The pieces of firewood that are missing the bark, with the red color to them. Sorry there's a few different types of wood in those loads, it's the ones with no bark.
It was a dead standing tree I cut last year for firewood, roughly 60' tall. It was also the nastiest and most temperamental tree I've dropped in my life. Notched and Backcut, with a 12,000 pound winch hooked 40' up, it refused to fall. Took 2 trucks pulling with winches and a 70mph gust of wind to drop it.
The rings are close together (hard to see in the pictures), and it stinks when you cut it. We're talking the morning after a night of hard drinking whiskey farts stink.
It also doesn't like to be split, it stalls my Onan powered log splitter (swapping that engine for a Chevette 4 Cylinder Diesel). When it does split, the billet snaps like a 12 Gauge went off and the two halves go flying with tremendous force.
Burns extremely hot too.
Trying to figure out what it is, since there's more of them, and the grain pattern and color would make a beautiful island counter top in my kitchen (the smell does go away after it's cut)
Also whatever it is, what does it look like when it's not dead?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52507/358E8B62-5FE7-49B5-9AFE-D7B98420EB3B.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1541460003)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52507/E3077457-4B5E-4C87-905D-2AFC7218DCF0.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1541461312)
Any chance it is beech? That is about the hardest wood I ever tried to split. Did it have a real thin bark?
It didn't have any bark when I cut the tree down (there were several more just like it within a couple hundred feet of each other)
I just realized, I still have one billet left from that tree. I've been using it as a seat on my front porch for the last 10 months because the splitting maul just bounces off of it and it stalls my splitter. I'll rip a slab off with the band saw so I get some close up pictures of the grain and rings.
Elm
Quote from: bitternut on November 05, 2018, 10:04:06 PM
Elm
That makes sense. I looked up Elm and I've seen those little seeds on the ridge where I cut firewood and I've seen tons of trees with that bark pattern (mixed in with black walnut, locust, etc growing in the same area)
Also makes sense that it likes lots of drainage, the ridge where they're growing was a stone quarry about 150 years ago and it's all caves underneath. Tons of drainage!
More specifically, maybe Red Elm.
Elm does not split, In the old timey days of yore they used it for wagon wheel hubs because of this quality. I have sawed it into boards and they love to cup, twist etc. I have gotten straight boards and used them to make toy guns etc. I think I laid three long boards down and used them as floor joists. Anyway I burn smaller ones in my wood heater I just don't split them, I use a wedge and sledge hammer on my firewood, to cheap to buy a wood splitter and need the exercise.
I cut a sizable elm years ago and could not split it with a maul and sledgehammer. It laid in the yard for a while, then the temperature dropped to about -20 degrees for a couple days. I went out and split that wood with a maul like it was ash.
The bottom pic looks like black locust. The top pic looks like a mix, mostly elm in top.
Around here, when I was a youngster, the main streets were lined with elm, they all died due to Dutch Elm Disease.
Years later I cut several, if they still had bark on them they were damp, most had little or no bark, they were bone dry. Extremely hard to split. The chainsaw chain threw sparks as it was cut.
Now days a few come up from old seed in the ground, but it is highly unusual for them to get even 10" DBH before they die. I've read someplace that someday a mutation will likely grow from one of those old seeds that will not be killed by Dutch Elm and seeds will likely be able to be planted from such a tree and they will also survive. However we may not see that in our lifetime.
Elm is tough wood, my dad had a trailer he decked using 2" elm crossways then 2 planks down front to back where the tracks ran. They held up for at least 20 years, at which time the dozer and trailer were sold and the deck was still sound albeit torn up from the track cross bars from 20 or so years of heavy use.
I took down a dead elm a few years ago that was about 20" which is about as large as they get anymore .I do however have saplings growing in the woods .It's tough gnarly wood for sure .It will bend like a noodle before it breaks .They used it for wagon tongues and loading planks .
I suspect ,given enough time the elm might develop resistance to Dutch elm and maybe ash to the borer .I won't be around in a hundred years to see it though .
The largest elm I have ever seen was at Longwood gardens in PA its about 60"dbh.
Sure looks like, and acts like, elm to me!
Growing up, our town had a whole bunch of 3-4' diameter Elm lining most of the streets, they are all gone. I don't know if any got to 5' diameter, I didn't pay close enough attention back then.
A sawmill where I worked it the 70's sold elm to Ithaca Gun Co. for gunstocks as it could be stained to get the look they wanted. Many years ago, before my time, elm was used for horse planking. They put it on the floor of the stalls to keep the horses off the concrete. I've hauled rip-rap (huge pieces of limestone) in trailers that were lined with elm planking covered with boiler plate steel. When a payloader put a 20,000 lb.+ rock in the trailer it would rattle your teeth!
Elm. A few people around here the dead stuff out of the swamp for firewood. Most is under 8 inch on the stump. No bark. Some bigger still standing dead we come across occasionaly. A real bear to split. But I'll go thru the work of doing it. Excellent firewood. Doesn't burn real hot but burns for along time. Still got a few big guys around standing on fence lines between fields. Not many though. Some new growth here n there.