My son grabbed a load of wood he sent me a picture. Said it’s very heavy I’m thinking White Oak . 
Wood ID
- Thread starter SS396driver
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duckman
ArboristSite Operative
i'd think sweet gum
Looks right for white oak. I don't think sweet gum grows in Mark's part of the world.
The gray areas look like tap hole scars sugar maple??? What would cause those gray areas in white oak?
Yes Gum grows in NY state as well all up into Canada
It's a southern tree. If you've seen it up in Canada it's most likely because someone planted it. I've never seen it anywhere in upstate NY, only in the south.
Sweet gum is also known for its deeply furrowed bark. The bark in that photo does not match up. It still looks like white oak to me.
Mark, the OP, could shed light on the matter by having his son split some. Splits of oak would likely be identifiable, and sweet gum supposedly resists splitting. (I've never cut or split any.)
The bark looks like Oak but that pattern on top looks like Maple.
Looks like a Red Maple. If milled it would be Ambrosia maple lumber.
Tim in NY
ArboristSite Member
White Oak bark is more silvery white than that. And the grain just does not look right for Oak either - agree with the maple comments
Campbellcontractlogging
ArboristSite Operative
It’s not white oak and not gum I’d lean to maple
yeah get a decent closeup of that end grain straight on and we can rule white oak in or out. I agree with the maple camp off of this photo alone. to ID a tree from bark color seems like you'd be wrong as often as you were right unless you confirmed the ID a different way. I have seen way too much variety of bark for the same families and species to have much confidence in bark ID alone. Also, I've learned "heavy" is a tough one to pin down, especially still loaded with water. Even if it were punky rotten, loaded with water that sucker could still feel misleadingly hefty.
As mentioned seeing a split would help a lot. Oak is going to look much different than maple.
Gum is the devil, it pees on you when cutting it into rounds and it smells funky, everything bounces off it when attempting to split until its fully dry, when its dry it burns like a cardboard box.
Looks like maple or dare I say a type of hickory
Looks like maple or dare I say a type of hickory
Maple78
ArboristSite Lurker
Looks just like the maple I have been cutting.
Yeah, the end grain seems to rule out oak. It does look like maple, although it's hard to match that bark to any maple I can think of.
Campbellcontractlogging
ArboristSite Operative
Looks a lot like silver maple to me
Campbellcontractlogging
ArboristSite Operative
My best guess would be sugar maple based on that picture. Silver maple has much smoother bark in comparison to sugar or red maple. Don’t see much white oak around me only red so i cant speak on that. Sugar has a more furrowed narrow bark pattern thats rough anyway you grab it. Silver would be smooth to the touch in comparison. Plus sugar maples almost always have darker heartwood while silvers and even red maple is usually a consistent yellow/offwhite all the way though as long as it hasnt had any rot or disease. Just my 2 cents.
Twenty year old silver maple here, I planted it myself from a 12 oz styrofoam cup back in 2002. Nothing smooth about its bark.
That's what I thought, Silver Maple bark is shaggy and easy to peel off by hand, correct?
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