what kind of tree?

[TJ-Bill]

I've started splitting my wood today, I have alot of birch, maple and oak but I also have this here.. It hard as he!! to split looks like a type of oak maybe?

Most of the time the axe just bounces right off of it while it laughs at me..

 

[Wood Doctor]

Hard to tell. If it is an oak, it might be burr oak, but I don't recall burr oak having that much contrast between the heartwood and the sapwood. Burr oak is somewhat of a bear to hand split also. Snarly stuff, it burns hot as a $2 pistol when properly seasoned.

 

[rbtree]

It'd be nice to see more of the bark...looks somewhat like fruitwood, cherry or purple plum...

 

[Jkebxjunke]

looks like what we call gum here looks great.. but laughs at you when you try to split it

 

[gink595]

Maple?

 

[TJ-Bill]

Here's a few more of the bark.

and one more of the grain.

 

[Mike Van]

Looks like an apple to me, it should really smell good when split -

 

[woodbooga]

Looks like an apple to me, it should really smell good when split -

:agree2:


I rarely am fortunate enough to have any apple that's not many years dead, but the look of the grain and the bark is quite similar to what I've handled.

 

[TJ-Bill]

I find it smells like oak, kinda of sour. I've found a few more pieces I can take pictures of. 1 thing I noiced is that mosts of the pieces are fairly mossy..

 

[strongback]

It looks like most of what I've got piled up. The tree service that dropped it off said it was oak and that's what i've been calling it too. I "split" some with the saw and the grain pattern/color looks like oak but I couldn't figure out for sure what kind it was but all indications have lead me to believe it's burr oak. It's the toughest/stringiest/most twisted stuff I've had to deal with in a very long time. I was reduced to splitting it with a wedge and sledge because it was just absorbing my maul and I couldn't even get the axe stuck in it. Even the little 6-8" dia. pieces wouldn't yeild to the maul. Since I had 2+ cord of it still to be split I finally had to break down (for the first time in my entire life) and rent a splitter. I'm torn between wishing I had done it sooner and feeling like a quitter. Anyway, if it looks like an oak and smells like an oak I'm going to call it oak.

 

[woodbooga]

I find it smells like oak, kinda of sour. I've found a few more pieces I can take pictures of. 1 thing I noiced is that mosts of the pieces are fairly mossy..

In that case I withdraw apple, which smells heavenly

 

[Jkebxjunke]

It looks like most of what I've got piled up. The tree service that dropped it off said it was oak and that's what i've been calling it too. I "split" some with the saw and the grain pattern/color looks like oak but I couldn't figure out for sure what kind it was but all indications have lead me to believe it's burr oak. It's the toughest/stringiest/most twisted stuff I've had to deal with in a very long time. I was reduced to splitting it with a wedge and sledge because it was just absorbing my maul and I couldn't even get the axe stuck in it. Even the little 6-8" dia. pieces wouldn't yeild to the maul. Since I had 2+ cord of it still to be split I finally had to break down (for the first time in my entire life) and rent a splitter. I'm torn between wishing I had done it sooner and feeling like a quitter. Anyway, if it looks like an oak and smells like an oak I'm going to call it oak.

no shame in wanting a splitter.. something about the un-yielding power of the hydraulics and the crushing the will if tough wood...and the satisfying snap crackle and pop of the wood breaking and splitting

 

[Zodiac45]

It might be red oak although that usually is quite straight grained. I've had wood like that myself though although mine was sort of nobby on the outside and very hard. That bark does look like a rock maple and so does the curly inside.

 

[Wood Doctor]

After examining the split piece more carefully, I lean away from burr oak because the bark is too thin. Burr oak bark is thick and coarse. I cut and burned two cords of it last year from trees that had been dead off the ground for several years.

And, as I said before, I have never seen oak heartwood have that much contrast between the sapwood and the heartwood so well defined. The rather curly grain also tempts me to day that this sample is in the applewood family, which when dried thoroughly, is also an absolute bear to split.

Another dandy that when dry is very tough to split is pearwood. Dry wood from the Bradford and Cleveland pear trees will sound like a cherry bomb when split using a 20-ton powered log splitter because it gives up so suddenly. However, ornamental pearwood is orange in color and more uniform throughout the log.

So, I think TreeCo needs to chime in here and help us out with this identification. Where is he, anyway?

 

[SWI Don]

Definately not Burr Oak. Wrong color. If it was, set it aside until it's frozen and it splits easy. I split a good 1/2 cord of burr oak with maul a couple winters ago in a short morning. It just fell apart.

Mulberry can be a bear to split but it is usually very yellow when fresh split and doesn't turn red until it has been exposed to air / light for a while.


Don

 

[ropensaddle]

The split stuff looks like black gum to me.

 

[J.Walker]

ID this wood

Some kind of fruit wood, Bradford Pear?

 

[KsWoodsMan]

Ive never seen an oak with a white bark, stringy fibers or mostly sapwood like your first picture shows.

They might have brought a piece of oak with that load of Cottonwood or Poplar.

My hat goes off to you, if you get that split by hand.

 

[TJ-Bill]

It'll split, ,,, eventually the 1st 4-5 swings just bonuce right off but after you break in surface it'll eventually go. I've been leave the axe wedge in and hitting it with 12lbs maul. I've been setting the rest aside, not going to kill myself for a few pieces of wood.

 

[Mike Van]

Bill, sometimes with that real spongey wood that the maul bounces off, i've found if you make a cut in the end grain with the chainsaw & start there, it goes a lot easier.