What kind of wood is this?

JPowell7575 · July 07, 2014, 02:41:32 PM

New to the forum here. I got this wood in East Texas and am not sure what kind of wood it is. I've made an educated guess but would rather not share yet just so it doesn't place any bias on the answers.Anyone know? Thanks for the help.

I can take more pictures if needed.

Edit: I have to fix the pictures real quick, I thought the --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!-- link would work. Will fix now.

JPowell7575 · July 07, 2014, 02:51:42 PM

There we go. Sorry about that.

Texas Ranger · July 07, 2014, 03:05:30 PM

It looks like a red oak, splits like a red oak, and if it smells like sourmash, it's oak. But I could be wrong.

JPowell7575 · July 07, 2014, 03:09:36 PM

I know it looks like red oak but I've split more Red Oak than I like to think about and this definitely isn't red oak. That's what I thought it was until I started splitting it.

Texas Ranger · July 07, 2014, 04:34:27 PM

Got a leaf?

JPowell7575 · July 07, 2014, 04:35:39 PM

Sure don't bud. There were two but I cut them off while I was transporting the wood. Sorry.

hackberry jake · July 07, 2014, 08:19:06 PM

Looks pecany to me.

WDH · July 07, 2014, 08:33:56 PM

I believe that it is hickory.

Texas Ranger · July 07, 2014, 11:57:05 PM

Danny, does hickory split like that?

LeeB · July 08, 2014, 01:13:40 AM

Looks like hickory to me. I just split a some of it 2 weeks ago.

WDH · July 08, 2014, 07:53:59 AM

Yes, it does split like that, and the heartwood color is just right. The bark makes me think pignut.

JPowell7575 · July 08, 2014, 08:37:25 AM

I've got a few more pictures I took last night. Got lucky and found a couple of leaves.

Any chance it can be black gum?

Texas Ranger · July 08, 2014, 09:19:26 AM

Not black gun, I'd go with elm.

goose63 · July 08, 2014, 09:34:20 AM

Do you wash your wood be for you split it? :D

JPowell7575 · July 08, 2014, 09:56:33 AM

That's my dryer to cure it faster!! Haha.

LeeB · July 08, 2014, 10:05:36 AM

Cedar elm

WDH · July 08, 2014, 10:11:17 AM

So much for the hickory theory :D.

Elm for sure.

JPowell7575 · July 08, 2014, 10:22:25 AM

Just curious, what changed everyone's mind from Hickory to Elm? I didn't think it was hickory, but I'm certainly no expert. I've never dealt with Elm before, so I can believe that. I've messed with sweet gum but never black gum, didn't really seem like the sweet gum I had seen before. I remember that stuff stunk. Is this wood good for anything besides burning in the fire pit outside? It seems unusually wet, and I'm not sure if I'd call it a hardwood or a softwood. If it's a hardwood it's definitely softer than the Oaks and Hickories I've dealt with before. Seems like it will take a good while to dry too.

WDH · July 08, 2014, 10:34:31 AM

The leaf identifies it as an elm. The leaf margins are toothed in a doubly serrate pattern where there two distinct sizes of teeth, one larger, and one smaller. It is a simple leaf, meaning one leaf blade to a petiole (the little stalk that attaches the leaf to the twig). Hickory has a compound leaf where there is one main leaf stalk (the petiole in a compound leaf is called a rachis) and 5 or more leaflets that radiate from the central leaf rachis.

The are several species of trees that have interlacing ridges in the bark. Hickory, elm, ash are three of them. Elm also has spiral grain which makes it difficult to split like sweetgum, blackgum, and sycamore.

JPowell7575 · July 08, 2014, 10:35:11 AM

Awesome thank you guys so much for the help.

Texas Ranger · July 08, 2014, 10:44:59 AM

still cannot believe it split like that, elm and hickory have been buggers to split, for me. Never split black gun, but, would think it the same.

JPowell7575 · July 08, 2014, 10:52:54 AM

There's absolutely nothing good about the way this wood splits. I think I'm a fairly decent wood splitter and this is definitely the hardest wood I've ever split. If I was doing this for anything other than just fun I would pile all this up and have a bonfire just to get rid of it.

Texas Ranger · July 08, 2014, 12:01:23 PM

Hey, JP, while you are in an appreciative mood, why not fill out the personal information that shows on your posts, so we know where, who and what ya are!! 8)

Oh, yeah, welcome to the forum.

JPowell7575 · July 08, 2014, 12:16:15 PM

Done and done. I was hoping it was some sort of wood I could use to cook with, I was really excited when people started saying Pecan and Hickory, but I didn't think it was any of those. It's hard to tell without seeing/smelling the wood and not having any leaves either. I forgot how much fun running a saw and splitting wood was.