Making sure this is oak before putting it in my smoker

[motolife313]

Cut this little guy down myself and I think it's oak but smelled a little funny when I tossed one piece in the smoker. DOESNt oak usually have the cool looking strips in the center of the wood were you count the circles for age? Thanks that's 4.5" flap disk btw

 

[motolife313]

Can we verify this one too? I'm pretty sure it's oak aswell but not 100% sure

 

[motolife313]

This is the toughest wood I've come across. I hit the piece in 2nd pic pry 50 times on the sides and gave up and let it sit over night and got it next day. Thanks for any help!

 

[moondoggie]

View attachment 615640 View attachment 615642 View attachment 615643 This is the toughest wood I've come across. I hit the piece in 2nd pic pry 50 times on the sides and gave up and let it sit over night and got it next day. Thanks for any help!

I believe you have Maple there sir.

 

[moondoggie]

View attachment 615624 View attachment 615626 View attachment 615628 Cut this little guy down myself and I think it's oak but smelled a little funny when I tossed one piece in the smoker. DOESNt oak usually have the cool looking strips in the center of the wood were you count the circles for age? Thanks that's 4.5" flap disk btw

I'm not sure what that is but it's not oak.

 

[stumpy75]

Pic #2 is oak!

 

[motolife313]

I got some maple and it splits much easier then that stuff. But then again I got some other oak and it splits easy too because it's straight grain

 

[motolife313]

Stumpy 75 pic 1,2 and 3 are the same. Can u tell from the lines?

 

[motolife313]

Moondoggie have u ever heard of swamp maple? I had a guy say it could be that. This stuff was nearly impossible to split

 

[svk]

Some of the bark kinda looks like maple but that end grain does not.

 

[stumpy75]

Stumpy 75 pic 1,2 and 3 are the same. Can u tell from the lines?

I pic 1, it looks to me that there are several different species there, especially the left two pieces might be a cherry of some sort. In pic 2, the rays coming from the center of the log are real indicative of an oak. In pic 3, the form of the tree reminds me of a pin oak, but from where you live, it could be a number of different horticultural varieties. The alternate branching of this tree rules out any type of maple. https://www.thespruce.com/which-trees-have-opposite-branching-3269791

If the other pics are the same tree, I see a lot of black oak looking bark, IMHO.

Straight grained oak usually splits really easy, but something like you show, growing near a house and leaning, could have all sorts of weird twisted grain in it... I've split both kinds!

 

[motolife313]

Sorry I thought I said that was cherry on the left. I was messing with that earlier. This is a very young tree btw.

2nd and 3rd set of tree are a different tree and much bigger. Be nice if there were a post count on here

 

[motolife313]

After running a google search on pin oak that does look similar. I hope that will work ok for smoking but thought that one piece smelled odd when I tossed it in. Super heavy wood btw.

Still interested in the other big wood I got and what it is. I'll try and get some more pics up of that

 

[stumpy75]

Sorry I thought I said that was cherry on the left. I was messing with that earlier. This is a very young tree btw. 2nd and 3rd set of tree are a different tree and much bigger. Be nice if there were a post count on here

The post count is on the lower right (next to the like button).

The pics in posts 2 and 3 look to be black/red oak to me from the bark. Unsure of the actual species other than it's an oak.

 

[stumpy75]

There's not too many native oaks in the PNW, but, of course, there are probably a lot of others that have been planted in the suburbs.

Oaks Native to the PNW: https://oregonstate.edu/trees/broadleaf_genera/species/oak_spp.htm

 

[motolife313]

Ok thanks a lot guys appreciate the extremely fast response!! Btw the pic of the big oak has a really wonderful sweet smell to it. I have used it once but not much becuase I wasn't totally sure what it was. But it smells awsome and sweet. Is that normal black oak? Going to fire up the smoker after my chicken thighs thaw and give it a go again. Last time I tried it I put some finishing salt on it before smoking and it was way to salty and tasted bad so could tell really how good it was

 

[stumpy75]

Something from the white oak group would probably be better than a red oak group oak for smoking, I would think. Maybe that larger one is an Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana)?

Do you have any access to alder? I've used that smoking whitefish and mild cheeses before with good results. It has a much milder flavor than oak or hickory. Been a while since I've done any smoking though.

 

[motolife313]

I know a lot of guys that use red. I heard it's in north cali, I think Texas too. Yep that what I was thinking it is oregon oak., except it's mainly black with hint of gray or white. That's where I got it in Portland Oregon Thanks again

Now that we've got the wood kind figured out, what the heck is this black stuff. I cut this tree up and it wasn't on there when I cut it. It's the Oregon oak that's posted above. I'll load more pics my wifi is slow. The black stuff penetrates way in the wood

 

[motolife313]

I tried to delete that pic, don't know how it got on there lol^^ the log spliter that is. Not mine

 

[siouxindian]

elm . dont put in were you cook.