If I'm not mistaken, "Western maple" and bigleaf maple are names typically used for the same species.
If this is the case and it may very well be, then where it comes from will have a major effect on its suitability.
Some is like white pine with curl. Very soft and very hard to make a smooth cut in. Basically garbage.
Taylor tells us that the wood he gets as Big Leaf and is hard and dense. Possible that a few hundred miles difference in latitude may make for a much different stock wood. Or the stuff I was inflicted with was actually western grown silver maple or some such?
From the table below it looks like Hard Maple is a best choice.
I suppose if a person could hand pick Red maple it might be OK. But only the densest is like Hard Maple.
And Northern grown will always be better. Northern grown red maple might be better than southern grown hard maple. But both grown in the same grove?
The table indicates that Big Leaf is not that much different than soft maple.
Dan
From
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/differences-between-hard-maple-and-soft-maple/Type of Maple Average Density Typical Weight Range
(in pounds per cubic foot)
(10% coefficient of variation)
Hard Maple 44 pcf 39.6 to 48.4 pcf
Black Maple 40 pcf 36 to 44 pcf
Bigleaf Maple 34 pcf 30.6 to 37.4 pcf
Box Elder 32 pcf 28.8 to 35.2 pcf
Red Maple 38 pcf 34.2 to 41.8 pcf
Silver Maple 33 pcf 29.7 to 36.3 pcf
Striped Maple 32 pcf 28.8 to 35.2 pcf
