Yep the wood is nice. The trees themselves can be a real nightmare from an urban forestry standpoint.
Yes it would need to be I be done some 40” before with my 48” grandberg and 066. Also did a large white pine crotch with my 72” grandberg and 090.
The guy I work with occasionally had a big one taken down at his rental property. He saved a big chunk of the trunk because he wants to get it milled for a countertop. It could have some interesting grain because you can see a good amount of twist in it. ‘ceptin he can’t find anyone close by with a mill big enough. The log has been on a trailer for over two years now. I’m guessing it’s probably starting to get spalted or worse.
depending how bad he wants a countertop he can buy a bar like this for about 300$ and another 3-400$ for a mill if anyone has a saw big enough to use it. Have an auxiliary oiler and tank so oiler isn’t a problem. I’d say your going to want a 70cc or bigger saw and a 70 will be slow but it only looking to make 3-4 cuts it would do it.
As you can tell, although some will scoff at silver or even red maple, most will burn it and be very contented.
At that amount of time on a trailer up off the ground it might have some really great spalting. I don’t think it would be rotten past wood working use. At least here in Michigan.
I have tried several different times to cut Silver Maple that was in a brush pile with several feet the main trunks exposed & not in contact with the ground, it was always punky. These were all 2-3 year old years. I have had nice solid rounds stacked on pallets outside they were punky in 2 years. This has been my experience with Silver Maple. Maybe if the logs were cut green & put on a trailer they would not rot but around here it seems that Silver Maple goes punky pretty quickly if not split/slabbed pretty quickly. I am curious to see how my neighbors project turns out. Last winter he had a bunch of logging done: oak, ash, walnut, maple, hickory, hackberry & some maple. He hauled all the logs up around his sheds & just piled them hap hazardously on the ground. The oak won’t be a problem but it’s the others I am curious about. He intends to mill them to create lumber for his new house.
Mayhaps it will turn out okay for him. My guess is it won’t. Obviously it would have been ideal for him to stack them all neatly in a pile on top of a couple junk stringer logs and even then sometimes the bottom half of those bottom logs can go a bit off. As they say you can lead a horse to water and such.
I can probably help you out with that this year. I have alot that needs cut/cleaned up. I'll for sure keep it in mind.
