Appearance
COLOR: Heartwood is creamy white to light reddish brown; sapwood is pale to creamy white.
GRAIN: Closed, subdued grain, with medium figuring and uniform texture. Occasionally shows quilted, fiddleback, curly or bird’s-eye figuring. Figured boards often culled during grading and sold at a premium.
VARIATIONS WITHIN SPECIES AND GRADES: Black
maple (B. nigrum) is also hard; other species are classified as soft.
Properties
HARDNESS (JANKA): 1450 (12% harder than Northern red oak).
DIMENSIONAL STABILITY: Average (9.9; 15% less stable than red oak).

Origin
North America.