Hey all I just scored a decent amount of hard maple. Probably just under a cord. I was wondering how it keeps in the round. I have it up on elevated pallets and only quartered the stuff I couldn't easily lift so anything under 18" or so is whole. I've had maple before but have always split it right away. I'm 3 if not 4 years ahead so unless I need to I may not split this for awhile. So will it keep OK and will it be easier or harder to split if it sits? Did the same with my last score which was mainly locust and hickory. The locust was slightly tougher to split but doesn't even think about getting punky. The hickory was easier to split I thought, no rot as it was all up off the ground but I could see it going south if I waited much longer.
Maple will keep in the round for a long time. Of course, this supposes you are keeping it dry. Not a huge difference in how it splits after it dries out a bit so you should not have problems. Also, being 3-4 years ahead makes this a sweet deal for you. Benefits of being ahead are fantastic!
Green it splits easier (usually) it will get tougher & harder when dry, which will make splitting by hand tougher.
From experience I figured it would hold up OK but was worth asking. Not covering but up high on pallets. This score is from 2 houses down the block. We had a vicious storm and though this tree didn't come down it was just too damaged to leave. I took only the cleanest stuff, no crotches nothing that will give me any trouble. Another benefit of being ahead is the ability to be a little choosy.
Had tendinitis last year and did very little splitting. Rounds I had sitting held up well uncovered for the 12+ months I sat on them. Also had some oak in that pile I didn't previously mention. The sap wood in oak can be iffy. When I split it a couple weeks ago most of the bark off came off and it's all good but would not have wanted to wait much longer on that either. I don't think the maple sap wood will do that. If it starts to concern me I'll go ahead and split it.
Stuff was squirting water when I stuck the pickaroon or Fiskar's in it. Those rounds will most definitely lose water. The rounds I just split that had been sitting were checked up pretty good.
I agree it will stay if covered but I assure you it will not keep if it is not covered. I've seen it more than once, hard maple will go bad in the round like birch does, now quartered might help some but sealed in the round is no good.
Those rounds that are checked don't mean much. All it means is that the ends are dried. Says nothing about what has happened in the middle.
Oh I know. They're weren't ready for burning and probably never would be if left in the round but they lost water.
If red maple is any indication it will rot in rounds in a year or so. Striped maple and silver maple is far less a period of time. I'd rather top cover to be safe than risk it.
Somewhat mixed opinions here. I'll keep my eye on it. Just moved another 1/2 cord into my shed with another 1/2 to go so I've made some room in the last few weeks. First sign of trouble and I will split it up and stack it.
Might just be the areas. I know that where I live there's a lot of moisture that never really leaves the ground, so I tend to take the safe rather than sorry path with most of my wood.
+1 I cut a bunch of silver maple into 4-6 inch wedges and stacked them vertically with kindling sticks between them. The faces checked like crazy and I thought they were drying pretty quickly. After a good rain, the checks just closed back up as though they never were there. I ended up splitting all these into chunks when I bought my SS. Recently broke one open that was well checked on both sides to find the middle was still 25% MC.
