Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) in numbers: hardness, weight, strength, shrinkage, movement and decay resistance, taken from the tables of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory’s Wood Handbook, followed by what the wood is like to work and what it is used for. The values are averages from small, clear, straight-grained test specimens; real boards with knots, sloping grain or a different moisture content will differ.
| Property | Sugar maple |
|---|---|
| Janka side hardness, 12% moisture | 1,450 lbf (6,450 N) |
| Janka side hardness, green | 970 lbf |
| Hardness rank | harder than 122 of the 168 woods with a 12% hardness value in our database |
| Density at 12% moisture | 44.1 lb/ft³ (706 kg/m³) |
| Weight per board foot (12%) | 3.67 lb |
| Specific gravity (ovendry weight, green volume) | 0.56 |
| Specific gravity at 12% moisture | 0.63 |
| Bending strength (modulus of rupture), 12% | 15,800 psi |
| Stiffness (modulus of elasticity), 12% | 1.83 million psi |
| Crushing strength (compression parallel to grain), 12% | 7,830 psi |
| Shrinkage green to ovendry: radial / tangential / volumetric | 4.8% / 9.9% / 14.7% |
| Tangential / radial shrinkage ratio | 2.06 |
| Dimensional change per 1% moisture (radial / tangential) | 0.00165 / 0.00353 |
| Impact bending (drop height to failure), 12% | 39 in. |
| Heartwood decay resistance | slightly or nonresistant |
The species in this group
Lumber is often sold under a group name. These are the species the Wood Handbook reports for this group, with the same properties side by side.
| Species | Janka (lbf) | Density (lb/ft³) | Bending (psi) | Stiffness (Mpsi) | Crushing (psi) | Shrink T/R (%) | Decay resistance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar maple Acer saccharum | 1,450 | 44.1 | 15,800 | 1.83 | 7,830 | 9.9 / 4.8 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Black maple Acer nigrum | 1,180 | 39.9 | 13,300 | 1.62 | 6,680 | 9.3 / 4.8 | slightly or nonresistant |
What it is
Hard maple is sugar maple (Acer saccharum, also called rock maple) and black maple (A. nigrum). About two-thirds of maple lumber is produced in the Middle Atlantic and Great Lake States. The heartwood is usually light reddish brown, sometimes much darker; the sapwood, 3 to 5 in. wide, is white with a slight reddish-brown tinge.
Working properties
Hard maple has a fine, uniform texture. It is heavy, strong, stiff, hard and resistant to shock, and it has high shrinkage. The grain is usually straight, but birdseye, curly and fiddleback figure turn up and are picked out for furniture and instruments. Its density means sharp tools and light passes give the cleanest results.
Weight and density
At 12% moisture content sugar maple weighs about 44.1 lb per cubic foot, so one board foot (144 cubic inches) weighs about 3.67 lb. An 8 ft board of actual size 3/4 × 5-1/2 in. (a 1×6) holds 0.229 cubic feet and weighs about 10.1 lb; an 8 ft piece 1-1/2 × 3-1/2 in. (a 2×4 size) weighs about 12.9 lb. Green wood is much heavier because of the water it holds.
Density here is ovendry weight plus 12% water, divided by volume at 12% moisture content (Wood Handbook Eq. 4-12: density = specific gravity at 12% × 62.43 lb/ft³ × 1.12).
Wood movement
The Wood Handbook gives dimensional change coefficients for each species: the fraction of its width a board gains or loses for every 1% change in moisture content, between about 6% and 14%. For sugar maple they are 0.00353 across a flatsawn face (tangential) and 0.00165 across a quartersawn face (radial).
Worked example: a flatsawn board 7-1/4 in. wide (a nominal 1×8) that goes from 6% moisture content in a heated winter house to 12% in a humid summer changes width by 7.25 × 0.00353 × 6 = 0.154 in. (about 5/32 in.). The same board quartersawn moves 0.072 in. (about 1/16 in.). Allow for this in panels, tabletops and floors; the wood movement calculator works it out for any size and moisture range.
How it compares
| Species | Janka (lbf) | Density (lb/ft³) | Bending (psi) | Stiffness (Mpsi) | Tangential shrink (%) | Decay resistance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar maple | 1,450 | 44.1 | 15,800 | 1.83 | 9.9 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Red maple | 950 | 37.8 | 13,400 | 1.64 | 8.2 | slightly or nonresistant |
| White oak | 1,360 | 47.5 | 15,200 | 1.78 | 10.5 | resistant |
| Black cherry | 950 | 35.0 | 12,300 | 1.49 | 7.1 | moderately resistant |
| Yellow birch | 1,260 | 43.4 | 16,600 | 2.01 | 9.5 | slightly or nonresistant |
| American beech | 1,300 | 44.7 | 14,900 | 1.72 | 11.9 | slightly or nonresistant |
Uses
Flooring, including bowling alleys and dance and gymnasium floors; furniture and cabinets; cutting boards and butcher blocks; pianos, billiard cues and handles; spools and bobbins.
Frequently asked questions
How hard is hard maple?
Sugar maple averages 1,450 lbf (6,450 N) on the Janka side-hardness test at 12% moisture content, and black maple 1,180 lbf.
What is the difference between hard and soft maple?
Soft maple (mainly red and silver maple) looks similar but is not as heavy, hard or strong. Red maple averages 950 lbf against 1,450 lbf for sugar maple.
How much does maple move with humidity?
A flatsawn hard maple board changes width by about 0.353% for each 1% change in moisture content, one of the higher values among common hardwoods.
Sources
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-190, 2010. Chapter 2 (species descriptions), Chapter 4 (Tables 4-3, 4-4 shrinkage; Eq. 4-7, 4-9, 4-12 density), Chapter 5 (Tables 5-3b, 5-5b strength and hardness), Chapter 13 (Table 13-5 dimensional change coefficients), Chapter 14 (Table 14-1 decay resistance)
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook, 2021 edition (FPL-GTR-282)
Last reviewed: 22 October 2026. Numbers are generated from our parsed copy of the Handbook tables, so every page uses the same data. Values marked * are estimates computed with the Handbook’s own equations. Spotted an error? Please let us know.