# Old Sugar Maple Splits



## rideau (Mar 15, 2013)

I'm down to the last face cord of the sugar maple c/s/s in my basement over 35 years ago, when we built the house. 

Wood isn't weathered (been inside the wholetime), looks like the day it was split, no checking.  Dried nice and slowly from the moment it was cut. 

Only have a few inches of topsoil on a limestone base, so my densely wooded lot produces dense trees.  I recently brought a few splits of this nice old wood
	

		
			
		

		
	




	

		
			
		

		
	
  up from the basement as a treat, since the season is almost over.  This split has a radius of 7 or 8 inches.  Want to count the rings?


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## swagler85 (Mar 15, 2013)

Wow now that's seasoned


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## raybonz (Mar 15, 2013)

rideau said:


> I'm down to the last face cord of the sugar maple c/s/s in my basement over 35 years ago, when we built the house.
> 
> Wood isn't weathered (been inside the wholetime), looks like the day it was split, no checking. Dried nice and slowly from the moment it was cut.
> 
> ...


Man that isn't wood it's gold  Great firewood!

Ray


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## PapaDave (Mar 15, 2013)

rideau said:


> Want to count the rings?


I got tired at 5.....how many are there?


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## ScotO (Mar 15, 2013)

I'm betting that stuff is fun to burn....but it'd be sad at the same time.  Kinda like an era of your time here on earth passing.....
It's amazing how long the stuff lasts (and how good it looks) when you keep it out of the weather!


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## rideau (Mar 15, 2013)

PapaDave said:


> I got tired at 5.....how many are there?


 
Hmm.  I hadn't actually counted them, so went back to the original, higher resolution picture and started counting.  Eyes got a bit bleary, but about 120..maybe slightly more. 

Nice dense wood I have, burns hot and long, especially my Ironwood (Hophornbeam).  Don't seem to need as many cords as other folks do to heat my home.


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## HDRock (Mar 15, 2013)

I have some kiln dried red oak boards 41 years young


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## nrford (Mar 15, 2013)

rideau said:


> I'm down to the last face cord of the sugar maple c/s/s in my basement over 35 years ago, when we built the house.
> 
> Wood isn't weathered (been inside the wholetime), looks like the day it was split, no checking. Dried nice and slowly from the moment it was cut.
> 
> ...


 
If that piece is Hard Maple I'll eat it. That's ASH.


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## rideau (Mar 15, 2013)

Sorry to disappoint you but that is definitely sugar maple.


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## rideau (Mar 15, 2013)

Well, at least you won't need any syrup to go with it.

Sorry to disappoint you but that is sugar maple.  I am quite familiar with my sugar maple...my woods are predominantly  sugar maple,  beech and ironwood.  You really cannot mistake a maple for an ash.  The bark's different, the growth's is different, the leaves are sure as heck different, the weight is different, the grain of the wood is different.  .  I am 100 % certain that is sugar maple.  I saw it alive, c/s/s it, have been burning it.  Ash is so different it's not even funny. 

I am quite adept at identifying the trees growing on my property: sugarmaple, beech, hemlock, ash, paper birch, white pine, hophornbeam, hickory, cherry, basswood (one), tuliptree (one, soon to be none), cedar, apple, american elm, and white oak.


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## HDRock (Mar 15, 2013)

Ash ? NO


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## Waulie (Mar 15, 2013)

Those are some nice old splits there.

While I can't say 100% what it is, I can say 100% what it isn't and that is ash.  

It's cold here tonight, so I plopped in my last big split of ironwood for the year and filled the rest up with sugar maple.  Totally blue flame, and it's toasty in here!


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## nrford (Mar 16, 2013)

rideau said:


> Well, at least you won't need any syrup to go with it.
> 
> Sorry to disappoint you but that is sugar maple. I am quite familiar with my sugar maple...my woods are predominantly sugar maple, beech and ironwood. You really cannot mistake a maple for an ash. The bark's different, the growth's is different, the leaves are sure as heck different, the weight is different, the grain of the wood is different. . I am 100 % certain that is sugar maple. I saw it alive, c/s/s it, have been burning it. Ash is so different it's not even funny.
> 
> I am quite adept at identifying the trees growing on my property: sugarmaple, beech, hemlock, ash, paper birch, white pine, hophornbeam, hickory, cherry, basswood (one), tuliptree (one, soon to be none), cedar, apple, american elm, and white oak.


 
Check my credentials Sir. I have seen millions of board feet of both Ash and Hard Maple in 20 plus in the hardwood industry, way more than you'll see in your bush .That is not Hard Maple no way no how!! Show us the bark and sideview of that split then we will know.


