Acer saccharum

Hard Maple

The canonical butcher-block and kitchen-island wood. Pale, dense, food-safe, and hard-wearing. North American import, long established as a furniture-grade species through European channels.

Ontvang bericht zodra het binnenkomtReferentiehoutsoort. Momenteel geen stukken op voorraad.

Is dit geschikt voor uw project?

Zeer geschikt voor

Butcher blocks, chopping boards, and kitchen islands
Worktops and heavy-use table tops
Stair treads and flooring in high-traffic rooms
Cabinet interiors, drawer sides, and shaker-style fronts
Turned bowls, handles, and tool components
Instrument backs, necks, and sides, especially curly or bird's-eye stock

Geen Hard Maple in de huidige uitgifte

Vergelijkbare houtsoorten op voorraad

Momenteel is er geen Hard Maple. Deze houtsoorten zijn geschikt voor dezelfde projecten en zijn wel beschikbaar.

Bericht ontvangen over Hard Maple

We sturen u een e-mail wanneer nieuwe boomstambladen van Hard Maple bij KORENA binnenkomen. Elk stuk is uniek, dus tijdig bericht is belangrijk.

Uiterlijk van het hout

Hoe het eruitziet

Creamy white sapwood, often with a slight reddish-brown heart. Grain is usually straight and fine, with an even texture that takes detail crisply. A small share of logs throw figure: tight curl (fiddleback) or scattered bird's-eye dots, both highly sought for furniture fronts and instrument backs, including the classic Stradivari violin back. The pale surface yellows gently under UV over time.

Creamy white to pale off-white sapwood, the commercial face of the species
Light reddish or golden-brown heartwood, usually trimmed out for uniform pale stock
Yellows slightly and warmly under UV over months and years
Bird's-eye figure: scattered dark dots across a pale field
Curly figure: tight chatoyant ripples that shift under raking light
Generally straight; sometimes curly or birds-eye figure.

Bewerking

Hard and dense, so plan tooling accordingly. Saws and planes cleanly with sharp carbide; dull edges burn quickly, especially on router cuts and end-grain work. Turns superbly, one of the finest turning hardwoods available. Sands well once flat. Curly and bird's-eye stock is prone to tear-out under straight knives; use a high cutting angle or finish with a scraper or sander. Glues and screws reliably; pre-drill near edges. Steam-bends adequately, not as freely as Ash or Beech.

Afwerking

Sands to a glassy surface and finishes beautifully under clear oil, hardwax oil, or lacquer, which lets the figure read. Be honest about stain: Hard Maple is famously blotchy. The dense, tight grain absorbs pigment unevenly, so dye stains and oil stains often land patchy. If you must stain, use a pre-stain conditioner or gel stain and test on offcuts. Most makers leave it clear or lightly toned. A water-pop before finishing helps consistency on figured stock.

Drogen

Tangential shrinkage is high (roughly 9.5–10.5%) against modest radial movement, so the wood is dimensionally lively and prone to cup if rushed. Dry slowly, sticker carefully, and weigh the top of the stack. Once at EMC it stays put well in conditioned interiors. Acclimatise boards for at least a week in the shop before machining.

Hoeveel zal het werken?

Hout zwelt en krimpt over de breedte wanneer de lucht vochtiger en droger wordt. Schat de seizoenswerking van een blad van Hard Maple voordat u de bevestigingen ontwerpt.

Breedte van het blad800 mm

Zaagwijze

Waar het komt te staan

Verwachte seizoenswerking

ongeveer 11,4 mm

Bevestig het blad met bladwervels of sleufbeugels, niet met lijm of strak aangedraaide schroeven.

Lineair krimpmodel: breedte × (krimp ÷ 28 % vezelverzadiging) × seizoensverschil in vochtgehalte. Gebruikt 10 % tangentiële krimp voor Hard Maple. Dit is een planningsschatting, geen garantie.

Wat het kost

Veiligheid en herkomst

Food-contact safe, this is the wood butcher blocks and chopping boards are built from, and it has no known toxicity in service. Dust is the real concern: maple dust is a documented respiratory sensitiser, and all hardwood dust is IARC Group 1. Run extraction at the source, wear a fitted P3 mask when sanding or routing, and keep the shop clean.

