Bitter sweet hard maple score

[Trilifter7]

Getting this sugar maple cut down in my front yard tomorrow. Sad to see it have to come down bc it's been a great looking shade tree in the front yard, but its been coming back weaker and thinner each year and the trunk is becoming hallow and starting to split. Even noticing some hallow main branches off of the trunk. My tree guy is going to take all the limbs and brush off and leave the main trunk and branches for me to drop. On the plus side this should put me into the next level of the firewood hoarders club!!

 

[Trilifter7]

Tree is limbed... Now to get rid of the brush

 

[ScotO]

Looking good brother! You'll be loving that sugar maple, one of my favorites. Seasons a lot slower than other maples, but puts out heat like white oak.....

Pics of it C/S/S when you get it all done!

 

[Paulywalnut]

Big difference between silver and sugar I imagine.
Only have burnt silver maple. Learned something
good today.

 

[Trilifter7]

Looking good brother! You'll be loving that sugar maple, one of my favorites. Seasons a lot slower than other maples, but puts out heat like white oak.....

Pics of it C/S/S when you get it all done!

Thanks Scotty! I'll def show some pics when it's all done. Probably not going to cut and split any of it till later this summer or this fall... Few house projects to take care of first.
Finishing a wood floor in a hallway and downstairs in the stove room so more pics to come there. Also have to seal and insulate my crawl space as soon as it dries up. Pics there for sure bc it will not be fun removing all the soggy Bataan that was pulled down and left down there
On a side note, I did find out 2 of the cords I split from my CL score were actually sugar maple and not Norway maple. They match the same as the tree in my front yard. The CL stuff had the same sweet smell to it as my tree does. Probably doesn't make a big difference but the Sugar is just a tad higher on the BTU scale so I'll take it!!

 

[Woody Stover]

Sad to see it have to come down bc it's been a great looking shade tree in the front yard, but its been coming back weaker and thinner each year and the trunk is becoming hallow and starting to split. Even noticing some hallow main branches off of the trunk

We've got one like that. It's hanging in there so far but it's just a question of time before I'll have to drop it.

Big difference between silver and sugar I imagine.
Only have burnt silver maple.

Oh yeah. Hard Maple burns great! Like Scotty says, give it a couple years to dry.

 

[Trilifter7]

Got everything all cleaned up this weekend. Got about a half a cord from the limbs and branches. Gonna be a little bit before I cut the trunk down but should end up with a little over a cord from it all

 

[Trilifter7]

Looks like ants had been busy in the tree. While cutting some of the limbs up I found a hollowed out army of ants Must have been thousands of them in a 6" limb I was bucking up!

 

[Blue2ndaries]

Nice work Tri! Looks like a lot of decent sized branches that can simply be cut and don't require splitting.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Nice work. Cutting up the trunk is usually more fun than messing with the limbs. Seems like the wood piles up a bit faster too.

 

[Trilifter7]

Nice work Tri! Looks like a lot of decent sized branches that can simply be cut and don't require splitting.

Thanks Blue! There is at least half a cord of limb wood there that can go straight to the stack!

 

[Trilifter7]

Nice work. Cutting up the trunk is usually more fun than messing with the limbs. Seems like the wood piles up a bit faster too.

Thanks Dennis! Yea it will def be more fun once I get to that trunk! Nice thing about the limbs is I can skip splitting and toss them right on the stacks.

 

[Trilifter7]

I was wondering how big of a round you guys keep before you start splitting them? I've been splitting anything over about 7-8 inches. I'm afraid any bigger and it won't dry out well enough.

 

[red oak]

I was wondering how big of a round you guys keep before you start splitting them? I've been splitting anything over about 7-8 inches. I'm afraid any bigger and it won't dry out well enough.

Nice work on that maple for sure! You're right that the larger rounds won't dry out as well as the splits. Anything over 6 inches usually gets split, but I've been known to leave larger if the piece is particularly hard to split. If it's nice and straight I'll split smaller also.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I was wondering how big of a round you guys keep before you start splitting them? I've been splitting anything over about 7-8 inches. I'm afraid any bigger and it won't dry out well enough.

We like to keep a few of those 6-7" rounds as they are nice for holding the fire a bit longer when it is needed. Most generally we'll keep 4" or 5" on down as rounds and just a few bigger ones. We keep our wood in the stack at least 3 years and have no problem drying it.

 

[Trilifter7]

We like to keep a few of those 6-7" rounds as they are nice for holding the fire a bit longer when it is needed. Most generally we'll keep 4" or 5" on down as rounds and just a few bigger ones. We keep our wood in the stack at least 3 years and have no problem drying it.

Thanks Dennis. I won't get to this wood for 4 years so ill keep an eye on it and check a few pieces in the next couple years.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

4 years, no problem.

 

[Trilifter7]

4 years, no problem.

I measured a few pieces today and nothing is over 7". Most rounds were 5-6" with the biggest ones being 7". I checked the ones I put on the rick to be split and they were 8" and up so I think I will still split those