Bruce, just look at soft maple and hard maple as two very different woods. And yes, soft maple dries extremely fast. If left in the woods it can also rot pretty darned fast, even if it is off the ground. We had one we cut a few years back (do that sometimes just for the deer to feed on) and it landed across two others that we had fell. I don't remember if it were 2 or 3 years later and a neighbor was looking for some wood for a needy person. These 3 trees were very close to the line fence and I just told him to cut them and take them. You could already see them turning punky.
Soft maple is still good to burn but just won't hold a fire as long as hard maple.
I hear what you are saying here Backwoods. I come from the metals industry and know hardness plays a big role in what you are trying to accomplish. With metals, you take a sample, put it in a hardness tester, push a diamond point into it, read the indicator and it tells you if is soft, half hard, or hard regardless of material type. Now, wood is totally different. It is education, and plenty of experience to gain a knowledge of weather some wood is hard or soft just by looking at the bark, color and grain pattern etc. For that, I'm am truly greatfull and humbled for all the input that people post here. Everyone's input is valuable in my opinion. Good for you taking care of your neighbors. We need more of that!
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