 It produces a hard @-@ wearing , white or cream close @-@ grained timber that turns golden with age . The wood can be worked and sawn in any direction and is used for making musical instruments , furniture , joinery , wood flooring and <unk> . Because it is non @-@ staining , is used for kitchen utensils , wooden spoons , bowls , rolling pins and chopping boards . In Scotland it has traditionally been used for making fine boxes , sometimes in association with contrasting , dark @-@ coloured laburnum wood . The reference to the " white maple " in the English Christmas carol , " Wassail , Wassail All Over the Town " , in " Our bowl , it is made of the white maple tree " presumably refers not to the silver or white maple ( A. saccharinum ) , which does not occur naturally in Europe , but to the white wood of the sycamore or the field maple , Acer campestre . 
