how to identify between soft maple and hard maple logs?

[Jstpssng]

Not all red maple is created equal. The red/swamp/white maple that grows in wet areas is the least useful. Those logs usually have tight, uniform bark with shallow furrows.

I could be mistaken, but believe that what you are referring to is actually silver maple (Acer Saccharinum) Descriptions and articles about the Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) - Encyclopedia of Life , which normally grows on river banks and bottomlands.

 

[dave1949]

I could be mistaken, but believe that what you are referring to is actually silver maple (Acer Saccharinum) Descriptions and articles about the Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) - Encyclopedia of Life , which normally grows on river banks and bottomlands.

Could be. This sentence from your link ...

The two species can hybridize in natural wetlands where they occur together (Barnes and Wagner 2004). (referring to red and silver maple)

Sugar maples seem to be a consistent phenotype. Then there are the other maples that aren't so clear--at least to me. I've heard the very soft maples referred to as white or swamp maple, but the crowns don't get all small branchy compared to the silver maple I think I know. And as I recall the leaves, they aren't as pointed and elongated/deeply divided as silver maple.

Whatever flavor I have here, I've learned they aren't worth the fuel to cut them for firewood. They just dry to nothing.

 

[Jstpssng]

Could be. This sentence from your link ...

The two species can hybridize in natural wetlands where they occur together (Barnes and Wagner 2004). (referring to red and silver maple)

Sugar maples seem to be a consistent phenotype. Then there are the other maples that aren't so clear--at least to me. I've heard the very soft maples referred to as white or swamp maple, but the crowns don't get all small branchy compared to the silver maple I think I know. And as I recall the leaves, they aren't as pointed and elongated/deeply divided as silver maple.

Whatever flavor I have here, I've learned they aren't worth the fuel to cut them for firewood. They just dry to nothing.

You could be right...
I've always burned red or soft maple (Acer rubrum) while turning my nose up at white birch; yet the charts I've been reading lately show that both hold about the same BTUs per cord. I'm not as fussy now anyways, since my firewood comes from right out of my back door.
I even like to have a little hemlock on hand for quick heat, and my evaporator will eat anything I feed it. :thumbsup:

 

[tcreeley]

The wood I buy is always mixed. Oak, cherry, ash, red maple, white birch, yellow birch, beech. Cherry, oak, red maple are the common pieces. I have no problem with red maple- burns as hot coals and lasts. It doesn't like to jump into flame but throw it on a bed of coals and it is great. Birch is nice but burns too fast, Oak and cherry are great. Over the years I hate to think of the quality hardwood I have burnt. A couple of years running I had 16"+ 4 footers delivered to me. The guy could have made some money taking it to the mill as saw logs. In my area everything is either pulpwood or firewood. The trees look stunted because they harvest on such a regular basis. Nothing has a chance to get big.

I've been heating with wood since the 1970's. Red maple is a solid wood for the stove. I burn some every year. The only sugar maples are being tapped or are in someone's yard. You can't buy sugar maple (hard/rock) to burn. In telling your wood apart- pay attention to the color of the layer just under the bark too.
Start tapping your wood with your fingernail or a pulp hook. You can feel the different denseness of the woods. Tap them and they will each have a different sound.

 

[dave1949]

You could be right...
I've always burned red or soft maple (Acer rubrum) while turning my nose up at white birch; yet the charts I've been reading lately show that both hold about the same BTUs per cord. I'm not as fussy now anyways, since my firewood comes from right out of my back door.
I even like to have a little hemlock on hand for quick heat, and my evaporator will eat anything I feed it. :thumbsup:

I have found literally hundreds of old sugar buckets on this place. Stacked together and rusting in piles along the stone walls. Not that many sugar maple trees though, so I assume there used to be many more. Darn red maple is everywhere and I try to favor any sugar maple I find. Perversely, I always find nice little sugar maple seedlings in places I wish they weren't. :laughing: Red oak does that too.

 

[jix]

There occurs, in hard maple, a type which has a "birds-eye" grain pattern. You cannot tell it without planing it. If you find any by accident..DO NOT BURN IT..it fetches almost $50 a board foot as a semi-precious cabinet grade hardwood. Tiger grain maple is likewise a type of hard maple which is equally valuable. Both these are quite rare woods. I had Four cords of it in my yard..all chunked by a wood supplier into 18" lengths. I cried and cried, then turned the bulk of the chunks into bowls on a lathe which I sold for about 75.00 dollars apiece! Birdseye and Tiger maple are really beautifully-grained woods. I saw a tiger maple dining table in an antique store that was priced at 12,000 dollars.
At a local auction in Ontario a standing black walnut tree was sold for $50,000 back in 1975. It was about 24" in diameter at the butt.

 

[Looking4new]

I use white birch to get the fire going in the mornings, then put oak or yellow birch for the steady heat. Beech goes on for overnighters.

 

[jk96]

Starting on my stash for next year. We have loads of hedge (osage orange) on our property. Its probably one of the easiest types of wood to spot by its bright greenish yellow wood. It produces an incredible amount of heat and long lasting burns.

 

[luvmexfood]

On hard maple the center will have a redish-brown center and on soft maple the center will be more of a gray-silver color. At least that's what the grader at the log yard pointed out to me when I sell a few logs along.

 

[Garandman]

Starting on my stash for next year. We have loads of hedge (osage orange) on our property. Its probably one of the easiest types of wood to spot by its bright greenish yellow wood. It produces an incredible amount of heat and long lasting burns.

Just looked it up: 30 MBTU per cord! White Oak is 24.2 and Sugar Maple 23.2. And 4800 lbs per cord.