Great score/(scores) Sounds like you'll soon be getting way ahead Next you need to find a place to store & keep dry , several years supply of CSS firewood. Pictures
@firecracker_77 - I like the way you think! Its nice to know that the wood that I will be using this winter is already split, now its hoarding time! I will definitely help this guy out if he hooks me up! @My IS heats my home - Yep, ibuprofen is my friend! I did have a fleeting thought of what happens if he dumps a ton on me.... pffft yeah, like that's a problem! I do have a big male German Shepherd. Hes a big sweetie, but no one has to know that! @red oak - This is hard Maple (Black Maple), so I'm planning on letting it season for a couple years. If I get the Ash in time, I might need it to stretch out the stacks in the spring, but I'm hoping that wont happen. I still need to *stacking smilie* as soon as I can. @Paul bunion - Get him to cut consistent? I'm just happy to have a source! That would be awesome though. He used to do firewood, so his cuts aren't too bad. They are usually double or triple length, I can work around that! @papadave - A saw buck would be nice. @Shawn Curry - I will check out your DIY post. @Gary_602z - I think I'm going to try and get it on the property first. @bogydave - Yep, the where to store it part has become a more pressing issue. I have been collecting little amounts of hard maple lately and have a small stack of it. Suddenly my little stack seems silly. Now I have to decide if I start over in a new place or try to work it in. I have a place in mind for long term storage, but it has weeds taller than me there right now. I might have to clear that out sooner than I thought. I'm hoping for the best guys! I'm just glad to have some friends to talk to about it. Most other people just stare at me blankly when I bring up this stuff! Here's a couple of pics from last nights little haul.
Holy score! If for whatever reason you become unhappy with him, can you see if he'll drop his wood in Southeastern Pa? If his company pays him to drop wood it could work out well for him monetarily - all he has to do is get on 80 for awhile. All kidding aside, I just emailed the arborist from the company that took my tree down to see if they'll drop some wood since I've been a customer. Looks great man!
That's not that funny. The way this guy talked, he is the owner and is doing jobs in a lot of different places. I dont know if this is true or not, but he claims that he has guys in Texas selling cord wood for 400 dollars a load. He did say that there is no money in firewood in our area because people are willing to do the work.
That's slightly open ended. I mentioned it and he didn't seem opposed to it. I think he will if its not too far out of his way. I'm two miles from the wood dump, so it wouldn't be too much out of the way. If he does, I will slip him something for gas and trouble.
On a side note, I think I'm in love! This wood splits so nice and easy! I wasn't big on Maple, but this stuff is having me reconsider.
I'm confused. What do you mean "sorry for the squash". We made "potato boats" (like tater boats at Apple bees) out of some last week that were awesome! Anyway, THANKS! You can bring more if you have too many!
My axe has yet to meet any hard maple, but from what I've heard, it can be difficult to split. The bark didn't look quite as I expected it to for sugar or black. You might have Norway on your hands there. The axe goes though that like a hot knife through butta.
Soft maple has been hit or miss for me. I've run into some awfully nasty yard bird red maple and some is like butter. Wait till you find a corkscrew one. You won't be having fun.
Yeah, I could see that too. Its hard to tell because the leaves between Sugar, Black, and Norway look very similar. I dont recall seeing the flowery thing that is on the Norway, but the seeds look the same. Getting info about Norway is like pulling teeth. Some sources say that it is a hard maple and some say that it is a soft maple. The only BTU value that I saw applied to Norway is from here http://dr-andrew-j-smith.xomba.com/characteristics_of_various_firewood but who knows if that's reliable. I guess we'll have to just wait and see.
Norway is neither soft maple nor hard maple. http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/differences-between-hard-maple-and-soft-maple/
According to the article, everything is a soft maple unless its sugar or black. But it doesn't mention Norway at all. At the end of the day, I'm burning it, not making furniture with it, so, the only thing I care about is if I'm wasting time on a poor BTU wood or not. One thing I noticed with this research is that the "facts" about firewood in general are all over the board about hardness, BTU, and such so much that the only good way to tell fact from fiction is to look for the commonalities between info and how they relate to other data around them. Then you can make an educated guess about what your dealing with. Sorry Paul, I dont mean to sound like I'm going off on you about this. I was getting frustrated earlier today about deciphering the info while trying to accurately learn about wood identification with misrepresented blog information out there makes the job a bit more annoying. I feel like I need to become a biologist with some of these species.
