White Hard Maple Thin Stock Lumber
Our hard maple lumber is produced from the whitest, brightest maple wood in North America. It’s dried with extreme care to relieve tension and avoid staining – so it both looks and performs beautifully. Our thin maple wood is perfect for laser engraving, scroll saw work, box making, thick veneer, and other woodworking projects.
Hard maple is dense and strong, with a fine texture and closed grain. Maple’s grain pattern is usually simple, but it occasionally shows birdseye or other character.
What You Should Know About Our Thin Hard Maple Lumber
Thin stock maple boards are available from North Castle Hardwoods in three thickness options: 1/8", 1/4", and 1/2". Dimensioned widths go up to 6.5” and lengths are available up to 48”. These maple boards are surfaced on two sides and ready to use in a variety of applications.
Other Names for Hard Maple Lumber
Hard maple or white hard maple is produced from the sugar maple tree (Acer saccharum), sometimes called rock maple. This is the same tree used to produce maple syrup. The relatively high sugar content in hard maple wood makes it susceptible to staining or color changes if it’s not produced with great care. That’s why woodworkers turn to North Castle Hardwoods when they need premium hard maple lumber.
Where We Source Our Hard Maple Lumber
Maple lumber is primarily produced from sapwood, the outer living layers, of the maple tree. The sapwood of hard maple is bright white or cream colored, while the heartwood is light brown.
We select second and third-growth “pencil heart” maple logs that have a high percentage of sapwood to heartwood. There is very little or no heartwood at all in our thin hard maple boards.
Common Uses For Hard Maple Lumber
Hard maple’s density and hardness earn it a high score of 1450 on the Janka scale. Its hardness makes it a bit more challenging to work with, but it rewards the patient woodworker with an extremely durable product.
Hard maple is one of the best woods for butcherblock and cutting boards. Its density gives musical instruments like guitars, pianos, and violins a wonderful resonance. It’s popular as flooring for bowling alleys and dance halls thanks to its bright color and impact resistance.
Hobbyist woodworkers and craftsmen love hard maple for furniture, laser engraving, scrollsaw work, and bookshelves. It makes attractive toys, tools, ornaments, and boxes that can last for generations. It glues and turns excellently.
Hard maple is more often finished with oil or a clear polyurethane than painted since its natural bright color is so desirable. If you choose to stain it, maple benefits from being well-sealed first. Maple can be stained to mimic cherry or mahogany because it has a similar grain pattern to those woods.
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any special requests, so we can make sure you get exactly the hard maple material you need for your project.
