Black walnut and maple question

[killerman]

I have a Timber King 1400 mill that I use for sawing wood for myself to use in wood working. I have a couple of questions. First; Ive noticed a huge difference when sawing black walnut on the amount of white sapwood. Some logs may have an inch of it and then some of the same diameter may have 4 inches of it. What causes the difference? Is it rate of growth, soil conditions, varieties?
2nd question, is there a way to tell if a maple tree will yield birds eye maple, any indicators? Or do you just wait to see what the milling reveals.
jim

[dyates]

Don't remember on the birdseye, but walnut has more sapwood when it grows faster.  Either the site is moist and fertile and/or the tree has plenty of space.

[tj240]

if you cant see the eyes for birdeye, look for a wagon wheel pattern on the end of  a log. sometimes the eyes wont go all the way to the heart wood, but if they go in a distance you should see the spokes coming from the center of the log. hope you find alot it is really pretty wood

[roger 4400]

Killer man, I have a book on **how to recognize birdeyes maple** they say that sometime the tree grows like a **coke bottle** ( a sexy look for the first log) but there is only one way to be sure, you must take a piece of bark off with an axe, on the inside part of the bark you will see some node 1/8 to 3/16 of an inch in diameter but that way you make a wound to your tree. If you find one look around because the same stress that did the birdeyes  could have done some near ( they do not know what causes birdeyes) . They do not know how much % of trees that have that curiosity but they think less than 1%. Good luck. Roger

[killerman]

Thanks for the responses. Im going to cruise the maple part of my woodlot and take a look at the trees. Roger do you have the name of the birdseye maple book handy? Im a huge reader and it sounds interesting.  I suspected fast growth might lead to a large amount of sapwood on the walnut. I dont think thats an issue on my land. These rocky hills wont let anything grow too fast.
Thanks again for the replies.
jim

[roger 4400]

Hi Killerman. I just phone to Quebec city and they have some books in english. The book is called ** Field guide for identifying birdeyes maple** this small book has 30 pages the pages are plastic coated. The way to have the book you will have to send $12 that covers the mail  and the book.
For money arrangement you can contact         n.morneau@cerfo.qc.ca     on the net and take contact
their address is      2424 Chemin Ste-Foy, Quebec
                              Quebec, Canada
                               G1V 1T2
their phone number is     418-659-4225    The person you have to reach is Nathalie Morneau.
I do not know what kind of maple you have but birdeyes will be on hard maple , not other maples.
Good luck on your search. For myself I found one without knowing it I did not notice the birdeyes till the next automn when the bark peeled from my HEATING WOOD.......I was mad it was all sold for heating.. >:(.

Cerfo is a forestry research and education center.
Good luck.     Roger