Cut a small load today, Norway Maple?

[rdust]

One of my wife's co-workers lost a small crab apple tree the other day in one of the storms that came through. It was on her deck so my wife thought it would be nice if I'd go over and cut it out for them.(any reason to run the saw works for me!) The bonus of my good deed was the neighbor had a big maple break about 20' up and fall into the road. The road crew pushed it in to a pile just to clear the road and told the home owner they'd pick the rest up Monday. Good thing I went today since the road crew showed up today just as I was calling it quits. There was a lot of limb wood that I didn't get since it was pushed in a nasty/tangled up heap so I cherry picked the easy stuff.

Anyway I ended up with probably a little less than a cord of mixed wood. The little crab apple, small cherry, a few pieces of mulberry and a decent amount of what I believe is Norway Maple(or red?). Only maple I typically get my hands on is silver so if anyone can confirm I'd appreciate it!

 

[Applesister]

The leaves look more Norway than any of the other maple species. And the seed "keys" look typical Norway. All the other maple seed wings close in toward each other.
If you snap the leaf stem and it has milky sap, its Norway.

 

[paul bunion]

The fact that it has seeds on it now means that it cannot be red or silver. They seed first thing in the spring.

 

[ScotO]

Like PB said above, the reds and silvers seed earlier, the Norway maples are seeding now, and later in summer the sugars will seed. That's definitely Norway maple. Better burning wood than silver or red, but not as good as sugar. Either way, a great score!

I'd be putting that crabapple off to the side and using that for cooking on the firepit or using in the smoker. Best flavoring wood on the planet, IMO....

 

[Backwoods Savage]

rdust, that is a nice looking pile of wood behind that trailer. Lots of work went into that.

 

[rdust]

rdust, that is a nice looking pile of wood behind that trailer. Lots of work went into that.

Thanks, right behind the trailer is a heap of silver maple, it has to be 3-4 cords or more if I had to guess,(picture doesn't do it justice) you can see another heap behind that one that is all red oak. I just started stacking the red oak today, it will probably be over 2 cords if I had to guess.

 

[rdust]

That's definitely Norway maple. Better burning wood than silver or red, but not as good as sugar. Either way, a great score!

That's what I figured, I've never had sugar(hard to believe really) but burn lots of silvers(yard birds). The Norway is clearly more dense than the silver in a side by side compare. I like my simple nail test, if I run my finger nail across the end grain it give me a pretty good idea of what I'm dealing with along with looking at the growth ring spacing.

 

[bogydave]

Nice load
Did the weather cooled down some in your area?
High 80s & above & muggy, make firewood work pretty tough.

 

[rdust]

Nice load
Did the weather cooled down some in your area?
High 80s & above & muggy, make firewood work pretty tough.

Upper 70's the last couple days, not the greatest to work in but can always be worse. A few weeks back I was stacking wood in the 90's, that was not fun. I always say I'm going to do all my wood work in the winter/cool months but for some reason that never works out.

 

[Thistle]

Like PB said above, the reds and silvers seed earlier, the Norway maples are seeding now, and later in summer the sugars will seed. That's definitely Norway maple. Better burning wood than silver or red, but not as good as sugar. Either way, a great score!

I'd be putting that crabapple off to the side and using that for cooking on the firepit or using in the smoker. Best flavoring wood on the planet, IMO....

You got that right! Actually its a toss up between Apple & Cherry for me pretty much,with a very slight nod to Cherry.Just because its much more plentiful around here & my Apple I tend to hoard it & use it very sparingly.I'm sure there's a box or two of it in my garage/shop & at parents acreage that have been there 15 yrs now.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Try doing the work in early morning or after dusk at night before it gets dark, that works out well for me when swinging the ax these days....

 

[Trilifter7]

Nice score RDust!! Def Norway maple... Looks just like the bark and leaves from the one in my front yard. Like Scotty said, it's not as high on the BTU list as sugar but its still a nice hard wood.

 

[rdust]

I'd be putting that crabapple off to the side and using that for cooking on the firepit or using in the smoker. Best flavoring wood on the planet, IMO....

It was a flowering crab apple, not sure if the wood will be as good as an "apple" tree. It does have a decent fragrance though. The house was built in the 40's and I'd bet that tree wasn't planted too long after that. It was probably 16 inches or so at the base. Maybe I'll attempt to count some growth rings before I break it up.

 

[ScotO]

It was a flowering crab apple, not sure if the wood will be as good as an "apple" tree. It does have a decent fragrance though. The house was built in the 40's and I'd bet that tree wasn't planted too long after that. It was probably 16 inches or so at the base. Maybe I'll attempt to count some growth rings before I break it up.

That'll still be good for smoking.....trust me!