Lees de volledige gidsUitgebreide informatie over tekening, kleurverandering, bewerking en stabiliteit.

What Hard Maple actually is#

Acer saccharum is the sugar maple, and it is the wood most kitchen and workshop surfaces should be made from.

The reasoning is specific. It is dense at 705 kg per cubic metre and hard at 6,450 N. It is closed grained, meaning no open pores for moisture and residue to lodge in. It is rated food safe. And it is essentially odourless and tasteless, so it does not transfer flavour.

No other species in this catalogue combines all four. Oak is food safe but open pored. Beech is food safe and closed grained but moves far more. Maple is the reason butchers blocks look the way they do.

Hard maple and soft maple#

This is the most common confusion in maple buying and it matters.

Hard maple is Acer saccharum specifically. Soft maple is a trade term covering several other Acer species, typically around 4,000 N Janka against hard maple's 6,450 N. They look broadly similar and are regularly conflated in listings.

For a decorative panel the difference is minor. For a chopping board, a workbench top or a floor, buying soft maple when you specified hard is a real downgrade. Check the botanical name rather than the trade name.

European Sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus, is a third relative also sold as maple in some markets, and at 4,680 N it sits between the two.

Vragen van kopers

Why is Hard Maple the standard for chopping boards?

It is dense at 705 kg per cubic metre, hard at 6,450 N, closed grained with no open pores for residue to lodge in, food safe, and almost odourless and tasteless. That combination is why it is the industry standard for butchers blocks and cutting boards, and why it is preferred over oak, which is open pored.

What is the difference between hard and soft maple?

Hard maple is Acer saccharum, the sugar maple. Soft maple covers several other Acer species that are lighter and softer, typically around 4,000 N Janka against 6,450 N. They look similar and are frequently confused in sale listings. For a work surface the difference matters a great deal.

What causes curly and birdseye figure?

Curly or flame figure is a wave in the grain that produces a rippling chatoyance across the board. Birdseye is a pattern of small swirled eyes whose cause is still not fully explained. Neither is predictable from the standing tree, both occur in a small proportion of trees, and both command large premiums over plain maple.

Does maple stain well?

Mechanische eigenschappen

Technische gegevens

Gepubliceerde referentiewaarden. Als bronnen uiteenlopen, wordt het bereik getoond en wordt de gebruikelijke waarde gebruikt voor de bovenstaande schalen.

Tangentiële krimp
Dichtheid (kg/m³)	640–755 kg/m³gebruikelijk 705 kg/m³
Janka-hardheid (N)	6,000–7,000 Ngebruikelijk 6.450 N
MOR: breukmodulus (MPa)	100–115 MPa
MOE: elasticiteitsmodulus (GPa)	11.5–13.0 GPa
Radiale krimp	4.5–5.5 %

Sports goods: bowling pins, baseball bats, gym floors

Sterke punten

Let op

Native to eastern North America, Canada and the northern United States, not to Europe. Imported as a furniture-grade hardwood with a long, well-established trade route into the EU. Sometimes sold as Sugar Maple or Rock Maple; all are Acer saccharum.

IUCN Least Concern, no CITES listing. Managed commercially across Canada and the northeastern US under long-standing forestry regimes. As a non-EU import it carries longer transport miles than European species and a fuller EUDR due-diligence trail through the supply chain. FSC and PEFC certified stock is widely available. Ask for it.

Plain hard maple is a quiet, pale, almost featureless wood. A small proportion of trees produce figure, and it is priced very differently.

Curly or flame maple carries a wave in the grain that produces rippling chatoyance shifting with viewing angle. Birdseye maple shows a pattern of small swirled eyes across the surface, and its cause is still not fully explained.

Neither is predictable from the standing tree, which is why figured maple is expensive: it is found rather than grown.

The staining problem#

Maple's main weakness is finishing. The dense closed grain that makes it hygienic makes it absorb stain unevenly, and it blotches badly, particularly on flatsawn faces and in figured stock where the grain wave changes absorption from millimetre to millimetre.

Pigment stain on curly maple will produce a muddy, patchy result that obscures the very figure you paid for.

Use a dye rather than a pigment stain, or a gel stain that sits on the surface, or seal first with a thin washcoat. Test on an offcut from the same board every time, because behaviour varies between boards of the same species.

