Hard/Soft Maple... is it worth it ?

[Dale]

Is it worth burning hard/soft maple in a woodburner. I know the btu's aren't that high, but wondering if I should even go through the cutting/splitting/ and worst of all stacking work.

 

[MS-310]

Hell yea,

There is alot of people that burn pine in there wood stoves, if you dont want it I live in MI and would love it. LOL

 

[IndyIan]

Hard maple is about the equivalent of Red Oak so in terms of BTU's its worth burning. It is pretty tough but I do OK splitting by hand when its green. Frozen and green is the best time to split I find. Splitting partially dry hard mape in the summer is less fun....

 

[JUDGE1162]

I burn a lot of maple, anything maple that is not good enough quality to be of value as lumber turns into firewood. The BTUs are OK it is not oak but beats a lot of other wood, I don't think it is all that tough to split and I split all my wood by hand, I wish I had a ton of Oak to burn but I will take some maple in a heart beat.

Dale what do you normally burn????? That you are not sure if maple is worth the effort.

There are alot of people on this board that burn wood with much lower BTUs and which are hard to split than Maple.

I split 2 cord of elm this year, much lower BTUs and much harder to split, I also have a bunch or birch while easy to split it too has a lower BTU value. With the expection of red maple, I love to burn maple and will take as much of it as I can get my hands on.

 

[monk680]

sugar/hard maple has the same btu as red oak according to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm

 

[ShoerFast]

Sugar or Hard Maple I think is one of the easest woods to split, good hot coal wood. But I wouldent walk too far down a hill for a soft maple, but it beats out a couple trees.

http://mb-soft.com/juca/print/firewood.html

 

[ShoerFast]

sugar/hard maple has the same btu as red oak according to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm

Nice link Monk! thanks

 

[JUDGE1162]

Sugar Maple I think is one of the easest woods to split, good hot coal wood. But I wouldent walk too far down a hill for a soft maple, but it beats out a couple trees

http://mb-soft.com/juca/print/firewood.html

What are you burning now that you would turn up your nose at maple?

Unless you are drowning in hickory, beech or oak and since hickory can be a PIA to split compared to Maple

 

[ShoerFast]

What are you burning now that you would turn up your nose at maple?

Unless you are drowning in hickory, beech or oak and since hickory can be a PIA to split compared to Maple

Soft Maple is not my favorite tree, planted in a lot of areas because it grows fast, but often gets hallow for one, I would walk past soft maple to get to hard maple is the point. Another is the log with soft maple compared to hard maple, most hard maples have a single stem that rarely grows less then 16 foot, soft maple usually grows a few feet then changes it's mind a bunch of times, just test me on a fake phone call, tell me you have a couple soft maples, call back and disguise your voice saying you have a hard maple,,,,, we'll see how gets a call back first! If we are on the same page what we call hard and soft maple, I'm not sure there very related.

 

[JUDGE1162]

OK maybe that is the better question what are people calling soft maples and what are hard maple


To me soft maples are: RED MAPLE, Silver Maple(not much around me)

Hard Maple is Sugar Maple,

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I like to split the soft maple (Silver) thin for kindling and in quarter splits for the first logs on the fire. It ignites very easily. Here in Pennsylvania, we're swimming in Maple; absolutely you should use it. Burns nice, throws good heat, leaves nice coals-go for it!

 

[Gark]

Maple firewood rating chart
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Type............................................ Worth it?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard (sugar)...................................Great! Absolutely!

Soft (red or silver)...........................Well, alright...If I have to...

..

 

[Dale]

Judge1162, I primarily burn Elm, Locust, and Cherry. Nothing smells as perty as Black Cherry, and nothing I've found burns hotter than Elm or Locust. Gotta watch the temp when they get to rippin.

For some reason, a blight has hit the Locust on my farm, so there is quite a bit that I can get.

 

[wdchuck]

Is it worth burning hard/soft maple in a woodburner. I know the btu's aren't that high, but wondering if I should even go through the cutting/splitting/ and worst of all stacking work.

I've gone through probably, 8 full cords of silver soft maple since we've been heating with wood, it's nice for day and fall/spring, we save the oak, locust, hickory for the bedtime load, but the silver maple has real nice coaling properties. And it's not so heavy.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Judge1162, I primarily burn Elm, Locust, and Cherry. Nothing smells as perty as Black Cherry, and nothing I've found burns hotter than Elm or Locust. Gotta watch the temp when they get to rippin.

Two that come to mind that can rival them in burning hot are Hickory and Apple. And Apple also smells "perty"..

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I've gone through probably, 8 full cords of silver soft maple since we've been heating with wood, it's nice for day and fall/spring, we save the oak, locust, hickory for the bedtime load, but the silver maple has real nice coaling properties. And it's not so heavy.

And it's straight-grained so it splits very easily.

 

[ciscoguy01]

Hells yea

Is it worth burning hard/soft maple in a woodburner. I know the btu's aren't that high, but wondering if I should even go through the cutting/splitting/ and worst of all stacking work.

Up here hard maple is the best thing you can get your hands on. The older folks call it northern hard rock maple cause it so friggin hard. The soft maple is kind of like burning birch. I know I'll take any amount of soft or hard maple I can get my hands on. Beech is my favorite wood overall. Burns hot, splits easy, dries faster than oak or any of them out there I think. I love it...

 

[JUDGE1162]

Yeah I had one of my apple trees break a large limb in a storm so I cut it up for firewood, boy was that nice, but now I wish I would have saved it for the fireplace vs the wood stove, it did smell good while it burned but in the woodstoe did not get to smell it unless I opened the door to add wood. I am sure that would have been nice in the fireplace.

Not much if any hickory on my land so I stick to Oak, elm and hard maple with a few others thrown in if I have them.

 

[ciscoguy01]

Apple wood

Yeah I had one of my apple trees break a large limb in a storm so I cut it up for firewood, boy was that nice, but now I wish I would have saved it for the fireplace vs the wood stove, it did smell good while it burned but in the woodstoe did not get to smell it unless I opened the door to add wood. I am sure that would have been nice in the fireplace.

Not much if any hickory on my land so I stick to Oak, elm and hard maple with a few others thrown in if I have them.

If I ever get my hands on apple wood, I usually dry that, then use it to smoke my meats in my home made smoker. It's out of this world I tell ya...