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Maple is my favorite and I have a huge supply from a coworker. I'm also going to be trying lilac. I have some in my back yard that will be pruned out after the flowers are gone this spring. There's a few dead good size branches that I will be using fairly quickly, but will let the rest season till next year.
There are several species of Maple and it is all good in my book. I have a maple tree in my front yard that took a lightening strike last spring and killed the upper portion of the tree.
Last fall, I trimmed all the dead wood out of the tree and have it split and stacked for use in my Lang. The tree that is left standing looks so sad that Ma wants me to cut it down and plant another maple tree to replace it.
Lilac is a very light smoke, works great on fish. It'll get lost on beef, but ya can try it on everthin, ya never know, might be the wood a choice fer ya.