Congrats! That would make a ton of lumber! Do you have a sawmill? Chuck
What free wood did you find today?
- Thread starter woodtickgreg
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Yes sir I do. Nothing special but it gets the job done.
Close neighbor removed a large maple tree to make room for an addition to his house. Snagged a few pieces.
Congrats! Nice chunks of wood! Chuck
Some wood from the yard of an LA house that recently burned down. Will make them a turning memento. Some sort of pine, I was told.
Chuck, trying to work up the courage to lift the largest one onto the band saw.
Doesn't look terribly heavy. Can be tricky though trying to balance it while shaping it up. Chuck
Looking forward to cutting up this big chunk of Maple. Wasn’t exactly free, but came from a local firewood production place close to home. The guys charge me minimal $$. They will cut to manageable size and load into my truck. I might have to go back and get the other half??
No question! Go back for the rest! Chuck
Ditto on that advice!!!
The last photo of the outside skin, you need to slice a piece as it has some wild horizontal compact quilt. Is this soft or hard maple. Get the other half and then some 
Arn - I think it’s soft Maple, but I’m not positive at this time.The last photo of the outside skin, you need to slice a piece as it has some wild horizontal compact quilt. Is this soft or hard maple. Get the other half and then some
Anyway- I had cut it up between the time I made the first post and just seeing your comment.
Pics sorta do it justice but looks better “to my eye”. Nice stuff hiding in there.
Looks really promising John and can’t wait to see what you do with it. I am going by the figuring on the outside- yes, that is not indicative of what species it might be, but I have processed enough figured maple that has that outer figuring pattern (3rd photo), post #1,928 that is is hard maple. Did this grow near a river or a lake?
Very few maples have fissured bark. Good chance you have some Norway there.
I agree Mark - It does not have the flatter, shaggy bark like a Silver Maple variety. As with many areas of the country, there were a lot of Norway Maples planted in Illinois as a replacement for the Elm trees that were decimated in the 50's and 60's. We also have a fair number of Sugar Maples, more native to N. Illinois, in the area. I need to figure out to how to better distinguish between the Norway and Sugar.......No leaves, just the big cookie at the log yard.
Norway sap is often milky looking, as in white. Seen more often when you pop off a leaf at the bud scar. It often has 7 lobes to the leaf versus the common 5 of Sugar maple. Boxelder is our only native maple with fissured bark in your area. Your wood matches better with Norway over Boxelder.
Local furniture place throws maple blank cut offs into a free barrel. Pouring rain here or I would have grabbed more! Plus I forgot a container.
Congrats! Guess you will have to throw a container in your vehicle for future trips there! Chuck
I didn't really find it, it was a tree when we moved in but it died, so now I'm working on digging out an aspen stump up by the corner of my driveway. Should keep me busy for most the summer. I'll take photos if any one really wants to see what digging out an aspen stump looks like. Dig a little, chop with my ax a little, dig some more.
Hope to plant an Alberta spruce up there. They don't grow fast or big, need little to zero maintenance and I already have 3 so it will look like I planned it that way.
Hope to plant an Alberta spruce up there. They don't grow fast or big, need little to zero maintenance and I already have 3 so it will look like I planned it that way.
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@JD1137 & @Mr. Peet - we have Norway maple here in NYC- this one I took awhile back in Brooklyn Heights on Willow Street, called “Willow Street Identification Project”. This should identify what you have. Norway maple has been discuss that is the species used by Stradivarius. This maple is hard to pinpoint as far as density as there is a wide range from soft maple to hard maple- so it has a mid range density. I am curious to see what you actually have as it dries. I don’t know what you have plans for these, but air dried material gets my interest for guitar building.
