I have some land that has open space that I plan to plant trees on for
eventual use in my shop. I enjoy working with maple and was wondering if
silver maple is any good. It is the fastest growing of all maple trees but
when I read up on them, their downfall as a tree is that they are brittle
and limbs snap easily. Would this be a problem as well when working with it
in the shop?

Thanks in advance
Craig Orput
Camas WA

.. wrote:

I have some land that has open space that I plan to plant trees on for
eventual use in my shop. I enjoy working with maple and was wondering if
silver maple is any good. It is the fastest growing of all maple trees but
when I read up on them, their downfall as a tree is that they are brittle
and limbs snap easily. Would this be a problem as well when working with
it in the shop?

Dunno, but it's an interesting question, so I went googling.

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/p...derations.html

Sounds like the tree is a bit hard to manage for useful timber. You have to
have stands large enough to keep sunlight from falling onto the boles in
order to get clear lumber. When harvesting, you have to clear cut big
stands to avoid the same sort of problems.

The trees are brittle and disease prone. They really want to be alive, so
after you butcher one up for lumber, the stump will continue sprouting for
years, wasting your space with weak, useless wood.

This site

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/LandownerFactsheets/

has some handy quick glance factsheets showing the relative merit of the
species in its database for various purposes. The two maples listed (red
and silver) both get a 4/5 for growth and a 2/5 for timber value.

Yellow birch gets a 3/5 for growth and a 3/5 for timber value.

White oak gets a 2/5 for growth, and 3/5 for timber value.

Black walnut gets a 4/5 for growth and a 5/5 for timber value.

Well, that lead to a lot of other interesting surfing, but I never quite
found what I was looking for. I'm sure there are "so I have some land,
what do I plant?" sites out there, but I didn't google one up.

Based on this little jaunt into googleland though, I don't think I'd bother
with silver maple if I had a big hunk of land and wanted to plant some fast
growing short term harvest timber trees to feed my own shop. Soft maple is
the off brand vanilla ice cream of the wood scene in these parts. It's got
better working qualities than poplar, and it can be pretty, but mostly it's
about as exciting as a trip to the bedding department with SWMBO to pick
out new pillowcases. If I were going to grow trees for slaughter, I think
I'd look elsewhere.

YMMV.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

Silvan writes:

This site

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/LandownerFactsheets/

has some handy quick glance factsheets showing the relative merit of the
species in its database for various purposes. The two maples listed (red
and silver) both get a 4/5 for growth and a 2/5 for timber value.

Yellow birch gets a 3/5 for growth and a 3/5 for timber value.

White oak gets a 2/5 for growth, and 3/5 for timber value.

Black walnut gets a 4/5 for growth and a 5/5 for timber value.

Well, that lead to a lot of other interesting surfing, but I never quite
found what I was looking for. I'm sure there are "so I have some land,
what do I plant?" sites out there, but I didn't google one up.

Based on this little jaunt into googleland though, I don't think I'd bother
with silver maple if I had a big hunk of land and wanted to plant some fast
growing short term harvest timber trees to feed my own shop. Soft maple is
the off brand vanilla ice cream of the wood scene in these parts. It's got
better working qualities than poplar, and it can be pretty, but mostly it's
about as exciting as a trip to the bedding department with SWMBO to pick
out new pillowcases. If I were going to grow trees for slaughter, I think
I'd look elsewhere.

He might think about liquidamber (sweetgum) or sycamore, both fast growing
hardwoods that produce great wood.

Charlie Self
"Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity
has made them good." H. L. Mencken

I have seen sweetgum mentioned as a valued wood. I do not value it on
my property. Its limbs break and mess up the fences, the fruit is
annoying, its leaves can be gorgeous in the fall. I do not recall ever
seeing it in a woodstore, not Home Depot or 84 lumber but at a real
wood store. So what makes it a valued hardwood besides the fact that
it grows pretty fast?

otforme (Charlie Self) wrote:

Silvan writes:

This site

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/LandownerFactsheets/

has some handy quick glance factsheets showing the relative merit of the
species in its database for various purposes. The two maples listed (red
and silver) both get a 4/5 for growth and a 2/5 for timber value.

Yellow birch gets a 3/5 for growth and a 3/5 for timber value.

White oak gets a 2/5 for growth, and 3/5 for timber value.

Black walnut gets a 4/5 for growth and a 5/5 for timber value.

Well, that lead to a lot of other interesting surfing, but I never quite
found what I was looking for. I'm sure there are "so I have some land,
what do I plant?" sites out there, but I didn't google one up.

