Of all the types of wood that you might come across as a woodworker, maple and cherry are probably the most likely that you might work with. Both these types of wood are fairly durable and excellent indoor wood for making a variety of furniture and also flooring. It is worthwhile to know about each type of wood and its advantages and disadvantages when you need to use them.
Cherry vs Maple brings some interesting comparisons. Both are hardwoods. Maple belongs to the genus Acer and has a hard and tight grain. Cherrywood is typically black cherry in the United States and comes from the Prunus genus. It is a reddish-brown wood with a golden hue. Both of these woods are easy to work with and make fine furniture and flooring.
Cherry vs Maple
Whether you are building custom furniture or making wooden structures or flooring it is worthwhile to know about different types of wood. Two popular types of wood, are cherry and maple. Which makes better furniture? You might ask.
The two main types of maple are hard maple and soft maple. Both have a smooth, fine grain. Soft maple is a versatile and strong wood, whereas hard maple comes in stunning, lighter shades and has incredible strength and hardness.
When you want to compare these two kinds of wood you will see that cherry and maple share many similarities. The wood grain is similar in both cases and the advantage of using sugar maple is that you can achieve the appearance of cherry in a cost-effective manner.
However, the scope might be limited when it comes to painting and staining these two types of wood. But with the fine natural shades and wood grain patterns, you wouldn’t want to paint either of them – a transparent or semi-transparent finish with a suitable wood sealer should suffice quite nicely.
Cherry: Background
When we talk about cherry, we usually allude to black cherry also called American cherry. It is the most popular form of cherrywood in the United States. Cherry trees grow in the eastern region of the country. The trees reach heights of 100 feet and the tree trunks grow to a maximum diameter of 5 feet.
Cherry is reddish-brown with a pale, almost white sapwood. Woodworkers find cherrywood easy to work with and it serves as an excellent all-purpose wood. You can stain cherry easily and you can also get good results if you just apply oil as a finish.
An interesting feature of cherry is that it darkens as it ages. It becomes a deep, reddish-brown and makes the wood look classier. Cherrywood is good for making various wooden items like cabinets, wall panels, chairs, tables, wall panels, and flooring.
Cherry is a sustainable type of wood but expensive. You can learn more about this popular form of wood by clicking HERE and we talk about how to apply a finish to cherry in another of our interesting posts.
Maple: Background
With maple, we have a wood that looks like cherry but it is a different variety. You can get various shades in maple like cream, tan or sometimes having darker streaks and interesting patterns.
We also get rare varieties of maple like birdseye maple and spalted maple which are highly valued because of their appearance due to certain visual aberrations.
The trees grow to a height of up to 115 feet with tree trunk diameters of as much as 3 feet. Hard maple is one of the hardest in the United States coming close to only mahogany and a few other types of wood. The wood has a very tight grain that makes the grain pattern almost invisible.
Maple is a light brown wood that is attractive but difficult to stain. The best-known application of maple is for hardwood flooring but it makes some very good furniture as well. A well-known, non-woodworking use of maple is for making maple syrup from the tree sap.
Cherry vs Maple: Appearance
The heartwood of cherry starts as a light pinkish-brown but on exposure to sunlight, it darkens to a deep, reddish brown. The heartwood and sapwood are demarcated, and it makes a good contrast for woodworkers to take advantage of.
Cherry has a straight grain pattern but then again, the pattern sometimes forms curls. The wood has a smooth and natural texture.
Maple is pale and almost white. It has very tight, almost absent pores, which makes for a smooth grain pattern. Occasionally, curling and figuring may occur in places where the grain interlocks.
A rare variety of maple is spalted maple, which exhibits random squiggles in the grain pattern. Another rare form of maple is birdseye maple which is named after its unique grain pattern that looks like a bird’s eye. Both these types of maple cost considerably more than regular maple.
Cherry vs Maple: Durability
Cherry is softer than maple and it is quite durable, especially for making indoor furniture. Being softer, it is still a strong type of wood and can withstand denting and scratches more than any other hardwood, but needs adequate protection by way of a suitable finish.
Cherry is also a darker wood. So, if you’re looking for a deeper and richer ambiance, cherry is a good wood to use. Maple has a lighter color than cherry and although being hard, it can still get nicked and dented but withstands wear and tear much better than cherry. Furniture from cherry and maple will last a long time, so are also good for flooring.
