The wood appears to be soft. Any ideas -- willow?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/15632/logend_comp.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/15632/bark2comp.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/15632/bark1comp.jpg)
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(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/15632/endgraincomp.jpg)
Willow probably, probably not box elder . Awfully crooked for a log, junk might be more like it. :D
Basswood maybe?
cottonwood?
Looks similar to hickory around here.
Looks like a fine saw log to me, but I never did have the pleasure of only sawing perfect logs.
Yeah, cottonwood could be to. Cottonwood, aspen and willow are all similar.
:D That dar would be a practice Log 8) Shouldn't hurt the saw blade much :D
8)
The first 8 or 9 feet has minor sweep and then it gets crazy crooked at the top. We have a lot of eastern cottonwood in Indiana. This of course could be cottonwood, but the bark is straighter or something about its appearance doesn't look like cottonwood usually looks. The wood also seems much softer than silver maple and I thought cottonwood was about like silver maple. I cut a chunk off of the butt and cut it on a miter saw and it really grips a saw blade. It came with trees I bought from clearing for a subdivision and they stopped well back from the creek where I would expect to find the cottonwoods.
It is sassafras. You should be able to smell the lemony odor, especially if you can get some twigs. Also, the twigs will be green. If you nick off the outer bark, you will see that cinnamon color in the bark.
I didn't realize sassafrass wood was that light, I thought it was darker. I haven't milled any yet. We have some around here but not a lot.
My first impression was sourwood, but he probably doesn't have it in Indiana. Then I thought of basswood. I'm not familiar enough with cottonwood, but I thought the bark would look different from that.
I don't think sassafras would be in the soft category and I thought it was more yellow brown in color and ash-like grain. Basswood, wouldn't have those diamond like furrows in the bark. Hard to tell by the color of the bark, because on exposure it could go from white or yellow to a brown once the air hits it. Seems from that cut that the wood is a soft wood because it's fuzzed up some. Ash, hard maple, beech yellow birch don't get fuzzy along the cut.
Trust me :).
Trust me is not a trust worthy statement. ;D But the only fuzzy cut is were the carbite toothed feller cut it off the stump and it would be difficult to find a log that looked more like sassafras.
Quote from: limbrat on June 17, 2013, 08:13:14 PM
Trust me is not a trust worthy statement. ;D
I am deeply hurt..... :D
I am deeply hurt..... :D
[/quote]
Dont believe a word of it. ;D
I have a sassafras log in this batch and with the sassafras log the wood is darker, kind of brown with a rusty tint and the wood and bark smell like sassafras. This log does not smell like sassafras. It would take a leap of faith beyond trust to get to sassafras.
Maybe the smelly log has more heartwood.
Basswood
Bass dont grow here but the sassafras that i have cut that has some rot or spalt in it has a milder and sort of sour smell. Like a oak log gets a bad smell when it has rot or spalt in it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13795/027.JPG) This tree blow over in a storm. when i sawed it it didnt smell right but the leaves and the smell off the root ball said it was sassafras.
While I have learned not to bet against WDH, Swampdonkey raises the points I was considering.
I say trust me :D.
OK I have to trust you ;), after closer inspection the bark looks too "spiral" (for lack of better term) to be any cottonwood we have around here, but it's not far off.
Basswood
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20547/20130618_072224.jpg)
Basswood does not have the cinnamon color once you knock off the very outer layer of bark.
No possible way it's butternut?
Wood's not dark enough for butternut.
Quote from: SwampDonkey on June 19, 2013, 05:24:12 AM
Wood's not dark enough for butternut.
Black willow fuzzes up like that when you cut it. Just sayin' 8)
How about a nice, clean X section shot at magnified macro? That would settle it real quick like. ;D
Also looks a wee bit like black gum. But the bark doesn't look right.
tulip poplar. 8)
I know it isn't sassafras or tulip poplar. I'm pretty sure it isn't cottonwood. I"m assuming at the moment that it is basswood, it is very soft. But I do not know black willow at all.
What could I do with an ordinary camera to help?
Most digital cameras have a macro setting. This will get you close. Then use the zoom feature to get it bigger. Cut a slice of the end grain with a very sharp knife or a razor blade. Same deal with the side grain. Take picture. Post. ;D
Yes, pic of sharp slice of the end grain. Sassafras is ring porous, basswood is diffuse porous, and cottonwood is semi-diffuse porous.
WDH, Sir I am sorry but I don't think this is sassafras. Unless the color is lessened due to region perhaps? The wood just seems too light in color if you compare to our sassafras. Plus the sassafras here, when cut with a Hydro Ax, as I figure the OP's log was cut with the same...usually turns much darker at the cutting surface. Wouldn't the OP be able to notice the smell of sassafras? I mean, ya just can't hardly mistake or miss the smell....a beautiful smell IMO
And in no way do I think it's Tupelo.
Does it look like pig nut hickory or cottonwood?
Not trying to argue in any ways Sir, and I hope I have not over stepped my bounds.
Our basswood up north don't have diamond figured bark like in the OP. I have some short logs in the barn and the bark ain't even close. However older willow will have that bark pattern and some species get quite big. We don't have any black willow that I have ever seen. I've seen black willow NW of the 'Golden Horseshoe' in Ontario and it's about as big as balm-of-gilead in girth.
It's Basswood
I agree Basswood/American Linden .
No clean slice of the end grain, yet :).
It is an exact match to the bark of my sassafras, but mine has almost no sapwood.
The bark is a dead ringer for sassafras, but the wood...not so much. I would say a close up of cleanly sliced end grain would settle this. If its ring-porous, it will be immediately obvious.
Not in the sassafras camp on this one. It looks more like basswood. Basswood will turn color around the bark like that when its cut. Makes good carving stock for duck decoys.
We have no cottonwood in this area, so I don't know what the logs look like.
Thats a easy one Sassafras.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33626/thumb_sassafras-bark.jpg)
Looks just like the size, bark and wood of a black willow I cut down at the edge of my pond. We still need a closeup. ;D 8) 8) 8)
The sassafras bark pic could just as easily be ash in these parts. They start out brownish and then go gray with age.
Black willow, been there, done it
I would say definitely Basswood. The Basswood up here is a dead ringer. The heartwood tends to get quite dark towards the center.