BOWYERS Q?

[alpo]

How can i id Rock Maple in my wood pile?
The logs were delivered in July, but must have been cut atleast a year ago, very seasoned, all cut & split now... except fo a couple of "select peices", that looked like they had a bow or 2 hiding in them.
Now some of that maple was almost as hard on the saw as ROCK, does that make it rock maple ?? i know i know, but how do ya tell at this point, or can ya, without seeing the leaf & standing tree ?
I will continue to wittle away at it regardless, but wonder how much of a waste of time it is to attempt to get a bow out of the firewood pile, that has had no prep or protection , and has been down possibly for a couple of years ?

[POINTY STICKS]

alpo I'm not very educated either when it come to finding the right woods. But if youcann't get the answer on this site you may try this site here. Maybe somebody over there will be able to help as it is a new maritime based site.

stickbender.proboards59.com/

;D

[Longbowluver]

If it has any rot or degradation then it may have lost some strength. It does not need to be ROCK maple to build a bow.

[alpo]

thanks for the referal Pointy Sticks, that has the makings of a terrific site.
I am not concerned at all about it having any rot, as only a couple of logs from the whole 10+ cord had any moisture content at all. but maybe some insect infestations..or damage from being handled & piled a couple of times by heavy equipment.
and if it's not Rock maple.. then what maple would it likely be...and what ID clues would i use to determine rock from sugar from birdseye.... and so on....?

[POINTY STICKS]

Not 100% alpo but i'm almost sure you'd be able to pick out birds eye by the grain of the wood itself. I have used what I beleive to be sugar maple and it worked very well till the one little flaw in the wood gave up .

[alpo]

from the google'ing i have done this morning i guess it was a fairly DUMB Question, as rock maple is simply a 'nickname" for sugar maple, and birdseye describes an abnormallity in the cell structure of some sugar maples. So they are al the same species, just display some character differences.
Now i am almost certain it is sugar / rock maple, but would like to see a bonifide red maple up close to be certain.