Based on this little jaunt into googleland though, I don't think I'd bother
with silver maple if I had a big hunk of land and wanted to plant some fast
growing short term harvest timber trees to feed my own shop. Soft maple is
the off brand vanilla ice cream of the wood scene in these parts. It's got
better working qualities than poplar, and it can be pretty, but mostly it's
about as exciting as a trip to the bedding department with SWMBO to pick
out new pillowcases. If I were going to grow trees for slaughter, I think
I'd look elsewhere.

He might think about liquidamber (sweetgum) or sycamore, both fast growing
hardwoods that produce great wood.

Charlie Self
"Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity
has made them good." H. L. Mencken

Silver Maple is also known as Soft Maple. Silver Maple is used for
furniture, turning, veneer, musical instruments, and flooring. Silver
Maple is softer and less dense than Hard Maple. You should not have
any problems working it in the shop. Silver Maple trees are known for
breaking up water pipes and they have many surface roots--not a good
landscaping tree.

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:27:15 GMT, "." wrote:

I have some land that has open space that I plan to plant trees on for
eventual use in my shop. I enjoy working with maple and was wondering if
silver maple is any good. It is the fastest growing of all maple trees but
when I read up on them, their downfall as a tree is that they are brittle
and limbs snap easily. Would this be a problem as well when working with it
in the shop?

Thanks in advance
Craig Orput
Camas WA

On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 03:14:46 GMT, Phisherman wrote:

Silver Maple is also known as Soft Maple. Silver Maple is used for
furniture, turning, veneer, musical instruments, and flooring. Silver
Maple is softer and less dense than Hard Maple. You should not have
any problems working it in the shop. Silver Maple trees are known for
breaking up water pipes and they have many surface roots--not a good
landscaping tree.

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:27:15 GMT, "." wrote:

I have some land that has open space that I plan to plant trees on for
eventual use in my shop. I enjoy working with maple and was wondering if
silver maple is any good. It is the fastest growing of all maple trees but
when I read up on them, their downfall as a tree is that they are brittle
and limbs snap easily. Would this be a problem as well when working with it
in the shop?

I cut up some soft maple this weekend for the wife (she's into
pyrography) and it seemed to work very nicely. It also burns really
evenly and well (with a wood burner- not a stove, though it probably
works just fine for that, too)

Thanks in advance
Craig Orput
Camas WA


Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

A group of Vancouver (BC) woodbutchers got together over a couple of
weekends, hired a fellow with an Alaskan mill and milled approx 1300 -
1500 bd ft of Silver maple. It was a downed tree that formerly lined the
driveway to an original homestead in our area. Woods's currently in the
kiln but we've found some fantastic figuring in it and are looking
forward to using it. It's not as hard as "hard" maple, but it's a nice
wood. Our total price, cut, milled (9/4) and dried will be less than
$0.55 / bd ft. Hard to beat.

Rob

.. wrote:
I have some land that has open space that I plan to plant trees on for
eventual use in my shop. I enjoy working with maple and was wondering if
silver maple is any good. It is the fastest growing of all maple trees but
when I read up on them, their downfall as a tree is that they are brittle
and limbs snap easily. Would this be a problem as well when working with it
in the shop?

Thanks in advance
Craig Orput
Camas WA



--


http://www.robswoodworking.com

Well, more accurately, silver maple is _one_ of the soft maples.

Its tangential/radial shrinkage ratio is the worst among commercial maples,
and its specific gravity of .44 is quite a bit lower than the most commonly
used (eastern) "soft" maple - red maple - at .49.

Of course, it's about as good as it gets on the left coast.

"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
Silver Maple is also known as Soft Maple. Silver Maple is used for
furniture, turning, veneer, musical instruments, and flooring. Silver
Maple is softer and less dense than Hard Maple. You should not have
any problems working it in the shop. Silver Maple trees are known for
breaking up water pipes and they have many surface roots--not a good
landscaping tree.

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:27:15 GMT, "." wrote:

I have some land that has open space that I plan to plant trees on for
eventual use in my shop. I enjoy working with maple and was wondering if
silver maple is any good. It is the fastest growing of all maple trees
but
when I read up on them, their downfall as a tree is that they are brittle
and limbs snap easily. Would this be a problem as well when working with
it
in the shop?

Thanks in advance
Craig Orput
Camas WA

I've used it, and like it.

I was intrigued by a June 2000 article in FWW by Jon Arno, where he states:
"Sweetgum deserves better than its reputation as a counterfeiter's favorite.
True, it takes stain well enough to pass for cherry or walnut. But it also
machines beautifully and often produces attractive figuring."

