I bought some maple from a friend.  He was unsure if it was hard maple or soft maple.  I worked with some over the weekend.  It is a fabulous blond wood that saws and machines like a dream.  The quarter sawn side has a nice subtle figure in places.  I’ve heard that an indication of hard maple is you can’t drive a nail into it.  So I tried driving some small finish nails into one board and had problems with the nails bending.  They would go part way in, then bend.  After pulling first nail out, the second would go in all, or most of the way in.

Does this indicate hard maple?  If this is not enough info can anyone suggest another simple test for this?  Thanks.

John