The LumberWorksForums

Sawmill & Lumber Forums, Built by Sawyers & Woodworkers for Woodworkers & Sawyers. Got Questions? Get Answers. Got Answers Post them to help Others. Pictures Welcome.
It is currently Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:14 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours



Welcome
<strong>Welcome to The LumberworksForums.

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple, and absolutely free, so please, <a href="/profile.php?mode=register">join the LumberWorks community today! We have many good folks and plenty of useful information inside.</a></strong>


Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Water Maple?
PostPosted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:02 pm 
Offline
Member
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:08 pm
Posts: 49
Location: Eli, WV
Has thanked: 0 time
Have thanks: 0 time
[font=Comic Sans MS]Has anyone ever harvested a water maple? I don't know if thats what it's actually called but is is a large maple that grows on the riverbanks. We have access to about 40 trees with the bottom cut being 24 to 40 inches. Some too big to handle. Wondering if it has any value as siding. I'm going to need a good bit for a near project. Logs are strait and tall.
Stan[/font]

_________________
To whom much is given, much is expected.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:53 am 
Offline
Site Admin/Sawyer
User avatar

Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:46 pm
Posts: 601
Has thanked: 0 time
Have thanks: 0 time
I've never been able to find water maple listed as an official common name for any of the native maples. But I've heard many around here use water maple as a broad term to cover any maple... I usually couldn't get them to narrow it down to a particular type of maple. So, starting from the top, there's 4 maples native to WV that get to the size you're seeing:

Sugar
Black
Red
Silver

I usually don't associate sugar maple with wet areas. And black maple prefers even drier areas than sugar maple. Both of these are sold as sugar maple.

Red and silver don't mind getting their feet wet. But it's usually red maple I see more often along stream banks around here.

All 4 maples are easy to tell apart. Black maple is rare and has a distinct droop shape to its leaves. They allmost look like they're stressed for water and are starting to wilt. The leaves are larger than sugar maple and are darker green.

Silver maple has deeper flutes in the mature leaves. And the leaves present a silvery underside in the wind. This is the tree that most often appears in yards as a landscape tree. It grows fast, takes on a poor form when open grown, and holds up poorly to wind, etc. Most consider it a junk tree that the developer planted becasue it grows fast. Not much better than a bradford pear.

Red maple has a short leaf stem and the stem itself has a red hue to it. I've seen surgar maple also have a red hue to the stems on some of the leaves but the stems on red maple is much shorter. Also, the leaf buds on red maple are red.

You can find out more here: WV maples

Narrow the id down...then we can talk uses. If you have trouble with the id then post some pictures of the both sides of the leaves, some of the twigs, and several of the bark. (I'm not very good at sorting maple bark.)


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron