CyberHugger Posted April 21, 2014 Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 How does PC Maple compare to Soft or Hard Maple? I'm thinking about building a workbench and around here PC Maple seems to be a bit more available and less expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Trip Posted April 21, 2014 Popular Post Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 PC Maple is another name for Big Leaf Maple, aka Bigleaf Maple. It's categorized as a 'soft' Maple with a Janka rage around 830 - 870. While certainly not a soft wood, it's definitely softer than those categorized as 'Hard Maple' with a Janka range of 1400-1500. With little to moderate effort, you can press your thumb nail into soft maple, but it's unlikely you could into a hard maple without considerable effort (and probably not at all with the hardest samples of Rock/Sugar Maple)... There are also minor color differences -- Big Leaf has a little more brown/gray cast where Sugar Maple tends toward off-white with very little cast... PC Maple would make a fine bench... Note: On the 'thumb nail test'... On the East Coast, Red Maple is sold as 'Soft Maple', but it's considerably harder (J975) than the rest of the species in the 'Soft Maple' gategory and usually too hard to leave an impression from the 'thumb nail test' - especially if you get a sample on the harder side (J1025). The reason I bring this up is a 'lesson learned' that I'll pass along... Hard Maple (Rock/Sugar) takes finish differently than the Soft Maples -- i.e., you don't mix Hard/Soft maples... For a set of tables, I pulled some Hard Maple and used the thumb nail test to verify the pull... All sticks 'tested' AOK. However, one stick turned-out to be Red Maple and was not discovered until final milling*1 just prior to assembly... Almost an expensive mistake... I had to toss the stick and make more parts, but that's cheap compared to mixing species in a panel... *1Note: there is a noticeable difference in finish planing between Hard and the Soft Maples. With sharp knives, the surface of Hard Maple [somewhat] glazed and slightly off-white. The Soft Maples have less of a glazed look/feel and have slightly more color cast. You can also separate by weight -- a Hard Maple stick is noticeably heaver than it's Soft brethren*2. *2Note: The differences between Hard Maple and Red Maple are not as noticeable as the rest of the pack. In fact, a sick of Red Maple can be heavier than a stick of Hard Maple... Studying the end grain or using a ferrous sulfate (aka iron sulfate aka plant food) is the best way to tell them apart... If in doubt, pull a different stick -- you don't want to mix Hard/Soft in the same glue-up -- they take finish very differently and also darken to different color casts over time... You may not notice the problem at glue-up, but you sure will six months down the line... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.