wood ID, curly maple?

[OhioBurner©]

Well I cut down what I thought was oak, but without leaves I dont really know an oak from a maple.

I tried to split it then and there with my maul but couldnt even bust a small round? It was about 20 degrees, I thought wood was suppose to be easier to split green and frozen but I couldnt even get a 10" round to pop. So its sat there drying for about two months now and starting to crack on the ends. I tried to split it today with the new fiskars... I busted it open and the grain is all wavy, and very pale white.

Funny thing is two weekends ago I was cutting and fell what I thought was a maple but not sure, it was pretty smooth grey bark. The base of the tree though was starting to have a scaly appearance. When I stacked it next to what I thought was the oak I realized the biggest round looked just like some of the rounds I had there, and the small rounds from what I thought was an oak were smooth gray just like this one. And they both had some dark spots in them around towards the outer edge that are oblong shape all the way around in some rounds like the numerals on a clock. In any case I think they are the same, whatever they are. Just one was much smaller than the other.

Here are a few pics, sorry the grain didnt come out on the cell phone pic. The other pic shows the two different trees side by side. The row on the left was what I thought was the oak a few months ago, and on the right a smaller tree that I think is just a younger one of the same. On the left the biggest round is 18" and on the right the biggest round is 12".

 

[Flatbedford]

It is very hard to tell from just the bark. The bark can also be very different form one place on the tree to another. The younger bark is always smoother.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Looks like Smokin Jay's favorite to me-"Hi Ho Silver" Maple!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That surely looks like soft maple but it should have split very easy.

 

[WOODBUTCHER]

Since I don't see any red stain in the heartwood, I'd say Silver Maple.

WoodButcher

 

[Captain Hornet]

Looks like water oak to me. Thin bark, not too rough, white stringy wood that is a job to split by hand. Water oak I tell ya. David

 

[OhioBurner©]

Sorry those pics just dont have enough detail. I need a camera!

But I made a mistake. I thought I had split both but I had only split the rounds on the left side. They were all wavy and hard to split. The rounds on the right hand side I split tonight. Same very bright white but no wavyness at all. They did have striation side to side, hard to explain but kind of 'digital' looking. But not curly like the first one, and much easier to split. I'll save a few rounds for a bit in hopes to get a camera soon.

 

[cptoneleg]

I don't know what my maple is either, but if You don't mindI can post some pictures here tommorow hope its sugar more BTUs but i bet we can burn it.


Good Luck

 

[leonardo]

that's red maple. Latin name acer rubra. one of the easiest to split by hand there is. don't know why you had trouble. on big rounds just circle the piece, taking off slices as you go. curly maple is not a species. it describes the grain pattern that is exposed when you saw some rather rare maple logs into lumber.

 

[OhioBurner©]

Yeah I dont mind.

Is there any other wood that would look like mine that is as curly as curly maple? Because if not then I can't see how that isnt curly maple. As per BTU content I dont see curly maple on any lists is more like soft maple or sugar maple? It was very heavy, seemed to load down the trailer more similar to BL. As for the stuff on the right possibly being silver maple, does silver maple when split have 'digital' looking striations that run horizontally?

 

[cptoneleg]

Mabe there are still some maple experts still around here tell me what flavor I have, The splits have are from a month ago, I was going to take pictures of some fresh but it won't quit raining. Some around here call these sugar maple, but i'm not sure.

 

[Cate68]

The blue-gray tint to the bark in that top picture tells me it is silver maple. But I could be wrong...

 

[nrford]

Soft Maple!