"Ironwood"?

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H-Ranch

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So I'm getting through the pile of logs from the father-in-law. He cuts dead/diseased/down/nuisance trees on his property in Western Michigan and brings them to me in 20' logs so I have a pretty good mix. Lots of oak and locust, but this one I'm not sure about - it's very heavy, the back of the Fiskars barely dents the wood, it splits OK but not really cleanly along the grain, has a faint white cambium layer, varigated bark with light and darker gray, and is almost bumpy though it's not quite like the muscle appearance of American Hornbeam. Any suggestions?
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So I'm getting through the pile of logs from the father-in-law. He cuts dead/diseased/down/nuisance trees on his property in Western Michigan and brings them to me in 20' logs so I have a pretty good mix. Lots of oak and locust, but this one I'm not sure about - it's very heavy, the back of the Fiskars barely dents the wood, it splits OK but not really cleanly along the grain, has a faint white cambium layer, varigated bark with light and darker gray, and is almost bumpy though it's not quite like the muscle appearance of American Hornbeam. Any suggestions?
View attachment 206121View attachment 206122View attachment 206123View attachment 206124View attachment 206125

The third picture is beech, great burning firewood.


bw
 
Thanks fellas! He does have some beech on his property so that would make sense. I would guess it must be from a few limbs and not the main trunk as the biggest piece is about 6" in diameter. I even walked out into the woods where I have a beech - the bark is smoother and more uniform in color but it does look similar. Father-in-law always said I would like beech and here I didn't even know I had any! It is heavier than I expected it to be, even more than hickory, oak, or locust of the same size and I would say harder than any of them as well.
 
The lot I have been cutting for a few years now has a lot of beech as previously mentioned. The bark on the beech trees is different even on that little lot. Some is the A typical smooth light gray bark. Some is a darker gray. Some is really rough and almost black.

Some have a fairly straight grain. The stuff with the wierd black bark is the most knarly stuff to split that I have ever seen. It is sheared by the splitter instead of actually splitting.

Anyway
 
One downside to Beech is it will start to decompose fairly quickly if left exposed. Dry it out and cover it and you'll have some great firewood.
 
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