Help me ID this wood?

[Coldfront]

This is a new one to me, I have been getting a 10 cord truck load delivered of 8 footers for about the last 4 years but never saw this wood before. I usually get Red Oak, White Oak, Ash, Birch, soft Maple, hard Maple. But I don't know about this wood. It has been sitting for maybe 2 years in log length 8 foot, the bark comes off clean as a whistle and in one piece flexable, the skin of the wood was moist and shinny, it split very hard and is very stringy, and had a very pungent odor almost like a sort of Cedar smell. here are some pictures if they work out from photo bucket.

 

[Coldfront]

More pics

 

[stihl sawing]

Was those split with a splitter. if so my guess is Sweet gum. It looks just like it when split. dry sweet gum at that. sweet gum will rot fast and has a moldy odor when left out in the weather.

 

[Mike PA]

:agree2: not sure, though.

 

[ctrees4$]

That is Elm and from the pictures I can see that you already know it is hard to split.Elm burns good.Try cutting the larger pieces in half with your saw before splitting.

 

[Coldfront]

Thank god I had a hydraulic splitter, that was some tough stringy stuff, I was wondering if it was possibly Elm.

 

[crowbuster]

Looks like elm to me as well, glad I don't get much of it. hahaha

C.B.

 

[rob066]

I dont know what it is. You are right that sure is stringy. I bet that is a real pita to split

 

[yooper]

Elm or Ironwood

 

[stihl sawing]

I'm still stickin with sweetgum, I;m going to go see if i have any left to take a pic of. I've cut aand split a ton of that stuff and it looks just like his pics. You also gotta remember it is two years old. the log and bark has been mashed down some to make the bark look different I will be back. hopefully with some pics,

 

[upovr]

Do you have cedar elm up that way? We have it down here everywhere. That may explain the smell. I haven't had that much experience with sweetgum. What little I had was in board form and it was usually very calico in color. The bark in the pics looks like cedar elm. If you had a leaf it would tell us right away. Cedar Elm has a small live oak type leaf except it has serrated edges. Sweet gum is a big maple looking leaf.

 

[Woodcutteranon]

My vote is for elm. Here are a couple pics I took trying to split a small elm round. You can tell it isn't that big of a piece. This demonstrates how tough elm can be. This little round never did split.

 

[yooper]

ran out side and took a photo of a hunk of Ironwood.

 

[stihl sawing]

Here is some sweetgum, This stuff is two tears old. has been stored in the dry. It was split with a 35 ton splitter. The elm we have here is much whiter than you samples you posted.

This bunch here is over two years old. The greener it is when you split it the more stringier it will be. I try to season it some to keep it down some.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

Elm, keep whacking ! Oh you have a splitter. Lucky you !

The ONE thing I like about Elm, when it is dried and seasoned the bark just falls off. The wood will shrink so much that , in a round, the bark will slide off like a sleeve. I split one side of the tube to lay out flat on any muddy spot so I'm not tracking quite as much back in the house.

 

[stihl sawing]

Well now that i look at the two, You guys are right, Yeah, i'm chowin down on a big crow sandwich now.lol It's more stringy than gun. It just rips off big shreds. Woodcutteranon's pic really show the difference. Either one is a PITA to split.

 

[boostnut]

Another vote for elm. Seems like it takes longer to season than many other species but its worth the wait, makes good heat. You couldn't pay me to take that stuff if I didn't have a splitter (but I gots one). My only complaint with elm is that is a pita to stack nicely since its sooo stringy.

 

[Jimfound]

As we call it here in Leesburg....Ell-um. Sure will burn hot. Keep the window locks open just in case if you burn it spring or fall....

 

[Coldfront]

Elm, keep whacking ! Oh you have a splitter. Lucky you !

The ONE thing I like about Elm, when it is dried and seasoned the bark just falls off. The wood will shrink so much that , in a round, the bark will slide off like a sleeve. I split one side of the tube to lay out flat on any muddy spot so I'm not tracking quite as much back in the house.

That is exactly what it did, the bark comes off in one piece or with one split, you could lay the bark down like a door mat. Those first 5 pictures are just of the bark tubes no wood in them.

 

[Coldfront]

Do you have cedar elm up that way? We have it down here everywhere. That may explain the smell. I haven't had that much experience with sweetgum. What little I had was in board form and it was usually very calico in color. The bark in the pics looks like cedar elm. If you had a leaf it would tell us right away. Cedar Elm has a small live oak type leaf except it has serrated edges. Sweet gum is a big maple looking leaf.

I don't have any leaves but it does have a distinct some what cedar type odor. We had a lot of Elm when I lived down in Illinois that Elm had a kind of piss smell to it.