Black maple VS. Sugar maple

[220 maple]

In our area Black Maple is the Sweetest tree, however they can fool you, what I thought was a black maple was a sugar and thirty feet away what I thought was a Sugar was a black maple, Tim Wilmot was at my camp 3 to 4 years ago doing a 3/16 tubing seminar, he got me straighten out, I was completely fooled by the black bark, Black bark tree had typical sugar maple leaves, the gray bark tree had the black maple leaves.
Before Tim left West Virginia I when into my woods and found a sapling, dug it up and gave it to him to take home to Vermont, hopefully it was a Black Maple, had the leaf pattern of a Black maple.

Mark 220 Maple

[Ed R]

I have had issues differentiating between sugar maples and black maples as 220 maple stated above in the summer with the leaves on let alone during the time we tap. To the original poster, are you sure these are not silvers or reds that the previous owners did not tap? In the past both have been looked down on by Michiganders and not tapped, even when they are only 10 feet away from a sugar, I have been guilty of this as well.

[VanderBie Farms]

I'm sure its a black, good leaf id. I don't have any reds or silver on my bush but they grow locally. For years I tapped mountain and red maple as it was all I had access to, they make a darker syrup but absolutely good stuff. When we bought our new house I was delighted to see the big sugar maples and I have since id'd a couple black's. I will tap them for sure.