hard and soft maple in same project?

[barry holman]

I will be building a shaker hancock clock. I have some very highly figured tiger stripe hard maple and some less figured tiger stripe soft maple. I am thinking of using the hard maple on the front of the clock where it will show more and the soft maple on the sides and back. There is only a small difference in shade with the hard being somewhat whiter than the soft. The finish schedule will be aniline dye, sanding to leave the dye in the figure and then topped with amber shellac. Does anyone see any problems with my plan?

[Dave Gaul]

Nope, no problems at all! Did a night stand for one of my daughters and mixed 3-4 types of hard & soft maple... with paying close enough attention to what goes where, it should turn out just fine.

Actually, just remember after replying... my avatar is the unfinished top of said nightstand!!

[glenn bradley]

I use hard and soft together without issue. The coloration is something you have to adjust for if the difference is too much for your taste. Test boards with you dye should give you a schedule that is pretty predictable. The nice thing about dyes is that you can darken shades through re-application with a good repeatable result.

[barry holman]

Thanks for the advice. I will post pics when complete. I have built several of these clocks out of cherry but never out of maple.