Soft Maple for firewood

[logbutcher]

Hogwash. It's not White Oak, it's not Red Oak, but standing next to the stove in the evening after being outside in 10* weather for a few hours your ass can not tell the difference.
Besides, I never said it's the best, or even close to it. I said it's fine firewood and I sell a lot of it with absolutely no complaints.
Well, I do have one 83 year old man who wants none of it. He insists it will not burn in his stove.
He also wants no Ash, burns too quick.
Another wants ONLY white wood like Maple and Ash, no Oak.
Another wants anything but white birch..
And some would biatch if you hung them with a new rope.

Glad you brought the subject up OT: my ass can tell the difference. It is a smart one.

It is sensitive to species in our stoves ( 4 ).

My ass since you are concerned about it :msp_ohmy:, also knows the worked species when felling, bucking, limbing, splitting, stacking, burning.

It is a good ass, that many times has been saved ( as in "saved your ass" ), and has saved many other asses.

So, leave the ass alone, it has great value. So get off my ass OT.

Complaints redux. :hmm3grin2orange:

P.S. "Hogwash" ?

 

[broncofan7249]

I sell as much soft maple as hardwood. It sells good in the fall and I sell a lot in the summer for campfire wood. I just sell it cheaper than my hardwood and a lot of my customers love it. It's great for these new epa stoves don't get me wrong it isn't oak but if it's priced cheap u can sell the heck out of it burns great and hot just fast

 

[Full Chisel]

I sell soft maple as campfire wood as well...half the price of the primo hardwoods. I like cutting it...makes the saws feel twice as fast and it splits easy too.

 

[svk]

Old thread revival!

I classify "soft maple" into a couple of categories.

-Silver maple limb wood is very light, dries extremely quick (fastest drying wood I have ever dealt with).
-Silver maple trunk wood from a larger tree is often twisted and is usually much more dense, and can be a pain to split-I'd put it's density up with red maple and white birch.
-I often find small to medium red maples up here that have been starved out of sunlight by faster growing species. In that case even the smaller trees have core rot as they have often been deteriorating for a while
-Healthy cut or storm damage red maple is good wood. Unsplit rounds do take a long time to dry compared to split red maple!

Regardless, it makes great heating or firepit wood although it doesn't burn nearly as long as the primo species. Smells very good, coals nice, and has a quiet, blue to orange flame.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Nice to see an old thread revived. I often mix soft maple with cottonwood in campfire bundles. Usually the bark falls off while I split it. Seems to be a good mixture along with dry elm. I only wish soft maple didn't dry rot so fast, but it does.

 

[DSW]

I burn quite a bit of it. It's plentiful around here, easy to split and dries very quick. I sold some this year, no complaints but I didn't charge a premium price for it. If it left more coals it'd be an ideal wood.

 

[DSW]

Everything always gets compared to Oak. Whether it's fair or not. That being said Oak just plain does it for me. I never get to cut hedge. Locust I come across but not often. Hickory is all around me but they never go down. So for me Oak is it, plentiful, premium, excellent for coals. But I still burn soft maple, poplar, cherry, tons of sassafras. Variety is the spice of life.

 

[Woodcutteranon]

Here's My Evaluation

Soft maple dry rots and becomes punky faster than any species I know of, even when stored indoors.

Totally agree. I enjoy silver maple...looks good, burns good...but don't let it sit until next year. It turns punky fast.

 

[jrider]

It's a big part of my mixed firewood I sell and I get $20 less a than oak for a cord of it.

 

[unclemoustache]

I sell as much soft maple as hardwood. I just sell it cheaper than my hardwood

Yup. Sell it for a lower price, but always be up front with what you have. I had a customer specifically ask for it.