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MAPLE, HARD
my samples:
plank and end grain
end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- color is off; should be more white
side grain of the same piece, showing the fairly common small ray flakes that sometimes show up in hard maple.
plank with sapwood. This plank has more curl than you can see in this picture.
plank and end grain
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
plank donated by Jim Glynn --- thanks Jim. There's a little figure in this that shows up better in the actual wood than it does in this pic. Jim called it a "baby quilt" but I think "mottle" might be a more accurate description.
mineral stain --- a common occurance in hard maple.
end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- this is VERY poorly surfaced but the almost-vertical lines ARE rays, not scratches --- note that they consitently run perpendicular to the grain, not parallel to each other as would be more likely for sanding scratches. If you look closely on enlargements, you WILL see parallel (vertical) sanding scratches.
lumber-yard plank with mineral stain
set of planks in a lumber yard with the top one having heavy mineral stain.
3" long piece of split maple (as opposed to having been sawed) that very nicely shows the small rays that sometimes give maple that nice tight ray flake pattern.
quartersawn planks, rough planed --- in just looking at these, I would not have readily identified them as hard maple (as opposed to other maple varieties; they clearly are some kind of maple) but I trust the vendor I bought it from so assume they are hard maple
NOT a raw wood color
flooring sample that has been finished with a hard, shiny finishing agent that has only slightly yellowed the color --- many finishing agents REALLY yellow the color on maple, so this one appears to be pretty good.
sample plank and end grain --- this sample seems to me to be far less representative of the species than most of the others of my own pics but that lack of representative nature is fairly common in the samples I got from the IWCS.
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
the piece directly above, after I sanded off the finish --- the apparent sharpening of the grain in this pic is because the one above is slightly out of focus, NOT because the finish fuzzied the grain (something that DOES happen with some woods --- see western red cedar, for example).
top-and-side view and end view of a small piece; very accurate color
end grain closeup and side grain closeup of the same piece as directly above. This piece was chosen because of the nice ray flakes on the side grain. From the end grain shot, you can see that the side grain is quartersawn, although not perfectly so.
hard maple plank and a closeup
planks shot at a lumber yard
veneer --- I note that the color of the veneer, which is shown very accurately here, is lighter than many of the planks. Also, you can tell it's veneer because my felt-tip pen marking on the reverse side is visible through the wood on the left side. This sheet is very typical of flat cut hard maple veneer and the bottom of the sheet gives a good view of what quartersawn hard maple looks like.
flat cut veneer sheet and closeup --- the color on the closeup is too white; there's a yellowish cast that shows up better in the distance pic.
quartersawn flaky veneer --- the color is way off on this one; the wood is nearly white with none of the red tint shown here.
flaky hard maple and closeup
veneer --- this piece is slightly silver in color and is very hard, with a glossy surface that is unlike normal hard maple veneer
numerous pieces of hard maple veneer from different lots / flitches
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fiddleback hard maple --- long piece and closeup. This is sold as "Fiddleback English Sycamore". This variety had me doubly-confused. When I first got a piece, I was convinced it was hard maple even though the vendor listed it as Enlish sycamore, so I put it with the hard maple. Then I saw a lot of places that advertised it as English sycamore so I though that it was a sycamore variety that just LOOKED like hard maple, so I put it with the sycamore. Now I THINK I've got it right. It is hard maple, but the British call it sycamore. In England, what we call sycamore is called "planetree". Confused? Me too.
At any rate, it is a very attractive wood and is a frequently a true fiddleback figure, although as you can see from some of the additional samples directly below, it isn't always a true fiddleback.
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fiddleback hard maple ("English Sycamore") --- the figure on these is weaker than on the long sheet directly above, but it is stronger than what shows up in some of these pics. The first two of these, in particular, are a true fiddleback. The colors on these are all close, but not all perfect --- as usual, I have trouble with yellows.
curly hard maple veneer sheet and closeup --- the curl is weak but it is a little stronger than what shows up in this pic.
mineral stain is a very common flaw in hard maple. There are two types: first is a concentrated area of dark brown as shown in this picture and second is a diffuse but much larger area of light brown or gray discoloration.
a couple of small hard maple crotch veneer sheets --- looks like minor branch crotches, not big ones.
web pics --- colors are very suspect throughout
log section
flat cut planks
planks with what I take to be dark-colored heartwood, but I have not otherwise see anything similar to this. The red color is completely bogus ... this is from one of those vendors who use completely incorrect colors on their pics
quartersawn planks
quartersawn plank with excellent ray flakes
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plank specifically listed as sugar maple, which is one of the maple varieties that are generally lumped together as hard maple
figured hard maple planks
fiddleback hard maple plank
curly hard maple
quartersawn curly
bat blanks
a burl
two curly planks
a crotch
quartersawn
veneer
blistered veneer
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fiddleback hard maple veneer, sold as "English Sycamore" veneer
fiddleback hard maple veneer
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figured hard maple veneer sold as figured English sycamore veneer
these were all listed as spalted hard maple but I think they might be spalted red maple. There are many more spalted planks on the "maple, spalted" page.
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hard maple veneer (sold as English sycamore)
a "thank you note" printed on hard maple veneer. the man who sent me this picture does printing of various sorts on various types of veneer