Maple ID opinions

[NickW]

Monday and today I got a couple of log drops. Mostly basswood and box elder with some maple. He couldn't remember what/where the maple came from but thought there might be Norway. I am seeing at least 2 different kinds. First 3 pics I think are sugar, next 3 pics might be silver or Norway?

 

[Doublebogey]

Looks like silver maple to me.

By the way, box elder is a variety of maple.

 

[MRD1985]

I believe you are correct about the sugar maple. It does look much like that.

The second group other than the top right of pic #4 definitely not Norway maple. That one tree may be Norway maple. The rest Possibly silver maple but the bark looks to dark to me. Tough to tell but may be more sugar maple.

 

[NickW]

Top right log in pic #4 is one of the box elder logs. I'll be pleased if it's more sugar. Hopefully I get a better idea once I cut & split that bigger log in the center of pic #4. Processing was delayed today for a quick trip to the shooting range to check zero on the rifle, now it's raining. Got a pile of big rounds split in the vertical position to manageable size in-between the range and rain.

Bark doesn't seem shaggy enough for silver but also doesn't look like a sugar trunk. Maybe it's a big side branch of sugar or silver? Branch wood on maple can be tough to distinguish variety... I'll see what the grain looks like after splitting.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

I'm not seeing any Norway maple. I'm not clear in any photo if it's sugar maple, red maple, silver, or box elder.

Weight can tell you something, with similar size pieces. Sugar will feel heavier. Then red and norway might be similar. Silver is lighter than red (even though they're closely related).

 

[NickW]

I just don't know... Fresh end cut screams soft maple, but it cuts really hard and is very heavy like sugar. Split one chunk to check the grain and one spot looks sugarish and another more silverish to me... Sugar goes in my "premium" stack, silver goes in my "low grade" stack... maybe I'll throw it in the "mid-grade" stack because I just don't know 😜.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

I just don't know... Fresh end cut screams soft maple, but it cuts really hard and is very heavy like sugar. Split one chunk to check the grain and one spot looks sugarish and another more silverish to me... Sugar goes in my "premium" stack, silver goes in my "low grade" stack... maybe I'll throw it in the "mid-grade" stack because I just don't know 😜.
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Some does look like sugar maple in the rounds in the recent photo.

 

[NickW]

Possibly black maple? I don't think I've ever had that and it's in this area according to the map. Split a bunch of it today. Very straight grain and like I said cuts hard (like sugar), but it's very white not the tan/pink color I typically see in sugar. The bark isn't shaggy like silver, but it kind of smells like silver while splitting. Silver in my experience is also very twisty grained with intertwined fibers and hard to pull apart after splitting. This fractures and pulls apart easily. Hard to tell by photos I found online, but I think black maple bark was close...

Unless possibly what I've been told is sugar maple in the past was actually red maple and THIS is sugar maple ..? I don't know. It's going in one of the danged piles. It'll burn. At least I can identify the box elder, basswood and ash 😝. I guess it really doesn't matter that much other than satisfying my type A personality.