Red maple (Acer rubrum) 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 | Red maple |
|---|---|
| Janka side hardness, 12% moisture | 950 lbf (4,226 N) |
| Janka side hardness, green | 700 lbf |
| Hardness rank | harder than 84 of the 168 woods with a 12% hardness value in our database |
| Density at 12% moisture | 37.8 lb/ft³ (605 kg/m³) |
| Weight per board foot (12%) | 3.15 lb |
| Specific gravity (ovendry weight, green volume) | 0.49 |
| Specific gravity at 12% moisture | 0.54 |
| Bending strength (modulus of rupture), 12% | 13,400 psi |
| Stiffness (modulus of elasticity), 12% | 1.64 million psi |
| Crushing strength (compression parallel to grain), 12% | 6,540 psi |
| Shrinkage green to ovendry: radial / tangential / volumetric | 4.0% / 8.2% / 12.6% |
| Tangential / radial shrinkage ratio | 2.05 |
| Dimensional change per 1% moisture (radial / tangential) | 0.00137 / 0.00289 |
| Impact bending (drop height to failure), 12% | 32 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red maple Acer rubrum | 950 | 37.8 | 13,400 | 1.64 | 6,540 | 8.2 / 4.0 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Silver maple Acer saccharinum | 700 | 32.9 | 8,900 | 1.14 | 5,220 | 7.2 / 3.0 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Bigleaf maple Acer macrophyllum | 850 | 33.6 | 10,700 | 1.45 | 5,950 | 7.1 / 3.7 | slightly or nonresistant |
What it is
Soft maple is a trade group: silver maple (Acer saccharinum), red maple (A. rubrum), boxelder (A. negundo) and, on the Pacific Coast, bigleaf maple (A. macrophyllum). Most of it is red and silver maple from the eastern United States. Heartwood and sapwood look like hard maple; the heartwood of soft maple is a little lighter in color than the sapwood and somewhat wider.
Working properties
The wood resembles hard maple but is not as heavy, hard or strong, so it is easier to machine. It has the same fine, even grain. Soft maple is a common choice for painted furniture and cabinet parts.
Weight and density
At 12% moisture content red maple weighs about 37.8 lb per cubic foot, so one board foot (144 cubic inches) weighs about 3.15 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 8.7 lb; an 8 ft piece 1-1/2 × 3-1/2 in. (a 2×4 size) weighs about 11.0 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 red maple they are 0.00289 across a flatsawn face (tangential) and 0.00137 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 × 0.00289 × 6 = 0.126 in. (about 1/8 in.). The same board quartersawn moves 0.06 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red maple | 950 | 37.8 | 13,400 | 1.64 | 8.2 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Sugar maple | 1,450 | 44.1 | 15,800 | 1.83 | 9.9 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Black cherry | 950 | 35.0 | 12,300 | 1.49 | 7.1 | moderately resistant |
| Yellow-poplar | 540 | 29.4 | 10,100 | 1.58 | 8.2 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Yellow birch | 1,260 | 43.4 | 16,600 | 2.01 | 9.5 | slightly or nonresistant |
| American basswood | 410 | 25.9 | 8,700 | 1.46 | 9.3 | slightly or nonresistant |
Uses
Furniture, veneer, wooden ware and novelties; boxes, pallets and crates; railroad ties.
Frequently asked questions
Is soft maple actually soft?
Not really. Red maple averages 950 lbf on the Janka test, about the same as black cherry (950 lbf). It is only “soft” next to hard maple at 1,450 lbf.
Which maple is softest?
Of the maples in the Wood Handbook, silver maple is the softest at 700 lbf at 12% moisture content.
Is soft maple good for cabinets?
Yes for painted or clear-finished cabinets: it machines cleanly and is about as hard as black cherry. For a harder-wearing surface, hard maple is the step up.
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.