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## KodiakII (Mar 16, 2013)

Perhaps you are looking at 30 year old oxidized Maple not something just out of the forest.  It certainly doesn't look like any Ash we have around here.  But to be truthful the end profile of the bark doesn't look like Sugar Maple to me either.


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## nrford (Mar 16, 2013)

The color and texture of the wood scream ASH, I don't care if it's 500 years old ash still looks like ash.


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## jdp1152 (Mar 16, 2013)

Out of curiosity, why would you keep css wood in your basement for 35 years?


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## rideau (Mar 16, 2013)

jdp1152 said:


> Out of curiosity, why would you keep css wood in your basement for 35 years?


 
That's a long story.  I designed my home with 5 Rumford Fireplaces.  Spent a long time looking for a mason to build them.  Since I was going to have all those fireplaces, I needed firewood. 

Area for the foundation was blasted.  I inspected the site, then went home to NYS.  Came back to check the house as the framework was done.  Roof on, and I cut/split/stack  a nice maple that was too close to the house for comfort; that way I'd have some firewood stacked and seasoning.   Go to put the tools in the basement, look over at the huge chimney foundation, and think something isn't right.  Well, somethings were not right, including the chimney foundation was not aligned with the framing above for the chimney. 

At that point I really regretted framing for the big chimney, since I no longer trusted the jokers to build the fireplaces.  So I filled in the framework and built the house without any chimneys.  Meanwhile, I had all that nice wood.  So I took it into the basement and stacked it against the chimney foundation, since it was beautiful, bug free maple.  There is sat for three decades while we brought up the children and put them through college.  When I retired, I decided to put in a soapstone stove, so started s/s downed trees.  Since 2005, I have burned a few pieces of the maple in the basement from time to time. 

That's the story of that tree.  I love/hate burning it now that the pile is diminished....burns very nicely, but i'll be sorry when it's gone.


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## rideau (Mar 16, 2013)

KodiakII said:


> Perhaps you are looking at 30 year old oxidized Maple not something just out of the forest. It certainly doesn't look like any Ash we have around here. But to be truthful the end profile of the bark doesn't look like Sugar Maple to me either.


 
Well, I know beyond any ounce of doubt that I am right about the tree, so I really don't feel any need to prove it. I was just trying to share some firewood I love with other members who can appreciate a beautiful piece of firewood. Now I'm sorry I bothered. Obviously, I can't photograph the bark and split side of that piece, as it is long since burned.

One cannot mistake ash bark for maple bark, especially 100 year old ash. I'm looking out the window now at two ash that are about 117 years old, in the family home back yard in Westchester, NY. They were planted when the house was built in 1894. The ridges in the bark intersect into elongated diamonds everywhere. Maple bark doesn't do that at all.

I love sugar maple, both live and processed. Third floor bedrooms are sugar maple...floors and all trim. I'm pretty darn familiar with the wood. Have processed many over the years that have been blown over or hit by lightning. Just took down two 31 inch diameter maples a year ago. One was 10 feet from the house and growing over it, so the top forester in Ontario came and took it down. I guess he doesn't know sugar maple either. 

Don't intend to let a mistaken individual here distract from my enjoyment of this firewood. Next time I bring some up from the basement, if it is daytime and a nice day and I remember and the recollection of the doubting isn't too irritating, I'll take some pictures of the end and side grain and bark of a the splits, and try to remember to post them. That'll probably be next year, since I'm not going to waste any of that wood now that winter is gone.

I did post a picture of Ironwood bark for someone this year. There is a big maple (not ash) growing next to that Ironwood. I'll try to find the picture and see if it's visable in the posted picture. Same bark as is in the basement.

I can't get over how stupid this is. That maple is maple as surely as a white birch is white birch, or a beech is beech. You just cannot mistake the trees.

Addendum:  The post with the ironwood pictures has a clear large photo of the ironwood and a maple growing together by my woodpile.  The maple, obviously, is the bigger tree.  Post title is "Two 31 inch diameter sugar maple...." if you/re interested.


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## rideau (Mar 16, 2013)

nrford said:


> Check my credentials Sir. I have seen millions of board feet of both Ash and Hard Maple in 20 plus in the hardwood industry, way more than you'll see in your bush .That is not Hard Maple no way no how!! Show us the bark and sideview of that split then we will know.


 
It's long since burned. 

Perhaps next time I bring some up from the basement.


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## nrford (Mar 16, 2013)

Whatever...... smart guy. You Canadians usually think your smarter than anyone else anyway. You win you burned the evidence.


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## rideau (Mar 16, 2013)

I thought I'd share the PM nrford felt compelled to send. Can't imagine why he didn't feel comfortable posting it here.

