Hard Maple vs Soft Maple
Hard Maple is a generic term used for Sugar Maple and Black Maple. All other maples are considered "soft". That includes Big Leaf, Red, Silver, Box Elder and a number of others too small to lumber. In the Eastern US Red Maple is the predominant native soft Maple of commercial interest. Imported Maples include a wide variety of Japanese Maples and Norway Maple (European Maple). Gibson used a lot of Red Maple as well as Big Leaf Maple. Most Birdseye Maple is Sugar Maple. The Birdseye figure only shows on the flat or plain sawn face.
|