I had a log milled and air dried it myself. Some warped and checked terribly
despite my best amaturish attempt to keep it properly stickered and
weighted. But what I ended up with was some very beautiful wood that works
very well and finishes really nicely. There is a big difference in the
heartwood and sapwood. Most of my log, though large, was sapwood. I believe
they also call the heartwood Redgum.



"Jim Behning" wrote in message
...
I have seen sweetgum mentioned as a valued wood. I do not value it on
my property. Its limbs break and mess up the fences, the fruit is
annoying, its leaves can be gorgeous in the fall. I do not recall ever
seeing it in a woodstore, not Home Depot or 84 lumber but at a real
wood store. So what makes it a valued hardwood besides the fact that
it grows pretty fast?

otforme (Charlie Self) wrote:

Silvan writes:

This site

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/LandownerFactsheets/

has some handy quick glance factsheets showing the relative merit of the
species in its database for various purposes. The two maples listed (red
and silver) both get a 4/5 for growth and a 2/5 for timber value.

Yellow birch gets a 3/5 for growth and a 3/5 for timber value.

White oak gets a 2/5 for growth, and 3/5 for timber value.

Black walnut gets a 4/5 for growth and a 5/5 for timber value.

Well, that lead to a lot of other interesting surfing, but I never quite
found what I was looking for. I'm sure there are "so I have some land,
what do I plant?" sites out there, but I didn't google one up.

Based on this little jaunt into googleland though, I don't think I'd
bother
with silver maple if I had a big hunk of land and wanted to plant some
fast
growing short term harvest timber trees to feed my own shop. Soft maple
is
the off brand vanilla ice cream of the wood scene in these parts. It's
got
better working qualities than poplar, and it can be pretty, but mostly
it's
about as exciting as a trip to the bedding department with SWMBO to pick
out new pillowcases. If I were going to grow trees for slaughter, I
think
I'd look elsewhere.

He might think about liquidamber (sweetgum) or sycamore, both fast growing
hardwoods that produce great wood.

Charlie Self
"Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than
Christianity
has made them good." H. L. Mencken

I cut up some silver maple about 2 yrs ago. Air dried it and made a
cutting board center, surrounded by an osage orange frame. Burned the
rest in the fireplace, great firewood also. Excellent wood for a
cutting board center, and easy on knives. Worked well, and is a nice
tight grained wood. It is called soft maple, but it's up there with
cherry, mahogany, and walnut in it's hardness.


"." wrote in message ink.net...
I have some land that has open space that I plan to plant trees on for
eventual use in my shop. I enjoy working with maple and was wondering if
silver maple is any good. It is the fastest growing of all maple trees but
when I read up on them, their downfall as a tree is that they are brittle
and limbs snap easily. Would this be a problem as well when working with it
in the shop?

Thanks in advance
Craig Orput
Camas WA

Is silver maple also witch hazel

In article , "Keith" wrote:
Is silver maple also witch hazel

No, two completely different things.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter
by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com
You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

In article , (todd the wood junkie) wrote:
I cut up some silver maple about 2 yrs ago. Air dried it and made a
cutting board center, surrounded by an osage orange frame. Burned the
rest in the fireplace, great firewood also.

"Great firewood" compared to what? Poplar? IME, silver maple burns rapidly to
ashes, whereas sugar maple burns slowly to coals as oak, ash, and hickory do.

Excellent wood for a
cutting board center, and easy on knives. Worked well, and is a nice
tight grained wood. It is called soft maple, but it's up there with
cherry, mahogany, and walnut in it's hardness.

Cherry and mahogany, yes. Walnut, no. Silver maple is only about 2/3 as hard
as walnut.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter
by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com
You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

"Great firewood" compared to what? Poplar? IME, silver maple burns rapidly to
ashes, whereas sugar maple burns slowly to coals as oak, ash, and hickory do.


Great firewood meaning it burns well. No, not as long as harder woods
like osage and locust, but thick cuts last a good while and produce a
nice clean bed of coals to cook the black locust.

Excellent wood for a
cutting board center, and easy on knives. Worked well, and is a nice
tight grained wood. It is called soft maple, but it's up there with
cherry, mahogany, and walnut in it's hardness.

Cherry and mahogany, yes. Walnut, no. Silver maple is only about 2/3 as hard
as walnut.


Here are the (dry) hardness numbers for each of the above. When I say
'up there', I guess it's implied that it is 'close' to the others. In
2 cases its actually HARDER. In the case of walnut, you are
incorrect. It is only lower by 60 lbs of force or approx 5%.

