Maple splits after air drying - could I have seen it coming?

[alan gage]

Sawed my first hard maple logs this summer. They were short (6') but seemed to be pretty good logs. No crotches and few knots. They had sat for a couple years before I got to them. Sawed up fine on the mill. No movement from stress when sawing. Mix of 4/4 and 8/4.

After air drying much of the lumber is ruined due to cracks/splits on the face. I'm wondering if there's something I could have noticed ahead of time (before sawing) that would have tipped me off that the log might make better firewood than lumber.

Here it is when being sawn:




And what it looked like after drying:




I have noticed when sawing some other woods, like cottonwood, that the parts of the log that show interesting streaks of color when freshly sawn have a tendency to crack/split while drying. Is there any truth to that observation?

Thanks,

Alan

[scsmith42]

Alan, are the checks primarily in the sapwood?

[moodnacreek]

I will say the wood was decayed before you sawed it. Logs should be sawn asap after felling especially maple or other white woods.

[alan gage]

Alan, are the checks primarily in the sapwood?

I'd say no. Too many boards were affected for it to only be the sapwood.
Alan

[Don P]

I'm seeing the same thing as moodnacreek, incipient decay, those bleached out looking areas.

[YellowHammer]

I'm wondering if there's something I could have noticed ahead of time (before sawing) that would have tipped me off that the log might make better firewood than lumber.

I'm seeing three types of cracks in that one board.  Some of the issues could possibly be seen from the log ends, the other from surface of the log, and some would only have been evident once you started sawing.  At that point, you would have to make the decision to keep sawing or not.

Some of the cracks are clearly following the growth rings, so would be a type of shake, more bacterial than anything, since these are old logs.  The logs started to degrade in the growth rings, and as the wood dries, the shake will present itself  There's nothing you can do about it, except try spot it by looking very closely at the log ends before sawing, or spot the characteristic "suck in" between the growth rings when sawing.  There should be some telltale degrade marks following the end grain.  Some of this is what you are seeing on the face of the cuts.  These are caused by the wood degrade and mold growth between the growth rings, breaking them down.  

There are also several non shake cracks, out on the outer perimeter of the dried board in the photos, on either side of the outer edges of the outer sapwood rings.  These cracks could have been seen before sawing, assuming the bark has slipped, and actually get harder to see on freshly sawn wood.  These are caused by the outer sapwood drying too much from logs sitting. It's not rot, just log drying cracks, and they do not track the growth rings that is characteristic of shake.  If the bark hadn't come off they would have been difficult to see.

There is also a little bit of some minor heart check, most notably down the center, and its being arrested by the knot.

That's all I can see from the two photos, if there was a log end picture, it may be more clearly seen, or not.