Maple dry time

[Cutterman]

Gents, can you advide me on the proper amount of time needed to dry maple before burning ? I live in lower New York State about 100 miles NW of NYC. I currently keep my stacks in rows of two deep with the top covered by a tarp. Can you also recomend a good moisture meter as well ?

Thanks, Joe

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum Joe.


Soft maple will dry in 6 months. Hard maple needs a year. Two rows deep should not pose a problem and neither will the tarp. Hopefully you have stacked it off the ground and out where it can get wind. That is best. I can not recommend a MM as I've never had one nor felt that one was needed. My advice is to get 2-3 years ahead on your wood supply and don't worry about moisture content. The wood will burn much, much better if it has 2-3 years to dry. Oak? For sure 3 years on that one.

 

[Cutterman]

Thanks Savage, how do I tell the difference between soft Maple and hard maple ?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Best to have someone there show you as it is always easier to learn right on the spot. But for sure you can tell the soft maple when it is still young as it will have a smooth gray bark. Hard maple won't have this. There will also be a difference in the leaf. My bet is that you probably have hard maple there or some call it sugar maple or rock maple. You can also do a google search and then choose images (on the left hand side of the page after the search).

 

[Cutterman]

Just looked it up based on the bark, its hard Maple. Its dificult to split with an Axe too ! Good stuff to burn ?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yes, that is another telltale sign. Soft maple splits extremely easy. Not so easy with hard maple. Good stuff to burn? Excellent stuff indeed!

 

[ScotO]

Hard maple is right up there with the oaks, but it seasons in one year instead of two or three. Great stuff, get all that you can!!

 

[gyrfalcon]

Just looked it up based on the bark, its hard Maple. Its dificult to split with an Axe too ! Good stuff to burn ?

Rock maple is also heavy in the hand, soft maples like red or silver are pretty lightweight..

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

Is there a big difference in BTU output between the hard and and the softer maples?

 

[gyrfalcon]

Is there a big difference in BTU output between the hard and and the softer maples?

Yes! I forget the numbers, but hard maple is a hotter-burning (and longer-burning) wood than the soft maples. How important that is depends on the size of your stove and the coldness of your winters. Soft maples are only good for "shoulder" seasons for me. If you have a big stove, I gather from the folks who have them, you can stuff them with almost anything and get great heat.

 

[ScotO]

Yes Oslo, the soft maples are in line with some of the pines. While the hard maple is right up there with the oaks on the BTU charts. In other words soft maples are not an overnight wood. Hard maple IS.

 

[babzog]

I have to offer up a few counter-points. First, I find sugar maple takes 2 years to season properly. After one year (or more accurately, April - Oct), it still hisses when put in the firebox. Might be my area (valley, very humid in summer). Next, I find that young silver and sugar maple are hard to distinguish. Both have smooth gray bark. The sugar maple will then start to get a rough, furrowed bark whereas the silver maple will acquire a rough bark that looks likes it's peeling (and it will have a more silvery colour than the darker sugar maple. Finally, I've found that both are fairly easy to split when young and both suck to split when mature. Silver maple leaves will be deeply clefted unlike sugar maple (think Canadian flag).

 

[timusp40]

Joe,
Sage advise from some very seasoned burners. You will learn to love these forums as I have and use them often.
Tim

 

[Cutterman]

Thank you Guys, this has been a big help to me. So when we say a year to season a particular type of wood, do you mean 12 months or the March to October time frame ?

Joe

 

[ScotO]

12 months. The sooner you cut and split, the sooner the seasoning starts. Remember, cutting the wood down and leaving it in rounds does not allow seasoning. It starts to truly season when you split it up and stack it. Make you splits around 4x4" for ideal seasoning.

 

[Woody Stover]

hard maple is a hotter-burning (and longer-burning) wood than the soft maples. How important that is depends on the size of your stove and the coldness of your winters. Soft maples are only good for "shoulder" seasons for me. If you have a big stove, I gather from the folks who have them, you can stuff them with almost anything and get great heat.

Good point. That's why I'm splitting my wood to a medium size (and a few med-large.) I have a decent-sized fire box so I can burn overnight even with medium-heat woods if it's not too cold. I can set the air low enough so that they won't burn up too fast. If I want fast heat, I can get several mediums burning fast and hot. For cold nights, I have to go to larger splits of more dense wood.
I understand that Sugar Maple has about the same BTU output as Red Oak, 24M BTU/cord. Red and Silver Maple is around 18 or 19...useful stuff for sure.

The sooner you cut and split, the sooner the seasoning starts

Do it now! Spring is a good time to get wood split and stacked. The lower humidity and good breezes will rapidly remove the easy moisture, then the Summer heat will go to work on the more difficult remaining moisture.

 

[Woody Stover]

Oh yeah, the meter. I got a General at Lowe's but it's kinda bulky. My brother got a HQRP from Amazon; Smaller and more accurate. There's a ton of different ones there...

 

[maplewood]

I burn a lot of red maple. Not the best of hard woods, but it's done well for me for over 25 years.
I store my wood supply indoors, so I've gotten away with March - October seasoning. It finishes in the basement.
Now I cut 2 years ahead for hard wood, 6-12 months for soft wood.
Stacked outdoors on pallets, uncovered, 12" - 24" spacing between ranks, 5' tall, 30' long.
Lots of sun and wind. Bark is usually falling off when I'm ready to throw it into the basement.
If the bark falls off, I don't put that inside. I burn it in a brush pile.

 

[Calentarse]

I just cut down a 70' silver maple that had been planted in my front yard when our neighborhood was made in the 70s. It was a monster with a 5' round tunk at the base. Took us about 4 days to CSS. The trunk was a nightmare; I second someone else's opinion on here that the young stuff pops right open with no strings, the older stuff is hard to split. It's not a stringier grain like with Hard Maple, it's almost like the sapwood is so old it is wavy and doesn't pop open nicely anymore.

Regardless, I just cut this tree down and processed it. I'll be burning most of it in Just under a year, about 11 months. Hopefully it's ready. Not ideal, I know, but I only have a half acre lot in a downtown neighborhood; I can't have 15 cords of wood stockpiled around! Sorry.

 

[Woody Stover]

trunk was a nightmare

Most of the soft Maple I get is yard trees, and they can be nasty with lots of limbs and twisted grain.

about 11 months. Hopefully it's ready.

If you don't split it too big, and cover only the top, should be pretty dry by then. That's one good thing about a cat stove; You don't have to make big splits to slow down the burn, it will still burn slow with 3-4" splits. Very handy if you can't store several years' worth of wood.

 

[Pennsyltucky Chris]

I single stacked Maple in May; it was 14-17% by Late December

 

[weatherguy]

I single stacked Maple in May; it was 14-17% by Late December

I've had similar results with soft maple and ash, split in April and it was under 20% by November.

 

[Pennsyltucky Chris]

I've had similar results with soft maple and ash, split in April and it was under 20% by November.

I swear by the single stack. I had cherry at 14%n in 6 months. I even had red oak in the low 20's (20-24) in 15 months, which I never knew was possible. I got Ash to 15-16 n just 4 months, but it got about 10 hours of sun a day.

You can really do amazing things with single stacking.

 

[Applesister]

I stack all my oak and hickory in single rows. And have constructed wood racks over the years to add to the volume of area for stacking/storage for other trees as well.
Last year I stacked 3 deep on pallets to give myself even more square footage. And that seemed to work for the softer woods.
Single row requires more materials and constant attention to leaning rows. But the upside is the best drying options.
I have some red maples cut in the woods I have to split yet and stack and Im hoping they will drop below 20% by winter.