Red maple is a “soft maple,” with lower commercial value than “hard maples” (such as sugar maple), but with similar uses when its form is good: the wood can be used to make furniture, flooring, veneer, pool cues, bowling pins, and musical instruments (including violins, guitars, double basses, bassoons, and drum kits). However, red maple timber is often of low quality because of the tree’s susceptibility to disease and poor form in individuals that grow in sprout clumps (Wikipedia 2011). Poorer quality wood is used for fuel, saw timber, and pulpwood.

Red maple can be used to produce maple syrup, but because the sap contains less sucrose than sugar maple, it is not used commercially. Native Americans used red maple bark as an analgesic, an eye wash, for treating coughs and diarrhea, and as a remedy for hives and muscular aches. Pioneers made dyes and ink from bark extracts, and used maple splints for basketry (PFAF 2011).