ID?

[Bearcreek]

No, that's what I thought at first, too. But it 1) doesn't smell like Ash, 2) split way too easy, 3) wasn't stringy, 4) was light in weight, not heavy like Ash and 5) the grain doesn't look anything like Ash. I've cut a fair amount of Ash firewood and this is definitely not it.

1. Ash doesn't have a particularly distinctive smell, but what it does have changes as it ages.
2. Ash is one of the easiest splitting of the commonly used hardwood firewoods.
3. Straight grain Ash isn't stringy unless green, and even then isn't nearly as bad as many others. It's particularly "non-stringy" once it's been killed by EAB and stood dead for a while.
4. Ash is, comparatively to other common hardwoods, fairly light, especially once seasoned a bit.
5. The grain on the wood in that picture looks like Ash.

I owned a tree service in Ohio for 20 years and cut thousands of Ash trees and split many hundreds of cords of it. All that being said, it's possible it's something else. It can be tough to tell from one picture, even for someone like me, who has cut far more than "a fair amount".

 

[mark3885]

White ash , if it smells peppery then tulip poplar

 

[FLINT]

I don't know anything about bradford pear. that's a city tree. I know they are stupid and all their limbs fall off when it snows.

 

[Jed1124]

Basswood

 

[farmer steve]

@djg james. Pics of Norway maple. Cut last summer. I just did the split off the pile. If split fresh it would be really white.

 

[TRTermite]

Maybe you haven't cut as many down as I have.
Maybe it wasn't green wood, either. We just don't know.

The Callery Pear has a red dish small heart and an odd odor. The bark (To Me) is callery I think the bark resembles Cherry when it is young and gets more of an ash texture as it grows bigger.

 

[Brushwacker]

I've got one for you that I ran across recently. At first I thought it might be Ash because it had a slightly criss-cross pattern on it's bark. It didn't have the musty smell of Ash and it split real easy and clean like Soft Maple. Not stringy and light weight too.

View attachment 980755

I think it looks like Sassafras. If so you surely could tell by the smell.

 

[djg james]

@djg james. Pics of Norway maple. Cut last summer. I just did the split off the pile. If split fresh it would be really white.
View attachment 980976View attachment 980977

That bark looks real close, but the grain isn't reddish brown like that. It's all white across the log (16").

 

[djg james]

The Callery Pear has a red dish small heart and an odd odor. The bark (To Me) is callery I think the bark resembles Cherry when it is young and gets more of an ash texture as it grows bigger.

No reddish heartwood.

 

[TRTermite]

No reddish heartwood.

I still lean toward callery pear ?ODOR? If real large heart is small but some think it is basswood so I will watch. Usually callery pear has a lot of Volunteers sprouting around the area ;cuz birds really help it propagate .

 

[Karrl]

Just split, what I understand to be Norway maple. Light earthy smell when split. The dark streak in the middle is the beginning of the middle going bad is my guess. Rest of the wood is white throughout. I have split some exactly like this without the streak in the middle. It’s fairly green but has dried out a little and it’s also light.

 

[Karrl]

Looks like worm stain actually.

 

[farmer steve]

Just split, what I understand to be Norway maple. Light earthy smell when split. The dark streak in the middle is the beginning of the middle going bad is my guess. Rest of the wood is white throughout. I have split some exactly like this without the streak in the middle. It’s fairly green but has dried out a little and it’s also light.


View attachment 981003View attachment 981002

I think my pics would have been as white 2 except it layed out uncovered for about 9 months or so and it think the wood absorbed the moisture and turned it brownish. I've seen that brown center like in your other pics and yes, I think the tree is starting to die.

 

[djg james]

I think it looks like Sassafras. If so you surely could tell by the smell.

Not Sass. White color, not brown, no root beer smell, and not as deeply furrowed bark as Sass.

 

[djg james]

I think my pics would have been as white 2 except it layed out uncovered for about 9 months or so and it think the wood absorbed the moisture and turned it brownish. I've seen that brown center like in your other pics and yes, I think the tree is starting to die.

Gotcha. You might be right. For everyone's information, I've posted this question on another forum and the scientists there need closeup photos of the end grain. I'll get to that later next week and then I'll let you know what they come up with.

 

[ROME K/G]

Blue Ash, maybe, I'm thinking more Green Ash.

 

[Jsab9191]

Basswood

+1 on basswood if it is found in the Midwest. Looks very similar to ash bark but lightweight very white wood.