Hard Maple Lumber: White Sorts, Grades and Hardness

Hard maple lumber is the sawn wood of sugar maple and black maple. It is the hardest of the common North American cabinet woods, with a fine, even texture and a white sapwood band that buyers often pay to select. It is graded under the standard NHLA rules, then sorted for color by most mills, and it is regularly sawn in 4/4 to 8/4.

Item	Typical for hard maple lumber
Species	Sugar maple (Acer saccharum), black maple (Acer nigrum)
Sapwood	White with a slight reddish tinge, usually 3 to 5 in wide
Heartwood	Light reddish brown, sometimes much darker
Side hardness (Janka)	about 1,450 lbf at 12% moisture (sugar maple)
Specific gravity	0.56 green, 0.63 at 12% moisture
Shrinkage, green to oven dry	radial 4.8%, tangential 9.9%, volume 14.7%
Heartwood decay resistance	Slightly or not resistant (maples group)
Common thicknesses	4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 8/4. Thicker stock limited
Average board size	5 to 8 in wide, 6 to 16 ft long
Grades	Standard NHLA grades, plus mill color sorts
US tariff line	4407.93 (maple), statistical line for hard maple

Figures are typical for the species from the USDA Wood Handbook and the NHLA species guide, not guarantees for a lot. The NHLA rulebook governs grades. Color sort names vary by mill.

Hard maple and soft maple

The trade name “hard maple” covers sugar maple and black maple. Everything else sold as maple is soft maple: red maple, silver maple, boxelder and bigleaf maple. The two groups look alike as boards, but they behave differently.

Property	Hard maple (sugar)	Soft maple (red)
Side hardness at 12%	about 1,450 lbf	about 950 lbf
Specific gravity at 12%	0.63	0.54
Modulus of rupture at 12%	about 15,800 psi	about 13,400 psi
Tangential shrinkage	9.9%	8.2%
US tariff statistical line	Hard maple	Other maple

Values from the Wood Handbook tables for clear wood. Hard maple is the one for floors, work tops and parts that take impact. Soft maple machines, stains and nails more easily and is usually cheaper, so it suits painted cabinets and furniture frames. The full comparison is in our guide to hard maple vs soft maple.

The NHLA species guide gives US hard maple growing stock as 953.7 million cubic meters, about 6.6% of all US hardwood growing stock. The Wood Handbook notes that the Middle Atlantic and Great Lake States account for about two-thirds of maple lumber production.

Grades and color sorts

Hard maple is graded first, then sorted for color. The grade sets the clear yield. The color sort sets how much white sapwood or darker heartwood is on the face.

Layer	Examples	Who defines it
NHLA grade	FAS, F1F, Selects, No.1 Common, No.2A Common	NHLA rulebook
Color sort	Unselected, white (sap), No.1 white, No.2 white, heart, brown	The mill, in its price list
Extra specs	Mineral limit, minimum width, length range, stain-free faces	The buyer, on the order

The NHLA guide says white sapwood can be selected in hard maple lumber. Mill sort names are not standard. One mill’s “No.1 white” may mean one face fully white, another’s may mean both faces at least mostly white. Before you compare prices, ask each supplier how its sort is defined and how it is checked at grading.

For the grade rules themselves, see the FAS grade page and the lumber grades hub.

Mineral, stain and other features to specify

Hard maple faces are pale, so small marks show. Four features cause most disputes:

• Mineral streak. Dark gray to greenish streaks in the wood. Admitted in standard grades within limits. Write a mineral rule if your finish is natural.
• Sticker stain. Gray bands where the drying stickers touched the boards. It can lie under the surface and appear after planing. Our guide to sticker stain in lumber explains causes and checks.
• Enzymatic gray stain. Gray discoloration that can develop during slow air drying of white sapwood. Mills that sell white maple usually kiln dry quickly from green to avoid it.
• Figure. Curly, birdseye or fiddleback grain is selected and priced separately. It is not part of a standard grade.

Hardness and the uses it opens

Hardness and fine texture are why hard maple goes where it goes:

Use	Grade and sort usually quoted	Why hard maple
Butcher block and work tops	FAS or No.1 Common, white or unselected, 5/4 to 8/4	Hard, close grained, takes wear
Sports and dance floors, bowling lanes	Flooring grades from hard maple	Hardness and even wear
Cabinet doors and boxes	No.1 Common and F1F, white	Pale color under clear finish
Furniture	FAS and No.1 Common	Strength in thin parts
Cutting boards, handles, turnings	Thick stock, short lengths	Fine texture

For edge-glued tops, see our guide to butcher block and countertop lumber, which covers strip widths, moisture and glue lines.

Drying and moisture

Hard maple has high shrinkage, 9.9% tangential from green to oven dry, so moisture content at delivery matters for flat panels and tight joints. For interior use in North America the usual target is 6 to 8%. Ask for a moisture reading at loading and let the stock reach shop conditions before machining. Our kiln drying schedules guide covers how maple is usually dried.

Weight from the Wood Handbook figures: hard maple at 12% moisture is near 44 lb per cubic foot, or a little under 4 lb per board foot. Use the supplier’s own weight for freight.

What to write on the RFQ

Name the species group, grade and rulebook, color sort with its definition, mineral rule, thickness, surfacing, drying, minimum width, length range, board feet and paperwork. Our hardwood lumber specifications guide explains every field.

RFQ line: Hard maple (Acer saccharum), No.1 Common and Better, NHLA rules (edition named), white one face (sap), light mineral allowed on back only, 6/4 rough, KD 6-8%, 4 in and wider, 8-12 ft, 2,500 BF.

Send it through our lumber RFQ form and we pass it to up to 3 mills or yards that sort hard maple the way you need. Other species are on the hardwood species hub.