# Burning sugar maple...



## Swedishchef (Mar 15, 2013)

Hey guys

I was wondering if, when burning sugar maple, you can have a white froth coming from the wood for a few minutes? I currently have some maple in the stove (just put it in) and it is hissing with a white foam coming out the edge. Possible???

Andrew


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## gzecc (Mar 15, 2013)

Sounds like its not seasoned. How long has it been split and stacked off the ground in single rows? Do you have a moisture meter?


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## pen (Mar 15, 2013)

If it's only had one year seasoning on that maple, it may need more.  I've found hard maple doesn't dry as fast as ash or beech for me.

pen


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## Augie (Mar 15, 2013)

pen said:


> If it's only had one year seasoning on that maple, it may need more. I've found hard maple doesn't dry as fast as ash or beech for me. pen


 
It isnt the wood species that is important but the conditions that it encounters during seasoning. Hell with the right conditions, +100F and 5% relative humidity even oak will season in a few months... but yes it sounds like you have wet wood


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## pen (Mar 15, 2013)

Augie said:


> It isnt the wood species that is important but the conditions that it encounters during seasoning. Hell with the right conditions, +100F and 5% relative humidity even oak will season in a few months... but yes it sounds like you have wet wood


 
Exactly.  I'm just saying that the conditions that would generally give me reasonably dry ash or beech in about a year, often times aren't enough for the maple.

pen


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## westkywood (Mar 15, 2013)

I would think Sugar Maple would take longer to season than any other Maple.


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## ScotO (Mar 15, 2013)

Sugar maple (and most of the norway maple I cut) takes every bit of two years C/S/S to be prime....
silver and red maple takes a year.  And I've had small rounds of sugar maple that were several years cut and stacked (unsplit) that still foamed on the ends briefly when put in the stove.  Further proof IMO that wood seasons much better when split....


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## lukem (Mar 15, 2013)

Any wood can get frothy if there's too much moisture.  The froth is just air and moisture escaping from the wood.

Try that wood again next year.


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## rideau (Mar 15, 2013)

Sugar maple has such a nice colored flame.

And when cut at this time of year, the stump attracts dozens of varieties of butterfly, which one can enjoy watching while they feed.


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## Swedishchef (Mar 15, 2013)

Hrm. Ah well, I guess some of my maple is not dry yet..even if it has been c/s/s for 3 years!?!?!? And the rounds were only 6 inches or so in diameter.

I will check with a moisture meter this afternoon on the other pieces and let you know..they sounded and looked dry to me!

Andrew


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## Backwoods Savage (Mar 15, 2013)

Not much need for the MM as you already know it is not dry enough Andrew. Maybe you could boil that sap and get a spoonful of syrup?! I hope you get through this heating season okay. You can always try making sure you have a large coal bed before adding the wood which will help a lot.


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## ohlongarm (Mar 15, 2013)

Swedishchef said:


> Hey guys
> 
> I was wondering if, when burning sugar maple, you can have a white froth coming from the wood for a few minutes? I currently have some maple in the stove (just put it in) and it is hissing with a white foam coming out the edge. Possible???
> 
> Andrew


 Only if green,other than that sugar maple burns hotter than a scalded dog,good wood Very hot burning when dry.


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## HDRock (Mar 15, 2013)

Swedishchef said:


> hissing with a white foam


Hissing kinda wet, foaming and hissing real wet


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## Swedishchef (Mar 15, 2013)

Weird. Something must have happened to certain pieces. Obviously what hissed is wet. But I tested other pieces from the same pile and they were 19 percent on the inside.....and some were 28 percent. And yet they are from the same stack!


Hmmm


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## Swedishchef (Mar 15, 2013)

Backwoods Savage said:


> Not much need for the MM as you already know it is not dry enough Andrew. Maybe you could boil that sap and get a spoonful of syrup?! I hope you get through this heating season okay. You can always try making sure you have a large coal bed before adding the wood which will help a lot.


Thanks Dennis, but I wil pass on trying to get some syrup this year from those splits. Lol.

Mixed with the other wood after 10 minutes or so the hissing stops...I still have over a cord of mixed wood left and that should easily get me through the rest of winter. I only make one fire a day now....

Andrew


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## Backwoods Savage (Mar 16, 2013)

Swedishchef said:


> Weird. Something must have happened to certain pieces. Obviously what hissed is wet. But I tested other pieces from the same pile and they were 19 percent on the inside.....and some were 28 percent. And yet they are from the same stack!
> 
> 
> Hmmm


 
That actually is not surprising Andrew. Shoot, occasionally we get a log or two that is high moisture. I remember burning some 7 year old white ash. The tree was dead when it was cut. Still, 7 years later we got a couple splits that sizzled in the fire!


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## Swedishchef (Mar 16, 2013)

Dennis: glad to see I am not the only one. Kind of weird but there's not much that can be done. perhaps my piles weren't high enough off the ground and the piece may have been sitting on ground, etc??? Or the water gremlins are injecting water into my dry wood again.....

Andrew


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## gyrfalcon (Mar 17, 2013)

pen said:


> If it's only had one year seasoning on that maple, it may need more. I've found hard maple doesn't dry as fast as ash or beech for me.
> 
> pen


That's my experience, too.  Seems odd because it's such a nice dense wood, but beech dries pretty fast.


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## Backwoods Savage (Mar 17, 2013)

Swedishchef said:


> Dennis: glad to see I am not the only one. Kind of weird but there's not much that can be done. perhaps my piles weren't high enough off the ground and the piece may have been sitting on ground, etc??? Or the water gremlins are injecting water into my dry wood again.....
> 
> Andrew


 
Or coon pee?!


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## gyrfalcon (Mar 17, 2013)

Backwoods Savage said:


> Or coon pee?!


