[bckskin2]

I found some wood in a stack of fire wood that looks like maple but is much softer and easier to whittle. It splits pretty easy. I was thinking of making a dough bowel/ tough and some spoons or paddles. Could this be soft maple?
Jerry

[Colin_Partridge]

Jerry sounds like what we in Canada call Manitoba Maple. Grows very fast and is much softer than Sugar Maple. However if it is it does carve really nice.
Colin

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Well the only soft maple we have here comes in the form of a donut! lol

[wade clark]

I think the silver maples here in Tennessee are fairly soft, based on all the ones I've cut down. I think they'd carve nicely, smooth and consistent.
Wade

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I would like to see some "soft" maple, is it the same beautiful grain as the others?

[wade clark]

Yes, it's a beautiful milky white with a bit of color in the grain. I've cut several small trunks/logs of it but haven't had a chance to try carving it. I actually have about a dozen silver maples I took out, piled up. the biggest trunks are maybe 8 inches. They grow like weeds, coming up everywhere when they send their whirly-bird seeds down. Standing, i have silver maples 3+ ft. thick. The ones I've taken out I've replaced with fruit trees.
One of these days I'll try carving a piece. If it's any good I'll send you a chunk, Hi_Ho.
Wade

[AlArchie]

Wade, you just might have a
Box Elder.....in the maple family, also known as Manitoba Maple. It's a lot softer than most other maples, has a very creamy even grain and may be streaked with some very brilliant reds and greens. Our club has a member who turns pens from this wood,and they are really impressive (for small items). I have a fair sized box elder that has to come down this fall and I will be making some of it into carving blocks.

al

[wade clark]

Al,
There are several large maples in my yard that the locals call silver maples. The trees I've taken out are all seedlings/saplings that the previous owners couldn't bear to take out. Their "whirlybird" seeds land everywhere and sprout. They'll form a solid wall if let grow. I see places around here where they've been let go and it's impassable. I'm going to ask, this winter, if I can cut them for walking sticks. Thousands of them, growing strait as can be from the crowding and fighting for light.
Wade
p.s. Just looked up Box Elder and Silver Maple in a great little tree identification book, MASTER TREE FINDER by May Theilgaard Watts. They are definately Silver Maple. At this point, I've only cut them green; they may be hard when dry. I'd encourage anyone to find a copy of this book. It's a pocket size step-by-step field guide that shows a way to identify any tree like no other book I've ever seen. It's subtitled " A Manual for the Identification of Trees by their Leaves".

[bckskin2]

I May try taking it into the local Wood Carver store see if the can identify. I would like to get a lot more of it. The good thing about carving fire wood is if I mess up it still burns!
Thanks,
Jerry

[AlArchie]

We have a "silver maple" in the yard, too. It shucks seeds like crazy (little whirly-bird types) and sprout everywhere.

They, like the box elder have the same type seeds and both produce straight multiple saplings, both from seeds and runners.

There is also a silver poplar, an introduced species, that is mistakenly called silver maple due to the leaf shape, but the seeds are entirely different and the saplings are not all that straight. These darn things propogate like dandelions, popping up all over the lawn and need to be mowed more often than the grass. Nice looking tree, but what a pest!

Sounds like you may have the "silver" ie "soft" maple (acer saccharinum)

Al