Anyone have experience with this? I have a bazillion red maples on my woodlot and I want to thin a lot of them. I really haven't burned much red maple and especially not small ones. I occasionally find a deadfall big enough to split. But these trees are 3 inch to 5 inch DBH and they often grow in groups from one root source. Might be half dozen or more from one stump. I do know one thing... don't leave any on the ground or it will go punky quick. Will these small 'rounds' season in less than a year and be worth burning? I am cutting them to split length. About same as split red maple or not? Anyone like red maple?
I have a lot of spindly red maple that grows under a power line easement and it grows the same way you describe. I don't spend much time going after it however I have cut and stacked some in the past and it burns well. If you're concerned about the unsplit 'skinnies' not seasoning in a year, an old trick for unsplit small rounds is to use a debarker (or just the chainsaw) and remove 2-3 strips of bark along the sides of the rounds. Helps with the seasoning of the unsplit small rounds. I do get larger red maple trees from time to time when scrounging and will always take them (they burn well). It's a mid-range firewood that is slightly better than white birch.
I’m not sure a 5 inch round of red maple would dry in one yr. Maybe try it on half of the wood as an experiment and split the other half for kindling size wood? I like red maple as firewood- you won’t get crazy burn time like oak but it’s a good moderate btu wood that dries in one year no doubt. Plus, as you said, it’s very plentiful.
Most plentiful tree here in Connecticut. Ill take it when easy but dont go out of my way for it unless quality wood. Take a shot at them. Wont know til you try. Easy on the back for sure.
Heated the blue shack I was living in for awhile with it. Stuff we had cut in February and harvested in late fall. Mixed it in with some hiss wood I think it was elm or willow. Maybe Gum kinda had a reddish tint. It wasn’t cherry. But be prepared to cut a lot and then cut some more and you’ll still have a hard time getting a ranger load.
I too am burning red maple right now. It is very plentiful here, and as said, its a great shoulder season option. At 3-5" Id split em once and burn them next winter.
These small sizes are, typically, smaller than I would split. Anyone got experience with these seasoning in, say, ten months without splitting? I think I will do a test; split the 4-5" ones and then moisture test them vs. the others after seasoning.
