Old Sugar Maple Splits

[rideau]

I'm down to the last face cord of the sugar maple c/s/s in my basement over 35 years ago, when we built the house.

Wood isn't weathered (been inside the wholetime), looks like the day it was split, no checking. Dried nice and slowly from the moment it was cut.

Only have a few inches of topsoil on a limestone base, so my densely wooded lot produces dense trees. I recently brought a few splits of this nice old wood up from the basement as a treat, since the season is almost over. This split has a radius of 7 or 8 inches. Want to count the rings?

 

[swagler85]

Wow now that's seasoned

 

[raybonz]

I'm down to the last face cord of the sugar maple c/s/s in my basement over 35 years ago, when we built the house.

Wood isn't weathered (been inside the wholetime), looks like the day it was split, no checking. Dried nice and slowly from the moment it was cut.

Only have a few inches of topsoil on a limestone base, so my densely wooded lot produces dense trees. I recently brought a few splits of this nice old woodView attachment 96887 up from the basement as a treat, since the season is almost over. This split has a radius of 7 or 8 inches. Want to count the rings?

Man that isn't wood it's gold Great firewood!

Ray

 

[PapaDave]

Want to count the rings?

I got tired at 5.....how many are there?

 

[ScotO]

I'm betting that stuff is fun to burn....but it'd be sad at the same time. Kinda like an era of your time here on earth passing.....
It's amazing how long the stuff lasts (and how good it looks) when you keep it out of the weather!

 

[rideau]

I got tired at 5.....how many are there?

Hmm. I hadn't actually counted them, so went back to the original, higher resolution picture and started counting. Eyes got a bit bleary, but about 120..maybe slightly more.

Nice dense wood I have, burns hot and long, especially my Ironwood (Hophornbeam). Don't seem to need as many cords as other folks do to heat my home.

 

[HDRock]

I have some kiln dried red oak boards 41 years young

 

[nrford]

I'm down to the last face cord of the sugar maple c/s/s in my basement over 35 years ago, when we built the house.

Wood isn't weathered (been inside the wholetime), looks like the day it was split, no checking. Dried nice and slowly from the moment it was cut.

Only have a few inches of topsoil on a limestone base, so my densely wooded lot produces dense trees. I recently brought a few splits of this nice old woodView attachment 96887 up from the basement as a treat, since the season is almost over. This split has a radius of 7 or 8 inches. Want to count the rings?

If that piece is Hard Maple I'll eat it. That's ASH.

 

[rideau]

Sorry to disappoint you but that is definitely sugar maple.

 

[rideau]

Well, at least you won't need any syrup to go with it.

Sorry to disappoint you but that is sugar maple. I am quite familiar with my sugar maple...my woods are predominantly sugar maple, beech and ironwood. You really cannot mistake a maple for an ash. The bark's different, the growth's is different, the leaves are sure as heck different, the weight is different, the grain of the wood is different. . I am 100 % certain that is sugar maple. I saw it alive, c/s/s it, have been burning it. Ash is so different it's not even funny.

I am quite adept at identifying the trees growing on my property: sugarmaple, beech, hemlock, ash, paper birch, white pine, hophornbeam, hickory, cherry, basswood (one), tuliptree (one, soon to be none), cedar, apple, american elm, and white oak.

 

[HDRock]

Ash ? NO

 

[Waulie]

Those are some nice old splits there.

While I can't say 100% what it is, I can say 100% what it isn't and that is ash.

It's cold here tonight, so I plopped in my last big split of ironwood for the year and filled the rest up with sugar maple. Totally blue flame, and it's toasty in here!

 

[nrford]

Well, at least you won't need any syrup to go with it.

Sorry to disappoint you but that is sugar maple. I am quite familiar with my sugar maple...my woods are predominantly sugar maple, beech and ironwood. You really cannot mistake a maple for an ash. The bark's different, the growth's is different, the leaves are sure as heck different, the weight is different, the grain of the wood is different. . I am 100 % certain that is sugar maple. I saw it alive, c/s/s it, have been burning it. Ash is so different it's not even funny.

I am quite adept at identifying the trees growing on my property: sugarmaple, beech, hemlock, ash, paper birch, white pine, hophornbeam, hickory, cherry, basswood (one), tuliptree (one, soon to be none), cedar, apple, american elm, and white oak.

Check my credentials Sir. I have seen millions of board feet of both Ash and Hard Maple in 20 plus in the hardwood industry, way more than you'll see in your bush .That is not Hard Maple no way no how!! Show us the bark and sideview of that split then we will know.

 

[KodiakII]

Perhaps you are looking at 30 year old oxidized Maple not something just out of the forest. It certainly doesn't look like any Ash we have around here. But to be truthful the end profile of the bark doesn't look like Sugar Maple to me either.

 

[nrford]

The color and texture of the wood scream ASH, I don't care if it's 500 years old ash still looks like ash.

 

[jdp1152]

Out of curiosity, why would you keep css wood in your basement for 35 years?

 

[rideau]

Out of curiosity, why would you keep css wood in your basement for 35 years?

