Melamine is generally harder. As for weight, I weighed a variety of finished ferrules, all the same exact size. They all had same bore & thread. The only difference was material. Pretty much all of them weighed out so close to identical that I quit worrying about ferrule weight. The maple I checked was only superficially lighter. As a solid ferrule blank, maybe the difference seems more substantial. But as ferrules threaded & ready to install(mine are 1/2"x3/8"-16), there was virtually no difference in weight.