Hi, I am a new member from Long Island, NY and just received a truckload of new wood from a local Tree Service Co. I have what should amount to a cord and a half of the wood shown below. I was told it is maple but I am not sure due to some pictures I saw in this forum. This wood is impossible to split with an Ax. Even the small rounds shown are impervious to my X27. The fibers seem to be twisted and thus multiple wedges are needed to be driven completely through. I have never had trouble splitting very large rounds in the past and split multiple cords per year with just an Ax and never had trouble with maple. Is it really maple? I guess I have to get a hydraulic splitter or maybe wait for it to dry a bit. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, John Jotul C 550 Husqvarna 353 Fiskars X27
I was thinking a maple....silver. Most of my silver splits easily but a limb I took down last summer split like some of my elm! Welcome aboard!
Welcome to FHC JRV .... Couple of those bucked logs appear to be maybe a pin oak, as smooth skin as it is. But the description and that other piece reminds me of cottonwood.
Looks like red maple to me or possibly silver as schlot stated above. I've had some maples split easily by hand and then some silver maple yard trees that were so twisted they put my hydraulics to the test. Welcome to the forum! I'm also from NY, only about 7 hours west of LI.
My experience with Maple is with the "soft" variety, or Silver Maple as its often called. Most of the time it pops quite well with the x27. It is a beautiful wood, and I like cutting it. But I have encountered a couple of trees that I could not split with the x27, no matter how hard I tried. It was before I had hydraulics, so I had to bust out the sledge hammer and wedges. If you don't have access to a hydraulic splitter, you may want to give the wedges a try--not as much fun as the Fiskars, but it should work.
Looks like yard grown red maple. Add a few knots and give it a twisty grain and it can become rather difficult to split.
Welcome to the hood JRV -You're gonna like it here, I guarantee it. It does indeed look like red maple to me as well. We'll have to wait until Eric VW puts you through a litany of tests this eve before being certain. In the meantime, please gather leaves, solar telemetry images, a blind-fold (so that you may describe feel more accurately) rinse your nostrils with a saline solution (for the smell test), just to name a few---he'll be along before you know it----and again Welcome!
Welcome aboard, JRV! Great place to get advice and have questions answered. I am afraid that I am of not help in this particular matter, but rest assured, we will all get to the bottom of this. Just wanted to say glad to have you with us.
Can't give definitive ID, but I was denied on some ~15" sugar maple rounds last fall with Fiskars. Ended up feeding it to the splitter. Doesn't look like the silver maples here.
Welcome to FHC JRV from a fellow (former) Long Islander I grew up in Wading River....not familiar with Great River tho. Also, not familiar with red maple, never cut any.... Not too sure about cottonwood, if there's even any up there...... Too bad it's not later in the season to be able to see some leaves. I've seen that reddish color under the outer layer of bark on sassafras, but unless it has that root beer tinge to it, it's not..... But one thing is for sure- if you can get it split somehow, you've got a nice mixed bag of firewood:stacke: Oh, and look out for that Ashwatcher He loves to sport around in his wood cuttin thongs
Only after dark armed with my hookaroon.... And that is a tough call-not sure I even have cottonwood here??? Someone will make the definitive call...
Welcome to the Forum JRV. The split round looks like it was noodled to separate so it looses any telltale grain structures on the open faces. If this stuff is really hard to split and someone thought it was a maple(leaves are similar but easily distinguished) - you may have Sweetgum. That's not a guaranteed ID - some more pictures would be helpful
Welcome!! Ive never been able to split maple. The grain always seems to be twisted. Ive also confused sweet gum with maple when there are no leaves around. But Im leaning toward maple too.
Not hickory. Maple family. It looks NOTHING like the god forsaken cottonwood trees that grow around me like weeds - the bark or the wood isn't even in the same ballpark (in my opinion, anyway). Once dry, it will burn, no doubt about it.
The bark is nowhere thick enough to be cottonwood, at least the stuff they call cottonwood around here. Ash is supposed to be easy to split but I had to use wedges to get through 12 inch long rounds of it when I started to work on a "yard tree". My guess is you are dealing with a yard tree there.