ROTLMAO!!


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## Swedishchef (Mar 17, 2013)

Haha Dennis... No coon pee around here. But I plan on getting yellow birch instead from now on... As pen and falcon mentioned, it dries much faster...


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## gyrfalcon (Mar 17, 2013)

Swedishchef said:


> Haha Dennis... No coon pee around here. But I plan on getting yellow birch instead from now on... As pen and falcon mentioned, it dries much faster...


Don't think I mentioned it, but I would if I'd thought of it... Yeah, yellow birch is good stuff.  It's less common around here than hard maple, obviously, but I'm always happy to have some.  If you can get black birch, it's even better, higher BTU and also pretty quick to dry.


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## Swedishchef (Mar 19, 2013)

I split a couple  of pieces of maple from the same pile and measured the MC. one was 30% and one was 20%. However, I think I found the reason. It seemed the 30% was starting to get punky on the inside. however the piece with 20% was not. Would that "punky factor" hold moisture in the wood for longer?

ANdrew


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## Applesister (Mar 19, 2013)

Swedishchef said:


> I split a couple  of pieces of maple from the same pile and measured the MC. one was 30% and one was 20%. However, I think I found the reason. It seemed the 30% was starting to get punky on the inside. however the piece with 20% was not. Would that "punky factor" hold moisture in the wood for longer?
> 
> ANdrew


Andrew you might want to research a thing called "Baterial shake in trees". Its more common in conifers and Oaks but maybe sugar maples. Bacteria causes cell wall breakdown and excessive moisture retention. Basically the wood never dries.


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## Swedishchef (Mar 19, 2013)

Hrm. Thanks Apple. I have never heard of this...perhaps some of the trees I cut were infected with this...I find it odd that wood that has been c/s/s for almost 4 years can have moisture content of 30%.

It seems that may have been my problem with some of my wood....perhaps it was from the same tree....


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## pen (Mar 19, 2013)

I have wood with punk it in that dries. However, unlike its solid friends in the pile, if it does get wet it soaks it right in then takes longer to dry back out.

pen


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## Backwoods Savage (Mar 19, 2013)

Swedishchef said:


> I split a couple of pieces of maple from the same pile and measured the MC. one was 30% and one was 20%. However, I think I found the reason. It seemed the 30% was starting to get punky on the inside. however the piece with 20% was not. Would that "punky factor" hold moisture in the wood for longer?
> 
> ANdrew


 
Andrew I've always argued that wood is not a sponge. However, once there is punk, that all goes out the door. That punk will definitely soak up lots of moisture.

This also is one reason some folks should not be out looking for standing dead trees. They may or may not be good.


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## rideau (Mar 19, 2013)

If it's really punky, pretty easy to knock the punk out with a small hatchet, before bringing the wood in to burn.


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## HDRock (Mar 20, 2013)

rideau said:


> If it's really punky, pretty easy to knock the punk out with a small hatchet, before bringing the wood in to burn.


True ,but best to knock it off before U stack it


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## gyrfalcon (Mar 20, 2013)

HDRock said:


> True ,but best to knock it off before U stack it


Yeah, but I don't know if this is the OP's problem.  Punky wood sucking up water is pretty obvious.  I have to give him credit that he can tell the difference between waterlogged punky stuff and not.


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## Swedishchef (Mar 20, 2013)

oh I certainly know the difference from the OUTSIDE but the INSIDE looked very different. I have seen punky wood, it looks "petrified" and is heavy. But seeing as this was maple, it was already heavy. ANd when I split it open to test the MC, that is when I saw it seemed to be a BIT punky. I don't think I could have knocked off/hacked out the punky parts quite yet (as I have done with other wood).


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## Woody Stover (Mar 20, 2013)

Backwoods Savage said:


> This also is one reason some folks should not be out looking for standing dead trees. They may or may not be good.


What folks are these, the ones who can't tell the difference between punk and solid wood? Usually, there's some bad wood that needs to be culled when splitting just about any dead standing tree. It's pretty easy to do.
I've got the impression that you don't really like harvesting dead wood. If the EAB wasn't dumping tons of dead stuff in your lap, would you prefer to cut only live trees?


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## Applesister (Mar 20, 2013)

Firewood is a byproduct of maintaining a healthy woodlot. For my practices. I have more than I could handle in my lifetime. I feel for those who have seen the devastation of the demise of the Ash tree species. I have American chestnut trees. I watch for blights, black knot, cankers, fungal infections, beetles...borers...invasive species.
I joke about the arboretum of pestilence and disease. Im jealous of the scroungers picking up healthy storm damaged trees from Sandy. And Lee and Irene.
Backwood Savage is right, the dead oak Im cutting could take 10 years to dry out. If ever. 
But better to burn it than let it spread.


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## Woody Stover (Mar 20, 2013)

Applesister said:


> the dead oak Im cutting could take 10 years to dry out. If ever.


I've had pretty good luck with dead standing Red/Black Oak. I'm burning some now that has dried for two summers, not even two full years. It was in the upper 20s MC when split, split medium size, single-row stacked, and is rockin' out the heat right now.


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## Backwoods Savage (Mar 20, 2013)

Woody Stover said:


> What folks are these, the ones who can't tell the difference between punk and solid wood? Usually, there's some bad wood that needs to be culled when splitting just about any dead standing tree. It's pretty easy to do.
> I've got the impression that you don't really like harvesting dead wood. If the EAB wasn't dumping tons of dead stuff in your lap, would you prefer to cut only live trees?


 
Whoa, hang on there Woody. While it is true we've been cutting dead ash for the last 10 years or so we have also been cutting dead elm. Actually before the ash started to die off, I'd guess 90% or more of the wood we burned was dead wood. To tell the truth, it is quite rare for us to cut many live trees.


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