maple is a tremendous wood-for stocks, furniture, cabinets,etc. I work with it a bit in my cabinet shop and it has a lot going for it. Its a diffuse porous wood like walnut meaning that the pores are sprinkled thru-out vs.the ring porous woods like oak, ash, etc. On the hardness/strength scales hard maple is a bit heavier that black walnut and a bit stronger. We have 2 maple stocked rifles: my .257 Ackley and my wife's little .257 which is curly maple. We've had both for many years and the stocks are very, very stable. If the stain selected matches your taste, it is a beautiful wood. We have (northern michigan) some of the very best hard maple in the world, and in the upper pennisula probably "The best" birds eye maple in the world.
An interesting story about maple: we had a very capable stock builder in our area who stocked my .257 AI and a side by side double for me. He greatly preferred maple, especially curly. I remember being in his shop once and he telling me that maple was stronger than walnut. He took a thin piece of both and bent them until they snapped. The walnut let go far quicker than the maple. I did that just recently as I'm currently finishing up a couple maple benches. I'm amazed at the strength of that hard maple. Good stuff this maple.
