Hard maple
Pale cream and even, the classic cutting surface.
lbf on the Janka scale
Inside the range we like for boards
Padauk is 260 lbf harder than hard maple, and sits inside the board range too.
Color
Cream to pale gold, with a darker reddish streak now and then
Where it came from
- Dried
- Kiln dried before anything is cut from it.
More about hard maple at The Wood Database · Wood data: The Wood Database (Eric Meier)
Hard maple is the wood of butcher blocks and bowling alleys. It is the pale half of our two-tone boards and the whole of a few. Some boards come curly, with a figure that ripples when the light moves; that is the same tree, a different grain.
How it ages
Maple starts nearly white and turns a warm honey color over the years, faster in a sunny kitchen. Oil deepens it a shade each time and brings the figure out.
Knife feel
The hardest of the woods we use every day, and still kind to a knife. It shows a stain more than walnut does, so wipe beets and berries off sooner rather than later.
