I sawed a couple hundred BF of who knows what.

Robert Long · July 17, 2007, 11:32:16 PM

Part_Timer;

Now the redness of the first pic is gone and the wood looks more brown than red. Sassafras, mulberry,catalpa, and many more have this tone and colour wood. ???

When you find a leaf, post it please.

Robert

metalspinner · July 17, 2007, 11:35:48 PM

The end of a butternut log is easy enough to identify. The rings are scalloped. Do you remember the end of the log? :D The pic of your end grain does not show the scallopes on my eyes.

Dodgy Loner · July 18, 2007, 12:50:12 AM

It's hard to tell exactly, but from your end-grain photos, it appears that you've got a ring-porous hardwood with a single row of earlywood pores. The rays are indiscernable and are likely uniseriate (ie, one cell wide). Neither the flatsawn grain nor the end grain display any sign of flutes. That narrows down the list of possible specimens considerably. Mulberry, catalpa, KY coffeetree, and sassafras all have a wide row of earlywood pores. Mulberry is also quite hard and usually bright yellow when freshly sawn. It can take years to develop the brown color. Butternut almost always has fluted grain that is apparent on flatsawn surfaces, so I doubt that it's butternut. Among domestic hardwoods, that narrows the list down to American or hard elm, ash, and chestnut. Due to the coloration, I doubt that it's American elm or white ash. Hard elm can be brownish in color, but it is a pain to saw and does not fit the description that PT gave. Black ash could also look like that, but I've never heard of a black ash 24" DBH and arrow-straight, so I doubt that's a possibility.

That leaves chestnut. There are many areas of the Midwest that have only recently been affected by the blight, and everything - the form, the color, the softness, the pore arrangement and the size of the rays - seem to agree with this answer. For that reason, I'm going to have to tentatively guess chestnut...But I'll withhold my final judgment until I see a board at the Piggy Roast! :D

Squirrell_Boy · July 18, 2007, 01:41:22 AM

Wow, that sure seems like Chestnut. I haven't heard of any freshly sawn though, only reclaimed. It is Oak like, but lighter and pretty stable and decay resistant by most accounts.

None of that that appears to have Elm grain characteristics that i've seen. Doesn't look like ash to me. The mulberry i've seen is quite different and heavy and hard.

My vote is for Chestnut with the evidence available so far. I have only seen a few Chestnut trees and they weren't very big. I guess they used to be very large when mature.

Squirrell_Boy · July 18, 2007, 01:44:50 AM

I hope Chestnut can make a comeback. My cousin is trying to grow some. Check out the American Chestnut Foundation website.

http://www.acf.org/About.htm

Bibbyman · July 18, 2007, 03:46:22 AM

Here is a picture of some coffee bean I've sawn. It's hard to tell the colors from the photos but the grain pattern looks very much like your sample above. I find coffee bean very easy sawing.

Sassafras has a distinct smell of, well, sassafras when it's sawn. You would have known if it was sassafras.

getoverit · July 18, 2007, 04:44:50 AM

Part-Timer, you really seem to draw that oddball lumber !
I dont have a clue what this one would be, but is sure is pretty stuff. Youre going to have to start making some things out of all of that strange wood youre collecting up there!

Part_Timer · July 18, 2007, 07:37:02 AM

Metal spinner That is the end of the log.

Bibby Thanks for the pic now I'm more confused than ever.

GOI I can't help it. When they call and say bring the trailer and we'll load it and you can just have it you don't ask to may questions they might just change their mind.

I do know that it's not sassafras, or camphor. The neighborhood couldn't smell it.

Thanks to everyone for the help. Now I just have to figure out what to make out of it.

bull · July 18, 2007, 08:01:11 AM

the bark looks like black oak or pin oak to me... The Board looks like white or Chesnut Oak

Dodgy Loner · July 18, 2007, 02:30:50 PM

I was thinking oak, too, when I saw the picture of the bark. However, the end grain photo rules out oak, because it lacks the nice, big rays that make quartersawn oak so desirable.

flip · July 18, 2007, 04:33:58 PM

CATALPA. Bean there done that...

WDH · July 18, 2007, 07:45:41 PM

Good stuff ;D.

I am in the Bibby camp. Might be the the Bean tree.........Not brown enough to be chestnut. It sure is ashy like (not Asy-like, not thin enough :D :D).

I have not ruled out ash. I say either the Bean tree (not the Beanthere tree ;D) or ash or catalpa.

If the parenchyma is paratrachial, that confirms ash. Cannot say from the end grain pic with the resolution. I'd say it has been~~there~~ narrowed to three possibilities :-\.

footer · July 18, 2007, 07:48:59 PM

Looks like catalpa to me too. Catalpa has a real distinktive smell that you will never forget once you smell it. It is also very light and dries real quick.
Catalpa
more pics

Don_Papenburg · July 18, 2007, 11:28:17 PM

My first thoughts were Catalpa . I look for catalpa that is not straight for cuting as it has a better grain figure but straight grain works a lot easier . Catalpa is the only wood I have handled that is light and quick to dry . vote early and vote offen , Catalpa catalpa or maybe.................................................

Part_Timer · July 19, 2007, 07:52:06 AM

??? ??? If the parenchyma is paratrachial, that confirms ash. ??? ??? WDH could ya speak louder or slower or somethin I didn't catch that

WDH · July 19, 2007, 05:34:33 PM

OK, remember, you asked for it ;D.

In the latewood part of the growth ring in ash and hickory, there are thin bands of living cells called parenchyma cells, that wander thru the latewood parallel to the growth ring (unlike rays which run perpendicular to the growth ring). In ash, these bands of parenchyma run between the latewood pores and even wrap around the pores, which makes them para or associated with the latewood pores. In hickory, these bands run through the latewood with no obvious associatian with the latewood pores themselves, therefore, apo or not assocaited with the latewood pores. It helps to use a hand lens to see this.

Catalpa does not have bands of parenchyma in the latewood. Not sure about Kentucky coffeetree. I will search for a pic.

WDH · July 19, 2007, 05:47:10 PM

Here is some reference material on parenchyma arrangement.

www.uwsp.edu/papersci/biasca/ps350/axial.htm

www.faculty.sfasu.edu/mcbroommatth/Lectures/Wood_Science/Lecture_5_Hardwood_Structure.PDF (PAGES 7 & 8).

Part_Timer · July 20, 2007, 10:08:03 AM

WDH I'm sure glad I opened the last one at work. 9.86meg. I'd a been till Christmas at home. I have the printer going now and I'll take a look this weekend. Glad it has pictures.

You going to be at the hog roast? I'm going to throw a piece of this in the truck so I don't forget it.

TexasTimbers · July 20, 2007, 12:46:24 PM

Part Timer,

I can't stand the mystery anymore. Shave off a piece of end grain and send it to me or Donk or anyone else who has an 10X mag and an ID book. I gots ta know da truth!

RichlandSawyer · July 20, 2007, 01:55:53 PM

Looks to me like White Willow, the name is deceiving because the wood is actually dark. The tree doesnt look like a typical willow but has small willow type leaves that have a white hue to them. The bark is thick and rough and the wood has large poors that really show up while turning. I cut some for firewood (not a good idea) it burns really nice but the stink will run you out of the house. Still have some on the wood pile and it only gets used in the garage stove.

Dodgy Loner · July 20, 2007, 02:12:56 PM

Quote from: WDH on July 18, 2007, 07:45:41 PM
If the parenchyma is paratrachial, that confirms ash. Cannot say from the end grain pic with the resolution. I'd say it has been~~there~~ narrowed to three possibilities :-\.

Sassyfras has paratrachial parenchyma, too :P

RichlandSawyer · July 20, 2007, 03:01:43 PM

Here are some pictures of the white willow.

WDH · July 20, 2007, 04:43:36 PM

Quote from: Part_Timer on July 20, 2007, 10:08:03 AM
You going to be at the hog roast? I'm going to throw a piece of this in the truck so I don't forget it.

PT,

I am planning on being there. By all means, bring a sample so we can all argue over it :D.

Dodgy Loner · July 20, 2007, 04:46:51 PM

Wow, that willow does look remarkably similar to the wood in PT's photos. I had ruled it out earlier, because all we have around here is black willow, which doesn't have the uneven-grained appearance of the wood in PT's photos. I think the only safe bet we can make is that no one will know for sure what that wood is until we see it firsthand at the Pig Roast. And heck, that's just another reason for me to look forward to it! 8)