Soft maple
Specific Gravity 0.54
Hardness 950 lbs

Black walnut
Specific Gravity 0.59
Hardness 1010 lbs

Cherry
Specific Gravity 0.54
Hardness 660 lbs

Genuine Mahogany
Specific Gravity 0.59
Hardness 801 lbs

FPL list silver as .44

Acer rubrum, the eastern "soft maple" is .49. Suspect the hardness is for A
rubrum as well.

"todd the wood junkie" wrote in message
om...


Soft maple
Specific Gravity 0.54
Hardness 950 lbs

Rob Stokes wrote in
news:rmzqd.243210$9b.60@edtnps84:

A group of Vancouver (BC) woodbutchers got together over a couple of
weekends, hired a fellow with an Alaskan mill and milled approx 1300 -
1500 bd ft of Silver maple. It was a downed tree that formerly lined
the driveway to an original homestead in our area. Woods's currently
in the kiln but we've found some fantastic figuring in it and are
looking forward to using it. It's not as hard as "hard" maple, but
it's a nice wood. Our total price, cut, milled (9/4) and dried will be
less than $0.55 / bd ft. Hard to beat.

Rob

Do you have your shop up and running again yet? From the sound of this
gloat, you have about 24 months...

Patriarch

I'm up and running again. Finally!! It's not as pretty as the last shop,
but it's functional and getting more-so every time I use it.. Thanks for
asking.

And no, I don't have 24 months! The wood's in the kiln and due out in a
few weeks (can't wait!!). Seriously thinking about making a new 2" thick
front door out of it...Craftsman style maybe??? Then I'd have to make a
matching screen door and...and...and...

The URL (below) is of a couple of kids gifts I finished on Sunday.
Worlds fastest toothbrushing stools (roller blade wheels)

http://www.robswoodworking.com/images/stools.jpg


Rob

patriarch wrote:
Rob Stokes wrote in
news:rmzqd.243210$9b.60@edtnps84:


A group of Vancouver (BC) woodbutchers got together over a couple of
weekends, hired a fellow with an Alaskan mill and milled approx 1300 -
1500 bd ft of Silver maple. It was a downed tree that formerly lined
the driveway to an original homestead in our area. Woods's currently
in the kiln but we've found some fantastic figuring in it and are
looking forward to using it. It's not as hard as "hard" maple, but
it's a nice wood. Our total price, cut, milled (9/4) and dried will be
less than $0.55 / bd ft. Hard to beat.

Rob


Do you have your shop up and running again yet? From the sound of this
gloat, you have about 24 months...

Patriarch

--


http://www.robswoodworking.com

I'm up and running again. Finally!! It's not as pretty as the last shop,
but it's functional and getting more-so every time I use it.. Thanks for
asking.

And no, I don't have 24 months! The wood's in the kiln and due out in a
few weeks (can't wait!!). Seriously thinking about making a new 2" thick
front door out of it...Craftsman style maybe??? Then I'd have to make a
matching screen door and...and...and...

The URL (below) is of a couple of kids gifts I finished on Sunday.
Worlds fastest toothbrushing stools (roller blade wheels)

http://www.robswoodworking.com/images/stools.jpg


Rob

patriarch wrote:
Rob Stokes wrote in
news:rmzqd.243210$9b.60@edtnps84:


A group of Vancouver (BC) woodbutchers got together over a couple of
weekends, hired a fellow with an Alaskan mill and milled approx 1300 -
1500 bd ft of Silver maple. It was a downed tree that formerly lined
the driveway to an original homestead in our area. Woods's currently
in the kiln but we've found some fantastic figuring in it and are
looking forward to using it. It's not as hard as "hard" maple, but
it's a nice wood. Our total price, cut, milled (9/4) and dried will be
less than $0.55 / bd ft. Hard to beat.

Rob


Do you have your shop up and running again yet? From the sound of this
gloat, you have about 24 months...

Patriarch

--


http://www.robswoodworking.com

I'm up and running again. Finally!! It's not as pretty as the last shop,
but it's functional and getting more-so every time I use it.. Thanks for
asking.

And no, I don't have 24 months! The wood's in the kiln and due out in a
few weeks (can't wait!!). Seriously thinking about making a new 2" thick
front door out of it...Craftsman style maybe??? Then I'd have to make a
matching screen door and...and...and...

