soft maple for firewood? (Silver Maple)

[GrizzlyAdams86]

None of my customers has ever complained about burning dry elm after I deliver it. On the other hand, if they think that any soft maple I deliver is at all punky, they will squawk like chickens being chased by a fox.

Haven't had any complaints about elm (other than splitting it), just leave it standing dead until all the bark has fallen off, then cut and split, let it dry if needed. Got plenty of standing dead red elm in my family's woods. Usually would only get 6-12" dia, but 40-60' tall, get dutch elm and die. Most is standing dead with out any bark, just cut to the length you want, very little splitting to do either. Don't have a lot of maple but it's all sugar (hard) maple though. And more red/white oak, ironwood, and cherry than you could ever want. Plus locast, poplar, basswood too. There's some type of cedar that grows here too but it's in the very hard to reach areas of the property.

 

[Wood Doctor]

A good alternative to maple (soft or hard) is hackberry. It burns cleanly without sparks and has lots of heat content, about the same as hard maple. Hackberry is also easy to split and dries fast. I brought in a truckload today. This wood is so white that some say it's bleached, but they don't know how it really gets that white and neither do I.

One thing for sure, the deer love to rub against it and scrape their antlers on the bark. Hackberry bark will wear out gloves faster than any firewood that I know. Five years ago I brought in six truckloads of it, split it all, and nobody complained.

 

[GrizzlyAdams86]

Haven't dealt with hackberry a lot around here but I have only given some unseasoned to people with OWB's in the past so I don't have any personal feedback on it but have heard it is a good wood on here and from others who have burned it. Seems to grow slower around here than other species. Usually leave it alone as there isn't much in our woods yet.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Haven't dealt with hackberry a lot around here but I have only given some unseasoned to people with OWB's in the past so I don't have any personal feedback on it but have heard it is a good wood on here and from others who have burned it. Seems to grow slower around here than other species. Usually leave it alone as there isn't much in our woods yet.

I brought in half a truckload of hackberry today, all rounds, solid to the core and white as snow, ready to be split. The bark is tough as nails and loves to tear up gloves. Deer enjoy rubbing against it and removing velvet from their antlers. Seems dry because the weather has been dry. It should split very easily. Best part about hackberry is that it burns with no sparks and can almost stay even with mulberry when burned. I have enough available to gather yet another truckload. It's really hard to turn that down.

BTW, one of my customers says he doesn't like the way the smoke smells when hackberry burns. I about dropped dead after he said that. Never heard of such a thing. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I may have to post another thread on this.