Yesterday I was a little “down in the dumps” and bummed out about a missed mulberry score that didn’t pan out. Today I came across this large silver maple out to the road for free, close to home to boot. Unfortunately I didn’t have a saw with me and nothing to split the larger rounds with. I grabbed the few ugly pieces I could (looks like someone else already started helping themselves) I’m hoping to score a few larger rounds anyway as the week progresses. This is the first silver maple I’ve had since... years ago probably. Surprisingly the enormous rounds from the trunk weren’t even rotted in the center too. I’ll take it!
Nice score. Tons and tons of nice wood in the limbs. I have plenty of Silver mixed in my stacks. I split it big. Sweet
I was just texting my neighbor and the plan is to meet up tomorrow after work to hit the score together. He could use the wood more than me (I think he has about 4 cords at the moment) If I end up with just a face cord out of this I’ll be happy enough.
Nice find! An unexpected score always cures the pain of a lost one...i know all too well. Those trunk sections should sledge and wedge rather easily if you cant noodle. Just a PITA trying to position them. Im appreciating SM more and more for its fast drying.
I’m hoping those rounds pop right apart. In my experience it’s a 50/50 shot whether or not they give me trouble quartering them with a maul. It’s kind of funny this magically popped up. Just this morning I brought over a cord of ash to my uncle, and this silver maple will be a good filler for the new hole in my wood yard
These are from last November. Tried Isocore but wasnt happening. I think the monster maul may have split some. Sledge and wedge was last resort. Couldnt noodle as i didnt wanna make a mess. Wood from this has been getting used since late August .
Agh. You’ve got me scared now I think I’ll go grab my splitter back from my uncle tomorrow just in case. My neighbor will get a kick out of it anyway since he’s a strict hand splitter.
Or if not, and you can cut a little notch in them with the saw, (2-3" deep) then the sledge/wedge routine (or even just the Isocore) will pop 'em in half/quarters...a lot less mess to clean up than 100% noodling...less noise too.
Dont be scared. Its not elm! Few whacks on the wedge in the center check and it should pop. May have some slight grain twist or be straight grained. Hopefully straight
I’ll get through it one way or another. It would be very strange of me having driven 60 miles round trip last weekend to grab a load of elm from buZZsaw BRAD , and wimp out on silver maple 5 minutes from home because I was worried about how hard it would be to split
I'd say it's probably not common to have a nice solid base. All the big ones I've been into have rot or are hollow. I don't recall silver being problematic to split either.
Not quite a full load but it’ll do for a Monday night. I made sure the neighbor’s square body Chevy was loaded against the bump stops though. This was without a doubt the nastiest silver maple I’ve ever worked with. Grain as straight as Ramen noodles. I split the bulk of the pieces on the large side, considering how fast it dries (and burns) I don’t know when it’ll see my stove but definitely no sooner than fall 2022.
Wavy grain indicated tiger/curly maple. Makes beautiful lumber. Did it look like this: From firewood to ash shovel handle
That's gorgeous stuff. The wood I got yesterday wasn't quite that curly, but it definitely gave my 25 ton splitter a workout.
Update. Shoulder season is winding down fast here in central Connecticut. If I had to guess, I’m down to my last dozen or so fires before letting the oil heat take over. I have plenty of other shoulder wood but I’ve been itching to know, is this silver maple dry enough to burn yet? It’s been top covered for just about 6 months. So tonight I brought in a dozen splits from the backyard. I grabbed the biggest 2 and halved them. Both were exactly 20% MC on my meter. Long story short, 6 months can be sufficient to dry silver maple. I wonder if I had cut it in the late winter and let it dry 6 months in the summer, would it have dried even further?
Id say yes. I scored some in December 2019 and is was below 20% the following September and not in an ideal location either for sun and wind, but undercover.
Wish I could say the same. Over night lows here are mid to upper 40's and below for as long as they forecast. I let the oil come on a bit a week or so ago and it pained me to the point of transferring more wood to the basement. Silver gets light on me fast so the longer it sits after 6-8 mo the more I want to get it inside to burn.
