What kind of wood is this
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mark cline
Minister of Fire
CincyBurner
Minister of Fire
silver maple - easy splitting, quick seasoning, and a bit below average heat value (17.4 MBTU/ cord).
stoveliker
Minister of Fire
Yep, maple (not enough knowledge here to be as precise as the experts above).
And a black bear on the lawn (very common in the South East)
And a black bear on the lawn (very common in the South East)
NateB
Feeling the Heat
Ha funny that is my Newfoundland he hates being in the house loves laying outside he hates the fireplace it is his kryptonite
hickoryhoarder
Minister of Fire
Wood does look like silver maple. The bark looks more like red or sugar maple.
There's a big difference. The latter two are good firewood, silver maple not so much.
There's a big difference. The latter two are good firewood, silver maple not so much.
hickoryhoarder
Minister of Fire
Heavy would suggest sugar or red maple. Which are good firewood. If it's tough to split the grain may be twisted. Maple usually splits pretty easy for me with a maul, and I'm old and weak. Cherry is the easiest to split, but I had a tree last year where every branch was twisted grain. I used a wedge on every log, no exceptions.
My friend has a lot of wood he told me I could have just don’t want to waste time and effort if not good wood it is free I can take what I want to burn
CincyBurner
Minister of Fire
Looks like much soft maple (red + silver) with what looks like ash in the middle of the pic.
Lots of free wood - that's a great scrounge !
Forego the sycamore (front, bottom left of pic). It's tough splitting and not that great for firewood.
Lots of free wood - that's a great scrounge !
Forego the sycamore (front, bottom left of pic). It's tough splitting and not that great for firewood.
For that price, grab all that maple that you can. That’ll save you money to use for dog food. BTW, I thought that first pic was taken in front of the black bear exhibit at a zoo, at first.
I got some split I waited too long last year did not dry in time starting a little earlier this year to have some good seasoned wood to burn !!got a lot more to split but got to get the big splitter out thanks for the replies
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
mark cline
Minister of Fire
Just being around it all your life, general knowledge. Plus I made maple syrup for about 35 years.
So the best way to identify the tree species is by the bud. Every species has a different bud. Buds also work when there aren’t leaves on the tree.
The next thing I’ll use is the leaf. Note, this only works when the tree has leaves on it. Sometimes petioles or dead leaves can be found below the tree and help ID.
Bark is the least useful way to ID as it changes so much as a tree ages, but certain traits are often present regardless of the tree age.
Finally, the wood itself is often different between species. Open vs closed pore structure, rays, color, spalting, etc can all be used to ID wood.
HTH, there’s a lot to it, and once you learn it you’ll probably decide it doesn’t matter and whatever it is, it’ll keep you warm.
The Canadian Flag has a sugar maple leaf on it. The leaves are very distinct from silver or red. Unless planted as a small tree, sugar maple rarely grows wild in any area with worms in the soil. My guess is every scrap of Ohio has been cultivated at one point so odds are low its a naturally regenerated sugar maple. Norway maple is a very popular landscape tree as its tolerant to urban settings but is borderline invasive. Norway and Silver are both fast growing less dense wood. Still good wood if free but given the choice Sugar maple is denser (slower growing). Red maples can get big but they frequently regenerate in clusters of stems and as they age they can get rot at the junction between the stems at base. If they are pruned back to a single dominant stem early enough the healthy tree will seal over the other cut stems but the older they get the more likely hood of rot at the base if its still a cluster. Lots of big old planted and wild Silver maples out there, they have a big crown but love to shed big branches in wind storms.
The reason as I understand for the worms issue with sugar maples is that Sugar Maple seeds require a deep "duff" layer of decomposing leaves to take root. Worms are very effective at converting leaves into castings so the duff layer is much shallower in areas with worms so the sugar maples seeds cant take root, unless they are grown in a nursery. When I go off trail "bushwhacking" in areas with sugar maples its quite impressive how deep the leaf layer will be, nice soft walking even in the spring we shuffle through 10 to 12". Even with the right duff layer, the soil also needs to be "sweet" and lot of soils in New England went acid due to ddecades of midwest coal plant emissions and lack of buffering minerals in the soil. I was at a maple sugar shack a couple of weeks ago and the owner was commenting that his primary sugar maple sugar bush that had been in the family for 140 years had gotten wiped out in an ice storm in 1998 and the only regeneration he is getting is red maple. it still makes sugar but its lower sugar content.
The reason as I understand for the worms issue with sugar maples is that Sugar Maple seeds require a deep "duff" layer of decomposing leaves to take root. Worms are very effective at converting leaves into castings so the duff layer is much shallower in areas with worms so the sugar maples seeds cant take root, unless they are grown in a nursery. When I go off trail "bushwhacking" in areas with sugar maples its quite impressive how deep the leaf layer will be, nice soft walking even in the spring we shuffle through 10 to 12". Even with the right duff layer, the soil also needs to be "sweet" and lot of soils in New England went acid due to ddecades of midwest coal plant emissions and lack of buffering minerals in the soil. I was at a maple sugar shack a couple of weeks ago and the owner was commenting that his primary sugar maple sugar bush that had been in the family for 140 years had gotten wiped out in an ice storm in 1998 and the only regeneration he is getting is red maple. it still makes sugar but its lower sugar content.
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