help with a couple Wood idsplease

[Streblerm]

Help me out here guys. Here are a couple logs I am at a loss to identify. No leaves are available although I could post a couple of fresh cut grain pics. This is from a clear cut that I have been scrounging since late summer. A lot of it was tulip, poplar, and soft maple but there was some oak, ash, and beech as well.

The first I have no idea. Maybe some kind of cherry? Whatever it is, it is heavy. Heavier than an oak or beech log of similar size. The leaves are not likely from this tree.



Here is the second. It is heavy also. As a matter of fact it was almost headed for the slash pile but I noticed how heavy it was. I have run into this a time or two before but never successfully identified it.

 

[moondoggie]

Looks a lot like sycamore

 

[AIM]

Top sycamore, bottom iron wood?

 

[Full Chisel]

Top sycamore, bottom iron wood?

Agree.

 

[Streblerm]

Sycamore. That's one of those hard to split fairly low btu woods where the weight is mostly water? It does seem to have a spiral twist to it. They aren't common around here unless planted as an ornamental tree. I've seen some old street trees where the canopy spreads from the house on one side of the street to the other. I've considered planting one in the back yard.

I thought sycamore had a more multicolored bark leaning more toward whiteish. But what do I know? I'm sure there are subspecies of sycamore just like any other.

On the ironwood...what I have been shown to be ironwood was more of tight beech bark rather than scaly but the wood was rippley like a tensed muscle. I think "ironwood" could be one of those terms used regionally to refer to different species.

As I do a bit of research, I believe the "ironwood" that I'm used to is American Hornbeam. Perhaps what I have in picture 2 is Eastern Hophornbeam. It appears they are both referred to as ironwood.

 

[Full Chisel]

It's 100% a sycamore. There are even a few leaves stuck in the crevice between the two logs.

The are several trees referred to as ironwood. Yours looks like a Hophornbeam, IMO. But just going by the bark it's hard to say. Heck, I wouldn't rule out a young silver(soft) maple...the bark looks similar.

 

[lindnova]

Apple?

 

[moondoggie]

this is ironwood here

 

[maplegrovetom]

Help me out here guys. Here are a couple logs I am at a loss to identify. No leaves are available although I could post a couple of fresh cut grain pics. This is from a clear cut that I have been scrounging since late summer. A lot of it was tulip, poplar, and soft maple but there was some oak, ash, and beech as well.

The first I have no idea. Maybe some kind of cherry? Whatever it is, it is heavy. Heavier than an oak or beech log of similar size. The leaves are not likely from this tree.
View attachment 480974


Here is the second. It is heavy also. As a matter of fact it was almost headed for the slash pile but I noticed how heavy it was. I have run into this a time or two before but never successfully identified it.
View attachment 480975

The top ones could be either one of the many hawthornes or crabapples, as you mentioned the wood was quite heavy. Hawthorne and crabapple wood is very dense, heavy, and strong, but the trees are small, and the trunks seldom grow more than a few feet tall without branching, and rarely more than a foot in diameter. The bark looks very thorn or crab apple like. The wood is reddish-brown with growth rings indicating slow growth.
Sycamore bark looks like the top picture also, and if the logs are longer, straight, and large, Sycamore is a good bet. When it dries out though, it's not nearly as heavy as the thornapples. The growth rings are also much larger.
The wood in the bottom picture is absolutely Ironwood (ostrya virginiana). It's also called hop hornbeam. The tree is very slow growing and the air dried wood weighs the same as white oak & hickory (50 pounds per cubic foot). It is one of the best firewoods available. The wood is very hard and tough and you'll see sparks flying from the chain when you cut it (dirt in bark).
You also mentioned what some people in your area refer to as ironwood. You've described what's also known as blue beech, muscle-wood, or american hornbeam (carpinus caroliniana). They are small trees with tight blueish-gray ridged or rippled bark resembling my abdominal muscles ; ) The wood is very heavy, hard, and strong, and I've seen many walking sticks made from blue beech because of the unusual contortions the tree branches grow into and the ribbed wood. It's an excellent firewood if you find trees big enough to bother cutting.
Hope this info helps, the more you know about trees, the less junk wood you end up cutting. Dry wood all has the same btu's per ton. Some tons just take up a lot more space.

 

[Streblerm]

from what everyone is saying and from what I've always heard about it, picture one is sycamore. It splits hard. Kind of like elm. Kind of smells like elm too. With difficulty I managed to get three split with the fiskars. The fourth one I ended up burying a wedge in and cutting it out with the saw. The last piece has the ugliest grain. I think it will fit whole.

It has big growth rings and it is WET. I guess that accounts for the weight. Glad I don't have too much of it.

I am pretty certain picture 2 is Eastern Hophornbeam. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of that. The sycamore, not so much.

But hey, it all came to me in dump truck loads and this is the first time I've handled it. I'll take as much as I can get.

 

[Oldmaple]

this is ironwood here

Fun thing about common names. Your picture : Common names : Ironwood, American Hornbeam, Scientific name : Carpinus caroliniana. OP picture : Common names Ironwood, Eastern hophornbeam, Scientific name : Ostrya virginiana

 

[unclemoustache]

Another vote for Sycamore. It's junk. Give it to a neighbor you don't like. I refuse to burn it, but I'm a snob with lots of oak on hand.

 

[mrdinks]

I have a large Sycamore 10 feet out my back door, and that is not sycamore. I even took my computer outside and compared the bark from top to bottom and its not close.
Maybe the Iowa sycamore is different but I don't believe so.

 

[Oldmaple]

The bark on the top one looks like the bark on red pine around here. Can even see the pin holes from some bark beetles. More info and more pictures would help.

 

[stumpy75]

The bark on the top one looks like the bark on red pine around here. Can even see the pin holes from some bark beetles.

That was my first thought too. Doesn't look like any sycamore I've seen around my area.

 

[AIM]

I'll vote again... Sycamore and hornbeam... aka ironwood

I have seen a few pines that somewhat resemble the pic but I'm gonna stick with sycamore.

OK OK I will admit the top pic does SORTA resemble this GIANT pine that was in my Grandmas front yard till a few years ago...

Alright.... I really don't know what the top one is.... haha So I'm gonna say it's "pinamore."

 

[Oldmaple]

I'll vote again... Sycamore and hornbeam... aka ironwood

I have seen a few pines that somewhat resemble the pic but I'm gonna stick with sycamore.

OK OK I will admit the top pic does SORTA resemble this GIANT pine that was in my Grandmas front yard till a few years ago...

Alright.... I really don't know what the top one is.... haha So I'm gonna say it's "pinamore."

I like that. That's the common name of a new species. You discovered it, you get to give it's scientific name. How's your Latin?

 

[Woody912]

That was my first thought too. Doesn't look like any sycamore I've seen around my area.

top one looks more like rock elm to me from this pic

 

[Streblerm]

I'm certain that the first picture is not a conifer. There was not a single pine or spruce on the whole lot. Definitely deciduous.

 

[AIM]

sycamore then