Mountain maple wood is a hard, solid and clear type of wood with few branch inclusions. Therefore, we prefer to use this type of wood for finely carved figures up to 16 inch (40 cm) where the surface is usually polished. Linden wood is a softer type of wood used more for bigger sculptures. In such case, the chisel is used to carve the surface of the sculpture and you can recognize each single incision of the woodcarver. If you compare the weight of a mountain maple wood figure with a linden wood figure, you will certainly notice the difference.