ff's is soft or hard maple preferred.

[OFWW]

I am about to order the material for my kitchen cabinets.

For the ff's, is there any preference for hard or soft maple. Keep in mind I will be painting the whole enchilada.

I've got a good sale price of 46 bucks a sheet of mdf plywood core

3/4". A competitor for J Classic Lam.

Found a good local source hardwood business that has a number of stores around So. Cal.

I was thinking that hard maple would be stronger, but does soft have an advantage for glue ups?

I am building a mobile rack for the plywood, hope to have it finished and rolling, tomorrow.

[Leon]

IMHO soft is plenty strong but not as dent resistant as with the hard. Soft will also be easier to mill.

[BillinGA]

An article in a recent issue of Woodshop News states soft maple is now outs elling hard. Reasons are as mentioned above...easier on cutting tools and a ccepts finishes better, especially paint. Mind you, this comes from a guy t hat recently bought a sheet of 1/4 maple and couldn't tell you if it was ha rd or soft.

[Leon]

Don't feel lonely. LOL It is very difficult to fell soft from hard on plywood, the outer veneer is not thick enough to provide any resistance to any abrasion of denting.

[OFWW]

I was thinking about the latter part, they said their stuff was s3s. Is it possible to compare the softness against Oak?

[dadiOH]

Sure

Frankly, I wouldn't be worrying much about hardness. I'd be more concerned about paintability and I generally use poplar for that.

[dpb]

...

On the Janka scale, hard maple is about 1450 while white oak is about

1350 and red oak more like 1300. For comparison soft maple is 950, same as cherry and walnut is about 1000.

It will have a "blander" characteristic than would hard maple for a clearcoat finish; it doesn't have the highlights and occasional eye that does hard maple, even if not selected for figure. If an opaque finish is planned, soft will be easier to get uniform finish with but will need proper surface prep...

[Leon]

Soft Maple depending on which soft maple has a hardness on the Jenka scale is 700-950. Oak, again on which variety ranges from 1290 for red oak to 1360 on white oak. Hard Sugar maple 1450.

So possibly as much as twice as hard.

[Doug Miller]

OFWW wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Soft, for several reasons:

1. If you're painting it anyway, there's not much point in paying the extra cost for hard maple.
2. Soft maple takes paint better than hard maple.
3. Soft maple is a *lot* easier to cut and mill than hard maple.

[OFWW]

Well we have oak frames in the house, and they weathered well for 40 years. No discernable nicks, and tough as nails to disassemble.

Yes, Paintability is my main concern but Poplar, me, and white paint don't seem to get along to well together.

[OFWW]

Wife wants white, white. They seem to say that Maple burns easily with hi-speed tools. Have you noticed that?

[OFWW]

All things considered do you have a preference? For painting and durability?

[Swingman]

Yep. Particularly if your tools are not setup properly and/or are on the dull side.

Also, reaction wood, and maple has its share, can make it worse.

That said, you can get lucky and find the burn parts can be sanded out without too much ado, and, if you're painting, might not be that big of an issue.

I certainly would not make that a deciding factor, all other things being equal.

I do use a ton of maple these days. Got a good deal on some, which Leon got on to also.

[Swingman]

I do. Mine is always soft maple for painting, unless I'm staining/clear coating and looking for some figure.

[OFWW]

Hmmm, Thanks for the insight. Matches up with what every one else is saying, and it is just over a buck a board foot less expensive.

[woodchucker]

Soft maple has more color in it. you will see gray streaks, and brown. hard maple is generally very plain (excluding figure of coarse).

the difference is little in one being stronger than the other. Both are pretty hard woods, don't dent easily.

my two cents... I'm sure many will say other things.

[Leon]

Almost with out exception if I am going to paint I use poplar. And it is really soft, 540. From there soft maple.

[Martin Eastburn]

[dpb]

On 04/06/2016 7:56 PM, OFWW wrote: ...

Yeah, it's kinda' like cherry but not quite so much so.

If painting, there's no reason at all to use hard maple and even poplar is probably "hard enough" to avoid all but the worst of abuse.

I've not noticed an preponderance towards reaction wood in all the soft maple I've used -- bought some 600 bd ft several years ago that used for windows and the like when clear white pine was purely unobtainable at less than gold prices...

[OFWW]

I'm laughing, simple answer, on the mark from what I can see.