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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Know Your Wood: Red Maple

Red Maple
A highly figured and deeply dimensioned burl. Soft maples aren’t what I would call “soft.” The name is simply an identification of a somewhat different acer, image via The Wood Explorer.

Common trade names: Red Maple, Soft maple, Carolina red maple, Scarlet maple, Swamp maple, Water maple, White maple.

Genus: Acer rubrum

Janka Hardness (pounds-force): 950

Description: Red maple is one of the many acers referred to as soft maples. Like the Hard maples, the sapwood is preferred stock from these species. Color is typically pale with very light browns, with a heartwood a dark scarlet brown. Grain can be quite irregular and interesting among the soft maples.

Location: A deep forest wood. More a southern species in North America, though the northern bound on a reference shows the eastern end of Newfoundland as a locale. This amazes me, as the species’ range approaches the Everglades in Florida. Found everywhere but very deep swamp across the southern United States into east Texas and Ozark River lower basin in Missouri. Curiously, this wood is also found in pockets of northern! Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. This must be a deep forest species, because it is barely found in Iowa, northeast Missouri, Kansas, and northern Illinois. Grows around most of Lake Superior and across the forestlands of southern Ontario and Quebec.

Common Aliases: Soft maple, (A great link descriptive of with reference to various species located here.) Carolina red maple, Drummond red maple, Scarlet maple, Swamp maple, Water maple, White maple.

Performance: Can decay. Interior use only! Many better woods are available for outdoor applications, and Red maple is otherwise a rather pleasant experience to work. As with the hard maple, Red maple can burn with high speed cutters that are just a little dull. Relatively affordable, except with figured pieces and such as seen in the photo at the head.

UNC may have lost the game to Duke tonight, but their Herbarium might be winning the Botanical war.

Common Uses: Crates, boxes, casks, fine furnishing, small specialty objects, turnings, plywood, hatracks, cabinetry, paneling, veneers.

From: The Wood Database

Common Name(s): Red Maple
Scientific Name: Acer rubrum
Distribution: Eastern North America
Tree Size: 65-100 ft (20-30 m) tall, 2-3 ft (.6-1.0 m) trunk diameter
Average Dried Weight: 38lbs/ft3 (610 kg/m3)
Basic Specific Gravity: .49
Hardness: 950 lbf (4,230 N)
Rupture Strength: 13,400 lbf/in2 (92,410 kPa)
Elastic Strength: 1,640,000 lbf/in2 (11,310 MPa)
Crushing Strength: 6,540 lbf/in2 (45.1 MPa)
Shrinkage: Radial: 4.0%, Tangential: 8.2%, Volumetric: 12.6%, T/R Ratio: 2.1

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