"You can think what you want, and bring up some more from downstairs...but 35 years ago you piled ASH with some hard maple now you old mind does not remember that but that's what happened because I am a trained lumber inspector and that piece of ash never was nor could be hard maple, I have seen way more wood than your old butt ever thought about and YOU ARE WRONG. " nrford


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## raybonz (Mar 16, 2013)

rideau said:


> I thought I'd share the PM nrford felt compelled to send. Can't imagine why he didn't feel comfortable posting it here.
> 
> "You can think what you want, and bring up some more from downstairs...but 35 years ago you piled ASH with some hard maple now you old mind does not remember that but that's what happened because I am a trained lumber inspector and that piece of ash never was nor could be hard maple, I have seen way more wood than your old butt ever thought about and YOU ARE WRONG. " nrford


Whatever it is it is great firewood thanks for sharing my friend!

Ray


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## Waulie (Mar 16, 2013)

Oh come on guys.  It really doesn't matter.  I bet the stuff burns great.

That, and there's no way it is ash.


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## Michael Golden (Mar 16, 2013)

Don't get your panties in a bunch nrford! Keep posting stories like this rideau everyone else enjoys hearing them.


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## Diabel (Mar 16, 2013)

Well, I just pulled some splits from my wood pile, one happened to be sugar maple and one ash.


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## KodiakII (Mar 16, 2013)

nrford said:


> Whatever...... smart guy. You Canadians usually think your smarter than anyone else anyway. You win you burned the evidence.


 

And guys like you are known for giving Americans a sterling reputation worldwide!


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## jdp1152 (Mar 17, 2013)

And an interesting story at that. 

My elderly neighbors gave me a bunch of bucked red oak in the fall of last year.  Said their basement was full and they would likely not be living there (looking at retirement homes) or alive to see it all used.  When they do leave, they said I could have what is in the basement.  I haven't been down in there to see it yet, but am certainly curious about how long some of it has been stored and the shape that its in.  I haven't seen them have a fire in the year and a half I've lived here.



rideau said:


> That's a long story. I designed my home with 5 Rumford Fireplaces. Spent a long time looking for a mason to build them. Since I was going to have all those fireplaces, I needed firewood.
> 
> Area for the foundation was blasted. I inspected the site, then went home to NYS. Came back to check the house as the framework was done. Roof on, and I cut/split/stack a nice maple that was too close to the house for comfort; that way I'd have some firewood stacked and seasoning. Go to put the tools in the basement, look over at the huge chimney foundation, and think something isn't right. Well, somethings were not right, including the chimney foundation was not aligned with the framing above for the chimney.
> 
> ...


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## tcassavaugh (Mar 17, 2013)

nrford said:


> If that piece is Hard Maple I'll eat it. That's ASH.


 
would you like a little salt and pepper with that sir? sorry, couldn't resist.

cass


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## nrford (Mar 17, 2013)

Diabel said:


> Well, I just pulled some splits from my wood pile, one happened to be sugar maple and one ash.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
Folks please note in the above photo's the distinct differance in the end grain of the Hard maple on the left and the Ash on the right . Notice the very open capillary tubes in the growth rings of the ash and the very tight growth ring capillaries of the Hard Maple. Now go back and look and the  OP. That tells the whole story right there


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## Havendalefarm (Apr 1, 2013)

In my thirty years of being around sawmills and logging I get reminded from time to time how species can vary by region and growing conditions. Our acidic soil produces trees of similar species that may look somewhat different if grown on limestone. Every man is most familiar with his own wood...


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## Woody Stover (Apr 1, 2013)

rideau said:


> This split has a radius of 7 or 8 inches...started counting. Eyes got a bit bleary, but about 120.


Contrast that to the monster Pin Oak I posted on last year which was in a valley (plenty of water) and probably fertilized by hog manure runoff from the field above; ~65" DBH in 100 years. 
I've got wood that's almost sixty years old, but only one very small round. 


nrford said:


> Notice the very open capillary tubes in the growth rings of the ash and the very tight growth ring capillaries of the Hard Maple. Now go back and look and the OP. That tells the whole story right there


That can happen in punky wood, which you probably didn't see much of at the mill. Some areas of the OP's end grain pic, the grain looks really tight with hardly any capillaries visible, but other parts (slightly punked?) look more open. Also note the discoloration (dark) in some of the sapwood. Classic slightly-punked look there. A split pic would have removed all doubt. Let that be a lesson to you, rideau. Just like stacked wood, you can never have too many pics! 
FWIW, I would guess Maple on the basis of the scant pics offered.  Never saw darker heartwood on White Ash here, maybe some other Ash varieties have that...


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## bogydave (Apr 1, 2013)

Old wood is good wood!
Should close the  " can wood get to dry?"  question 
After over 30 years seasoning , still burns great


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