Rock Maple

Rodney

Rodney

hot7339
Silver Member
When going to a lumber yard to purchase shaft wood, is there any way to be sure that the wood is sugar maple without having to take their word for it?

Just curious,
Rodney
 
My suggestion is to visit some reputable wood dealers who have both sugar maple and soft maples (red maple, big leaf, etc), inspect them and get a feeling for how hard rock maple differs from the soft maples. Press your fingernail into both maples to see the difference. Though it isn't as hard as many other cue woods, they don't call it hard rock maple for nothing.

Kelly
 
You probably won't find any rock maple at a lumber yard...best bet is to find a hardwoods dealer in your area...
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Rodney said:
When going to a lumber yard to purchase shaft wood, is there any way to be sure that the wood is sugar maple without having to take their word for it?

Just curious,
Rodney
Click to expand...

The species is Acer saccharum, but you would still have to take their word for it. The softer varieties would be, well, softer, so if you have any experience with ad-hoc hardness testing you could test pieces. Testing like this can be done by poking dents into the wood with things of various harness. The charactoristics of maple are well described at the Windsor Plywood site :

http://www.windsorplywood.com/nam_hardwoods/maple.html

I notice that the density of sugar maple is quite high, you could tell the difference in weight perhaps.

Good luck.

Dave, still not a cuemaker
 
Rodney said:
When going to a lumber yard to purchase shaft wood, is there any way to be sure that the wood is sugar maple without having to take their word for it?

Just curious,
Rodney
Click to expand...

Working from boards and trying to get some decent pieces is going to produce a lot of waste, not worth it in my opinion. You could buy a bunch of lumber and not end up with even one useable shaft.
 
Thanks to the people who gave advice.

I have a good source for exotic woods about an hour away. When i go there i am going to see if i can find some decent shaft wood.

Rodney
 
Rodney said:
I've purchased 2 shaft blanks from there. That was enough.

Thanks anyway
Rodney
Click to expand...

What is the reason...quality issues or not worth what you pay??
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