Maple log issue...

[mrcaptainbob]

The township cut down this old and very large maple. It's about 50" dia for maybe twenty feet or so and starts getting a bit smaller from that along with it's 'branching' out. The issues are that it is hard cutting! And hard splitting! I swear it's worse than any oak I've ever sawn, and far worse than any elm I've ever split! Is this because of it's obvious age? How can I tell what kind of maple it was? I'm aware of silver, sugar and red. Is rock maple a category, too? Or does that describe it after it's aged?

[Gary_C]

Most likely you have a sugar or rock maple. Silver or red maples are considered soft maples and are relatively easy to cut. But the sugar or rock maples are just what you describe. They are hard and tough.

[SwampDonkey]

Rock maple is another common name for sugar maple. Another hard maple is black maple, which I doubt you would be able to separate by wood. Sugar maple can be tough splitting when it's dried some. I find the trees look different depending on soil. We have some that grows in sandy soil that looks different and more knarly than those in good loam.

[WDH]

You can tell the hard maples like sugar maple and black maple from the soft maples like red maple and silver maple by the leaves.  The hard maples do not have teeth between the lobes, but the soft maples do.

[mrcaptainbob]

This tree  grew in sandy soil. For many decades. I will check the leaves on the stump sprouts. Rock maple. About as good a description as there is.....

[SwampDonkey]

Around these parts, the leaves on the elongating shoots are orange-red on red maples and later turn green when the shoot is stopped growing out. Best observed on the top of the crown. Same for stump sprouts. Sugar maple will hardly ever stump sprout on mature trees.

[celliott]

I just cut up a large branch that fell off a neighbors sugar maple.  Gnarly old tree, probably around 4' DBH, till about 10 feet up then its all branches.  The branch that fell off was probably around 18" near the end.  being limbwood, it was even harder to split- I couldnt even crack it with my splitting maul. Had to start a groove with my saw, then use steel wedges and a sledgehammer- talk about some work! just to halve them, and on one, quarter them so I could lift them into the truck.  Those are getting saved for the woodsplitter.  If that can't do it, they go in a bonfire.  Neighbor is having a tree service take the rest of the tree down before it damages his house, and they're gonna leave the wood- more firewood for us! not exactly looking forward to it though, its gonna be alot of work-have to cut from both sides, only got a 20" bar. then splitting :  Sugar maple sure makes good firewood though ;)

[mrcaptainbob]

I put a knife edge on the friend's splitter the other day. It's now hollow ground. Made quite a difference in many of the remaining pieces, ....but.....there were still some pieces that REFUSE to cave! Well, fortunately they were 'small' enough that I could toss them in the wood burner. Don't like them when they're that big, but sometimes is okay. Just strange to run across maple that gives that much of a hard time. I did a 40" dia red oak two years ago that was a snap compared to this stuff.
Thanks all, for reading the rant and helping with ideas....

[freddy912]

Years ago a friend that was a log buyer for a mill called me and asked if I wanted some maple and cottonwood. 15 loads. It turned out that the maple was all 32in. and over. Too big for their chipper. Worked out to 10 loads maple, 5 cottonwood. The maple couldn't be split with the available splitter. I hired guys to hand split for 35 a cord, stacked. Many tried and left because they couldn't finish a cord. I got a lot of free splitting done. There is a trick to it, whacking it on the edge and going around the round. One man and his dad got the trick and did the whole 10 (logging truck) loads. They sure earned their money.

[Tug Hill Walt]

I've gotten into some ov this nasty maple in my wood pile. Even with a splitter you need to slab off the sides. Once in a while I have to cut short pieces. The biggest problem is in the hidden crotch. some of the grain looks like a wad of rope. It's only got to be small enough to fit the furnace, thankfully.

[SwampDonkey]

Green and frozen does wonders as well.  But, your right you have to shave slabs off the edges on some of that old twisty stuff. ;D

[mrcaptainbob]

Well, there's only a ten foot length left of that beast. It's personal now. Neighbor and I DO plan on winning. I've just never seen a tree with woven grain before. It's twisted in some places and woven like layers of muscle in others. Oh yeah. While splitting some of this we found a thin layer of sand about three feet long and eight inches wide! No wonder the chain is loused up while cutting. I swear...I went through two chains on that log yesterday. It was zipping along just fine and all of a sudden the strips turn to powder. I had no idea a maple log could be that way. Hard? It's that. But so extremely twisty and layered with sand, too??? Wow.