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View Full Version : Wood core quality from Tap Drill: What do you do?



SandMan
02-24-2013, 05:45 PM
If your tapping and you drill a hole that gives you mostly "brown" poor quality wood core, do you drill a new hole or place the tap in the hole you know is probably poor quality wood? Curious what others do?

Russell Lampron
02-24-2013, 05:57 PM
You're not going to get any sap out of brown wood so putting the tap in anyway doesn't make any sense. Evaluate the health of the tree to decide if you should drill another hole or not. Most of the time I end up drilling another hole and marking the tree as a cull.

Scribner's Mountain Maple
02-24-2013, 06:35 PM
Tap Only in White Wood

Drill all tap holes into healthy, clean, white wood. Generally a depth of not more than 1½ inches is recommended. When dark-colored wood shows in a hole, that tap should not be used. A bad tap hole will yield little or no sap, and may spoil the flavor of large amounts of syrup. From UMaine