The URL (below) is of a couple of kids gifts I finished on Sunday.
Worlds fastest toothbrushing stools (roller blade wheels)

http://www.robswoodworking.com/images/stools.jpg


Rob

patriarch wrote:
Rob Stokes wrote in
news:rmzqd.243210$9b.60@edtnps84:


A group of Vancouver (BC) woodbutchers got together over a couple of
weekends, hired a fellow with an Alaskan mill and milled approx 1300 -
1500 bd ft of Silver maple. It was a downed tree that formerly lined
the driveway to an original homestead in our area. Woods's currently
in the kiln but we've found some fantastic figuring in it and are
looking forward to using it. It's not as hard as "hard" maple, but
it's a nice wood. Our total price, cut, milled (9/4) and dried will be
less than $0.55 / bd ft. Hard to beat.

Rob


Do you have your shop up and running again yet? From the sound of this
gloat, you have about 24 months...

Patriarch

--


http://www.robswoodworking.com

Rob Stokes wrote in :

snip

The URL (below) is of a couple of kids gifts I finished on Sunday.
Worlds fastest toothbrushing stools (roller blade wheels)

http://www.robswoodworking.com/images/stools.jpg


What am I missing here?

Patriarch

"George" george@least wrote in message ...
FPL list silver as .44

Acer rubrum, the eastern "soft maple" is .49. Suspect the hardness is for A
rubrum as well.

"todd the wood junkie" wrote in message
om...


Soft maple
Specific Gravity 0.54
Hardness 950 lbs


You are correct. I researched it further, and it seems soft maple
ranges from around 700 lbs to 950. I think red maple ranges
harder(which is what I had, not silver), while silver is lower in
hardness. Silver has a kind of shaggy bark I believe, while the red
is smoother and light grey.

On 30 Nov 2004 05:52:35 -0800, (todd the wood
junkie) wrote:

Silver has a kind of shaggy bark I believe, while the red
is smoother and light grey.


Yes, it is "shaggy" and it tends to flake off.

Why make a normal stool when you can make one that you can flip over and
ride...

Rob

patriarch wrote:
Rob Stokes wrote in :

snip

The URL (below) is of a couple of kids gifts I finished on Sunday.
Worlds fastest toothbrushing stools (roller blade wheels)

http://www.robswoodworking.com/images/stools.jpg



What am I missing here?

Patriarch

--


http://www.robswoodworking.com

In article , (todd the wood junkie) wrote:
"Great firewood" compared to what? Poplar? IME, silver maple burns rapidly to

ashes, whereas sugar maple burns slowly to coals as oak, ash, and hickory do.


Great firewood meaning it burns well. No, not as long as harder woods
like osage and locust, but thick cuts last a good while and produce a
nice clean bed of coals to cook the black locust.

Silver maple? I don't think so. Maybe you're burning red maple?

Excellent wood for a
cutting board center, and easy on knives. Worked well, and is a nice
tight grained wood. It is called soft maple, but it's up there with
cherry, mahogany, and walnut in it's hardness.

Cherry and mahogany, yes. Walnut, no. Silver maple is only about 2/3 as hard
as walnut.


Here are the (dry) hardness numbers for each of the above. When I say
'up there', I guess it's implied that it is 'close' to the others. In
2 cases its actually HARDER. In the case of walnut, you are
incorrect. It is only lower by 60 lbs of force or approx 5%.

Your figures are in error.

Soft maple

First error: we were discussing _silver_ maple specifically. "Soft" maple can
be any of several species, primarily Acer saccharinum (silver) and A. rubrum
(red). There is a *huge* difference in hardness and density between the two.

Specific Gravity 0.54
Hardness 950 lbs

Second error: those figures are for red maple. As noted above, we are
discussing _silver_ maple, for which the corresponding figures are
SG: 0.47
Side hardness: 700 lbs

Black walnut
Specific Gravity 0.59
Hardness 1010 lbs

700 is "about 2/3" of 1010, no?

Cherry
Specific Gravity 0.54
Hardness 660 lbs

Third error: you read the wrong line in the table. The other hardness figures
you cited are for 12% moisture content, but this one is for green lumber. The
correct figure is 950 lbs, not 660.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter
by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com
You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

Well, for one, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine the user stepping
up without realizing the stool's upside down....

"Rob Stokes" wrote in message
news:sward.14845$cE3.8802@clgrps12...
Why make a normal stool when you can make one that you can flip over and
ride...

Rob

patriarch wrote:
Rob Stokes wrote in :

snip

The URL (below) is of a couple of kids gifts I finished on Sunday.
Worlds fastest toothbrushing stools (roller blade wheels)

http://www.robswoodworking.com/images/stools.jpg



What am I missing here?

Patriarch

--


http://www.robswoodworking.com