Cherry vs Maple: Maintenance
Cherry gets its deep, reddish-brown shade through exposure to sunlight. Therefore, the appearance of the wood can deteriorate if it is exposed to too much sunlight. You should keep your flooring and furniture from direct sunlight as much as possible which will prevent darkening in a non-uniform manner.
With maple, you don’t need to do that much maintenance work. However, the flooring needs to be refurbished every year which helps to restore its fresh and spacious appearance.
Today you can get pre-finished maple planks for flooring with an additional protective outer layer. But even pre-finished maple flooring eventually wears out and particularly in places of high traffic you need to maintain the flooring regularly which enhances the life of the wood.
You can also maintain your maple flooring regularly by washing it with mild detergent dissolved in water which restores its freshness.
Cherry vs Maple: Workability and Uses
Cherry is easy to work with. You can hammer nails, drive in screws and glue them together quite well. It also responds well to machine and hand tools. Cherry is very suitable for woodworkers who work more with their hands and it is easier to work on it than many other types of hardwood.
With maple, you need to be careful if you use high-speed blades because you can cause burn marks, particularly with sugar maple, as the sugar in the maple wood tends to burn. You can resolve this issue by running your cutting blades at lower speeds.
Maple responds to steam bending well. Therefore, it paves the way for a variety of furniture with shaped parts.
Tearout can occur in both maple and cherry can if you are not careful, particularly in the sections of interlocking woodgrain. Both maple and cherry are almost equally well-known for making wood flooring, paneling, and furniture. Maple flooring is preferred for bowling alleys, dance floors, and basketball courts. This wood is used as flooring for residential and commercial properties. It also makes good veneers, cutting boards, baseball bats, turned wooden objects, and musical instruments.
Cherry vs Maple: Price
Cherry lumber and veneer are easily available. However, black cherry is considered high-end American hardwood which we use to make cabinets, so you can expect that to be rather expensive.
The pale, creamy wood of maple comes as a striking contrast to the deep, reddish-brown cherry. But it is much cheaper. Hard maple may cost more than soft maple. But both types of wood are generally cheaper than most hardwoods except of course figured maple which can come at a considerably higher price.
Cherry vs Maple: Sustainability
Both cherry and maple are sustainable types of wood that do not appear on any of the endangered wood species lists.
Cherry vs Maple: Any other characteristics
Cherry’s only non-wood working application that makes it unique is that it is a good choice for smoking meat and other types of foodstuffs.
Maple is also a good food smoking wood but it also has its claim to fame from the maple syrup that we get from the sap of the maple tree.
Cherry vs Maple: Comparison Table
|
Parameter |
Cherry |
Maple |
| Botanical name | Prunus serotina | Acer saccharum |
| Color | Coppery to reddish-brown | Nearly white to off-white |
| Durability | Moderately durable | Mechanically durable but no resistance to rot or insects |
| Hardness (Janka Scale) | 950 lbf. | 1,450 lbf. |
| Strength | Moderately strong | Strong wood |
| Maintenance | Easy to maintain | Less maintenance |
| Price | Expensive | Moderately priced |
| Suitability for outdoors | Not suitable for outdoors | Indoor use only |
| Suitability for wood carving | Yes | No |
| Workability | Easy to work with | Easy to work with |
| Smell | Mild scent while working | Odorless |
| Availability | Easily available | Easily available |
| Special features if any | Excellent for smoking meat | Maple syrup comes from maple sap |
Conclusion
While cherry is a relatively soft type of wood both varieties of maple are considerably harder. With cherry at a Janka hardness rating of 950 lbf. and sugar maple at 1,450 lbf. both are moderately strong woods. As we have seen, they are both easy to maintain but neither type of wood is suitable for outdoor use.
These are two rather cost-effective sources of lumber for woodworking projects. While cherry might cost slightly more than maple, both are easily available and durable and not as expensive as many of the other exotic or more sophisticated hardwoods.
Therefore, you can use either of these two types of wood, and now that you know more about the characteristics of each type, you can use it to your best advantage in any of your future woodworking projects.
Happy woodworking!