Most figured maple is best finished clear, with an oil or a water based finish, letting the chatoyance carry the surface.

It works cleanly with sharp tools and blunts them at a fair rate. It turns very well, holds crisp detail, glues reliably and takes fastenings securely with pilot holes.

Figured stock tears out and wants light cuts, a high angle plane or a scraper.

It sands to a very fine surface, which suits its usual clear finish.

Volumetric shrinkage of 14.5 percent is on the high side, with tangential at 9.5 percent against radial at 4.5 percent, a wide differential. Flatsawn maple cups.

For a chopping block this matters less than it sounds, because blocks are usually built as laminated end grain or edge grain constructions where movement is distributed and restrained. For a wide solid top, quartersawn is worth the cost.

Where Hard Maple is the right answer#

Chopping boards and butchers blocks, kitchen worktops, workbench tops, flooring, and any decorative work where curly or birdseye figure is the design.

It is the wrong answer outdoors, being decay class 5, and wrong wherever a rich stained colour is the goal.

Not CITES listed and assessed as Least Concern. Native to eastern North America, so European buyers are usually importing, with the longer documentation chain that implies. Where a pale dense European alternative is acceptable, European Sycamore or beech cover similar ground with a shorter chain, though neither matches hard maple for a food surface.

Because maple is pale and perishable, it spalts readily, and spalted maple is a category in its own right.

Spalting is the early stage of fungal decay. Different fungi competing within a log lay down black zone lines where their territories meet, producing fine dark tracery across a pale background. The effect is unlike any grain figure and cannot be imitated.

The difficulty is that spalting is decay, and it does not stop by itself. Timber left too long goes soft, punky and structurally useless. Usable spalted maple is caught at a specific moment and then dried to kill the fungus.

Buying spalted stock means checking soundness rather than just admiring the pattern. Press a fingernail into the palest zones: if it sinks easily the wood has gone too far. Punky areas can be stabilised with resin for turning but are not suitable for a work surface.

Spalted dust also carries a higher fungal spore load than sound timber, so extraction and a mask matter more than usual.

End grain against edge grain blocks#

For a chopping block, the construction matters as much as the species.

End grain blocks present the cut fibre ends upward, so a knife edge parts the fibres rather than severing them and the surface closes behind the cut. They are kinder to knives and self healing, but they absorb more moisture and need more maintenance.

Edge grain blocks are simpler to build, more dimensionally stable and easier to keep dry, at the cost of showing knife marks sooner.

Both work in hard maple. End grain is the traditional butchers block and the better performing surface if you will look after it.

Poorly, and this is its main finishing weakness. The dense closed grain absorbs pigment unevenly and blotches badly, particularly on flatsawn faces and in figured stock. Use a dye, a gel stain, or a conditioner first, and always test on an offcut from the same board.

Can it be used outdoors?

No. It is rated decay class 5, perishable, and offers no meaningful resistance to rot or insect attack. Maple is strictly interior. For exterior work choose robinia, oak or sweet chestnut.

Volumetrische krimp	14.5–16.0 %

Natuurlijke duurzaamheid (EN 350)	Class 5 — Perishable

Bronnen

The Wood Database(geraadpleegd op 2026-05-09)
USDA FPL Wood Handbook FPL-GTR-190 (2010)(geraadpleegd op 2026-05-09)
Meier, E. — WOOD! Identifying and Using Hundreds of Woods Worldwide (2015)(geraadpleegd op 2026-05-09)

In het kort

HardheidHoge hardheid

Janka-hardheid 6.450 N

30 % harder dan Europese eik

GewichtZwaar

705 kg/m³

StabiliteitWerkt veel

15,3 % volumetrische krimp

BewerkingGemiddeld

3,7 / 5 gemiddeld bij bewerking

BuitengebruikAlleen binnen

EN 350-klasse 5

Er is nog geen marktreferentie voor Hard Maple. Elk stuk van KORENA wordt afzonderlijk geprijsd door de partnerwerf.

Niet voor onbehandeld buitengebruik

De natuurlijke duurzaamheid is klasse 5 van 5 volgens EN 350. Gebruik het binnen of houd de afwerklaag buiten goed bij.

Tik op een label voor de details.