# How is Maple to burn / split?



## Keith42 (Apr 1, 2006)

Not sure what kind of maple it is other than the tree has lots of the little helicopter things on it after the thing buds out and starts turning green. Do these maple's burn good or is the wood too soft to mess with? Been tryin' to find some hardwood but everybody keeps tryin' to shove the culls my way, i have never tried burning the maple / elm / sweet gum. Sorry for all the questions and for sure appreciate the replies.


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## lookingtoplant (Apr 1, 2006)

Our bush is mainly filled with sugar maples, and when ever wee have one hit by lightning or dead, we cut it up and they burn just fine.


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## 12guns (Apr 1, 2006)

Not sure, but from what I've read in the past "rock maple" is very hard and makes great firewood. I think there are many different kinds of "soft" maple that may not burn well. Even if the dry out, they may not burn for long. Don't take my word for it, but I think that's right. And sorry, I have no idea how to tell rock maple from others. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, I would like to know as well.


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## sawinredneck (Apr 1, 2006)

Keith42 said:


> Not sure what kind of maple it is other than the tree has lots of the little helicopter things on it after the thing buds out and starts turning green. Do these maple's burn good or is the wood too soft to mess with? Been tryin' to find some hardwood but everybody keeps tryin' to shove the culls my way, i have never tried burning the maple / elm / sweet gum. Sorry for all the questions and for sure appreciate the replies.




I belive you are reffering to silver maple, it's a decent hardwood, about the same as hackberry. It will split like pine until it is seasoned, then splits nice. A decent wood for burning, nice flame, low sparks.
Andy


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## ironhead (Apr 1, 2006)

I have alot of them (silver maple) on my property. I find that its not very hard and it splits easy and burns hot. It also fills my gutters twice a year. Once when they budd and again when the helicopters drop.


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## Newfie (Apr 1, 2006)

The soft maples split easily and burn well. They provide moderate BTU's, not as good as your oaks and sugar maple but comparable to cherry or ash.


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## ShoerFast (Apr 1, 2006)

All I know are the one's Ma taught me.

Were I'm from, there are either hard (sugar) or soft (we called it) if you can lift a flake of bark with yout fingers (or little kid fingers) easly, it's soft maple,,,, still ok to burn, but not as hot as Sugar Maple.

Sugar Maple is also a choice for some butchers as a smoking wood,, cut some small for your grill, wet them so they wont lite, to season stakes and bergers on your grill.

Kevin


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## Bad E (Apr 1, 2006)

I burn almost soft maple exclusivly. It splits well and burns good.


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## Keith42 (Apr 1, 2006)

*maple trees*

Thanks guys for the feed-back, The maple i am talking about is not "silver leaf maple" the trees do not have any silver coloring anywhere on them, i guess it is a regular soft maple, everytime the wind blows hard branches / limbs snap off so it has to be pretty soft stuff. I was wandering if the wood would burn really fast like dryer lint ?? I may give a small maple or two a try and just see how it does. Thanks again.


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## eguinn (Apr 1, 2006)

I have some maple here that the grain looks like the wavy edges of french fries, don`t know what kind it is. If you don`t get the grain direction right when you are trying to split it you have to use a wedge on it to get it to split. The stuff burns well, good heat and lasts quit a while. Over in Wa state they have this crap called vine maple, the stuff grows just like a vine, hence the name. The stuff is harder than hell to cut, splits real well,and burns real hot. The odd thing is it does not get any bigger than 4 to 5 inches around.


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## Gark (Apr 1, 2006)

Have burned nothing but soft maple this winter as that's all that was available last winter (for scavenging). Splits easily, burns hot and fast- very little ash and it coals poorly. Ya have to gather almost twice as much of the stuff for equivalent BTU's of heat as, say, white oak. Ditto what Newfie says.


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## DeanBrown3D (Apr 2, 2006)

Keith,

I get maple and oak and other very hard woods like hickory. I keep all the maple split for my fireplace, where I can top it up when it dies down. I keep all the denser woods, either unsplit or great big split chunks, for the furnace, to maintain a longer burn time.

Dean

ps Sweet Gum is a great wood to burn, once you have split it (or as I do, rip it with a saw).


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## tek9tim (Apr 3, 2006)

eguinn said:


> I have some maple here that the grain looks like the wavy edges of french fries, don`t know what kind it is. If you don`t get the grain direction right when you are trying to split it you have to use a wedge on it to get it to split. The stuff burns well, good heat and lasts quit a while. Over in Wa state they have this crap called vine maple, the stuff grows just like a vine, hence the name. The stuff is harder than hell to cut, splits real well,and burns real hot. The odd thing is it does not get any bigger than 4 to 5 inches around.



Ugghhh... Vine maple. Looks nice, but I hate cutting through it. Had a couple of fires that I had to cut line up through a drainage choked with the stuff... horrible. I would HATE to get that stuff for firewood. Sounds like the other stuff you're talking about might be big leaf maple. That's what we have around here. The butt cuts that have the wavy grain (turns out it's worth a lot for wood working) does burn well. Been through a winter or two with it.


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## Frantic7 (Apr 5, 2006)

Yeah, that does sound like big leaf maple. Not too bad to split, but I would let it dry for awhile and then split it. It will save you some choice words for the wood...:censored: :censored: LOL!!


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