brown. The wood is heavy and soft which makes it ideal for commercial uses such as making furniture pallets and crating. The maple tree is a member of a group of 200 species of trees and shrubs worldwide that belong to the acer family. But hardwood is a term biolog to group together trees with certain similar characteristics.

Soft maple is very similar to hard maple in most respects.