HI Nina
I am stydying my maple following your advice.. it helps
I have to ask you one thing as you are quite keen in plants chemistry & deseases
I had a wonderful cicatrizing material sort of yellow sap wood glue that
dried and fell in dust with time.. not available in the market anymore
unfortunately sniff!
so I decided to make one myself

I took incens , mirrah ( both are for smoldering )and bee wax ( natural one) I
make a fine dust of the first two and mix with wax I get a sort of material that
is malleable .. some heat will melt and I can spam on the cuts and it clogs
again. adding fresh pine sap or a drop of turpentine/white spirit will do the
same..
I think that mix should preserve from water decay and deseases what do you
think ?
moreover teh color is almost bark like so does not offend sight when put in
visible places
just you opinion
Have a nice week end
Theo