it was the DanG-edest thing

[Too Big To Fail]

I was sawing some "Sandy" wood for a guy in Jersey yesterday and the last log on the pile was the hardest thing I've run into so far.  I realize pictures would help, but it was getting dark and I wanted to wrap up as I had a 2 1/2 hour drive back home.  It was some kind of oak, but it had bark like a maple, a fair few knots, but rock hard even where it was clear.  When I hit it with the hammer it would almost ring.  Rolling it I could tell it was extremely dense.  It cut so hard I thought I had hit a nail- nope, so I cut a bit more, no improvement, so I changed the blade but it still cut hard.  The black locust I cut earlier in the day was like butter by comparison.

Any Ideas what it might have been?  Maybe they'd been feeding it powerbars....

[pineywoods]

Osage orange / hedge/ bodock would fit that description especially if it was dry..

[5quarter]

Well, The black locust is harder than oak. Maybe one of the hickories. Bark is deep furrowed and holds dirt really well. Hedge apple has orange color in the furrows of the bark and is yellow, similar to mulberry and blacklocust. Could be Live Oak, but I don't know if it will grow in your area.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I could have been a petrified log. 

[WDH]

Sounds suspiciously like a hickory  .

[Magicman]

My first thought was Live Oak.

[Too Big To Fail]

Osage Orange seems to only grow in Texas according to google.  Live oak is southern and coastal I gather. 
I've sawn plenty of hickory, but I guess it could have been another type.  Quarter sawn it had nice rays like an oak, and there was a dark spot in the end grain showing steel like you'd expect from an oak.  Is there other species that get nice tiger stripes like that?  Maybe it was just an oak growing somewhere that made it really dense?  It had a very tight grain.  Oh, and it was very green, cut the day before or possibly that morning, so you'd expect it would cut pretty good.  Dunno

[hackberry jake]

Google is wrong. Osage orange grows great around here in river bottoms. Sounds like Pecan  to me  ;D

[Okrafarmer]

Google is wrong. Osage orange grows great around here in river bottoms. Sounds like Pecan  to me  ;D

Bark like a maple + Harder than oak =

+1

[Okrafarmer]

My first thought was Live Oak.

Mine too. And they can grow somewhat outside their native range, I have seen them up here in the upper piedmont growing in people's yards.

[Okrafarmer]

I could have been a petrified log. 

Maybe, if you tried hard enough.  :

[customsawyer]

I would say Hickory.

[WDH]

The pronounced ray fleck is found in the oaks, beech, and sycamore.

[Too Big To Fail]

Definitely not sycamore.  The one beech tree I've milled to date had some fleck but was very light in color.  After googling around a bit I'm thinking maybe swamp chestnut oak.  It seems to have that kind of loose (maple-y) bark.  Anybody have experience cutting SCO?

[Leigh Family Farm]

You sure you weren't cutting in the Jersey Pine Barrens?  Its a swampy mess and because thats where the Jersey  lives! Any chance getting the owner to email you some pictures?

[Too Big To Fail]

could've been a regular red oak, just cursed by the Jersey Devil.

[WDH]

Swamp chestnut oak can be very impressive, especially the old ones that grow in the bottomlands.  Customsawyer and I cut up a very nice one this spring.  It was 34" on the little end at 21' up the tree. 

[Too Big To Fail]

I'd call that impressive.  Was it hard as a rock, or not too bad?

[WDH]

Here is a thread on the whole enchilada  ;D

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,56850.msg824412.html#msg824412

[Roxie]

I'm from Southeast Pennsylvania, and let me assure you that Osage Orange is abundant in this area.  The wood is bright orange/yellow and fades to a a dull orange. 

If you are using it for firewood, it is important to identify it, and separate it from the other wood pile, because you do NOT want to put more than one log at a time into a wood stove.  It burns very hot. 

By the way, welcome to the forum "Too Big To Fall"!  I really like your handle. 

[Too Big To Fail]

thanks!  But does OO fleck like an oak?

[WDH]

No.  More like cherry or maple.  It has a fleck, just somewhat subdued.