The Maple that everyone here on WB is using is a Hard Maple? There's plenty of Soft Maple (? I think) out in the burn pile. I don't think there's anything that you can do with tat?
Loaded question...Hard maple is often the same speices as Sugar maple as is Rock maple,
Acer saccharum. There are a few others that get lumped in such as Florida hard maple and Black maple. Black is often considered a form of Sugar maple versus a separate species.
Soft maple....again a loaded response. Many, many gym floors are maple and often have both "hard maple" and "soft maple" in them however, the soft maple being used is almost always
Acer rubrum, also called 'Red maple'. Many old-timers used the term 'red maple' for maple trees with red leaves in the summer. This following is becoming less used.
Silver maple is often lumped in as a "soft maple". Yes, it has a lower density than Sugar maple, but also less than "Red maple",
A. rubrum. Many places in the northeast US typically only have
A. saccharum and
A. rubrum as choices for lumber. The other maples are in low numbers and only really found in specialty markets.
West coast has several maples as well. These are typically lower density than 'hard maple',
Acer saccharum, and in some ways can be called "soft maples". However to ease confusion we market them by other names. Big leaf maple is a very poplar west coast maople. Canyon maple and several others are also in the markets.
Look up Ambrosia maple. I have seen ambrosia in more "Soft maple" than any other maples. Works good for firewood too.
