silver maple?

[treeman82]

How is silver maple for firewood? I just picked up a job with 3 of them, and the wood has to go. If it's good quality then I'll sell it, but I heard that the stuff is the junkiest of all maple woods, and would much rather just trash it if that's the case.

 

[ray benson]

It may not be as good as the other maples but I wouldn't use the term junkiest. We have quite a bit in our area and would never pass it up to cut and burn. Some years up to half of our wood is silver maple. Here is a wood rating chart on page 2.
http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1554/build/g1554.pdf

 

[Ductape]

I'm with Ray. Its not the best, but i sure wouldn't throw it away. I've got a bunch in my pile to be split for the 08-09 season. I'd call it a middle-of-the-road firewood.

 

[goof008]

Don't pitch it, it's good enough to keep for sure. The one thing I did notice about it it that it dries out quickly and needs to be used sooner than oak or ash. When I say dries out, I mean like balsa wood, similar to how cottonwood dries.

 

[PA Plumber]

I burn and have burned a lot of Silver Maple. Gets going quickly. I can get it to hold overnight, but just barely.

It is still considered a "hardwood," and to me it's worth the hassle.

 

[Mr. Firewood]

I love silver maple Matt! burnes nice in anything and only really needs 2-3 months to be below 12% moisture, keep it and process it

 

[stonykill]

it burns fine for me:chainsawguy:

 

[computeruser]

Like others said, it is fast-drying. But best of all, it is a very good fireplace wood since it has higher flames and starts/burns easier than some of the harder species - oak, hickory, etc. I actually prefer it, and other woods like it, for fireplace use.

 

[Dr. Hackemoff]

It may not be as good as the other maples but I wouldn't use the term junkiest. We have quite a bit in our area and would never pass it up to cut and burn. Some years up to half of our wood is silver maple. Here is a wood rating chart on page 2.
http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1554/build/g1554.pdf

I've seen that table before (firewood ratings), and I question the "excellent" rating for the coaling value. I guess I'd label it between fair and good. Regardless, I have eight cords of it to dice up. I agree with everyone here - it starts easily and burns well. I have some ash and oak to mix in on cold nights to enhance the coals.

I can't believe winter is only 4-5 months away. I gotta get cracking!

 

[max2cam]

I have some BIG silver maple in my river floodplain. One year I cut up a couple and found that the big (18-24") diameter sections to be IMPOSSIBLE to split by hand. Not even steel wedges and a big hammer would split them. Everything I tried just bounced right off. I ended up cutting them up into smaller chunks. The smaller stuff split okay, but not the big stuff. I haven't been back there since!