That's a long story. I designed my home with 5 Rumford Fireplaces. Spent a long time looking for a mason to build them. Since I was going to have all those fireplaces, I needed firewood.

Area for the foundation was blasted. I inspected the site, then went home to NYS. Came back to check the house as the framework was done. Roof on, and I cut/split/stack a nice maple that was too close to the house for comfort; that way I'd have some firewood stacked and seasoning. Go to put the tools in the basement, look over at the huge chimney foundation, and think something isn't right. Well, somethings were not right, including the chimney foundation was not aligned with the framing above for the chimney.

At that point I really regretted framing for the big chimney, since I no longer trusted the jokers to build the fireplaces. So I filled in the framework and built the house without any chimneys. Meanwhile, I had all that nice wood. So I took it into the basement and stacked it against the chimney foundation, since it was beautiful, bug free maple. There is sat for three decades while we brought up the children and put them through college. When I retired, I decided to put in a soapstone stove, so started s/s downed trees. Since 2005, I have burned a few pieces of the maple in the basement from time to time.

That's the story of that tree. I love/hate burning it now that the pile is diminished....burns very nicely, but i'll be sorry when it's gone.

 

[rideau]

Perhaps you are looking at 30 year old oxidized Maple not something just out of the forest. It certainly doesn't look like any Ash we have around here. But to be truthful the end profile of the bark doesn't look like Sugar Maple to me either.

Well, I know beyond any ounce of doubt that I am right about the tree, so I really don't feel any need to prove it. I was just trying to share some firewood I love with other members who can appreciate a beautiful piece of firewood. Now I'm sorry I bothered. Obviously, I can't photograph the bark and split side of that piece, as it is long since burned.

One cannot mistake ash bark for maple bark, especially 100 year old ash. I'm looking out the window now at two ash that are about 117 years old, in the family home back yard in Westchester, NY. They were planted when the house was built in 1894. The ridges in the bark intersect into elongated diamonds everywhere. Maple bark doesn't do that at all.

I love sugar maple, both live and processed. Third floor bedrooms are sugar maple...floors and all trim. I'm pretty darn familiar with the wood. Have processed many over the years that have been blown over or hit by lightning. Just took down two 31 inch diameter maples a year ago. One was 10 feet from the house and growing over it, so the top forester in Ontario came and took it down. I guess he doesn't know sugar maple either.

Don't intend to let a mistaken individual here distract from my enjoyment of this firewood. Next time I bring some up from the basement, if it is daytime and a nice day and I remember and the recollection of the doubting isn't too irritating, I'll take some pictures of the end and side grain and bark of a the splits, and try to remember to post them. That'll probably be next year, since I'm not going to waste any of that wood now that winter is gone.

I did post a picture of Ironwood bark for someone this year. There is a big maple (not ash) growing next to that Ironwood. I'll try to find the picture and see if it's visable in the posted picture. Same bark as is in the basement.

I can't get over how stupid this is. That maple is maple as surely as a white birch is white birch, or a beech is beech. You just cannot mistake the trees.

Addendum: The post with the ironwood pictures has a clear large photo of the ironwood and a maple growing together by my woodpile. The maple, obviously, is the bigger tree. Post title is "Two 31 inch diameter sugar maple...." if you/re interested.

 

[rideau]

Check my credentials Sir. I have seen millions of board feet of both Ash and Hard Maple in 20 plus in the hardwood industry, way more than you'll see in your bush .That is not Hard Maple no way no how!! Show us the bark and sideview of that split then we will know.

It's long since burned.

Perhaps next time I bring some up from the basement.

 

[nrford]

Whatever...... smart guy. You Canadians usually think your smarter than anyone else anyway. You win you burned the evidence.

 

[rideau]

I thought I'd share the PM nrford felt compelled to send. Can't imagine why he didn't feel comfortable posting it here.

"You can think what you want, and bring up some more from downstairs...but 35 years ago you piled ASH with some hard maple now you old mind does not remember that but that's what happened because I am a trained lumber inspector and that piece of ash never was nor could be hard maple, I have seen way more wood than your old butt ever thought about and YOU ARE WRONG. " nrford

 

[raybonz]

I thought I'd share the PM nrford felt compelled to send. Can't imagine why he didn't feel comfortable posting it here.

"You can think what you want, and bring up some more from downstairs...but 35 years ago you piled ASH with some hard maple now you old mind does not remember that but that's what happened because I am a trained lumber inspector and that piece of ash never was nor could be hard maple, I have seen way more wood than your old butt ever thought about and YOU ARE WRONG. " nrford

Whatever it is it is great firewood thanks for sharing my friend!

Ray

 

[Waulie]

Oh come on guys. It really doesn't matter. I bet the stuff burns great.

That, and there's no way it is ash.

 

[Michael Golden]

Don't get your panties in a bunch nrford! Keep posting stories like this rideau everyone else enjoys hearing them.

 

[Diabel]

Well, I just pulled some splits from my wood pile, one happened to be sugar maple and one ash.