Mystery wood! What is it???

[woodbooga]

Boy, that does look a lot like ash. I've split some that's been dark in the middle like that. I think more due to water staining or some sort of ailment than anything.

And some ash is mighty stringy. Most of the time it just falls apart, but not always. Actually, I just made a big pile of noodlies from a bunch of ash rounds that wouldn't split.

Good to hear butternut makes good firewood. Gonna drop a dying one on a friends property in the next few weeks for firewood. I'll need to take a closer look at the wood to see if it looks like what you've got.

 

[coog]

Butternut is about as good as Willow for firewood.Makes much better carving wood, especially for decoys and bowls. Chances are good you'll find some character "worm holes" in it.It does smell nice when working it or burning it.

 

[jcappe]

Butternut is about as good as Willow for firewood.Makes much better carving wood, especially for decoys and bowls. Chances are good you'll find some character "worm holes" in it.It does smell nice when working it or burning it.

I'm surprised about your response coog. I have a bunch of it and it seems like it burns hot and last a long time. If I'm not mistaking the BTU's are up there with Oak. Maybe someone knows for sure.

 

[coog]

I'm surprised about your response coog. I have a bunch of it and it seems like it burns hot and last a long time. If I'm not mistaking the BTU's are up there with Oak. Maybe someone knows for sure.

http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/firewood.htm

Obviously a lot of guys in softwood country would love to burn it, but it really is more valuable to a woodworker.I burned a lot of it after it all died on our homeplace.Nice thing was that it is very slow to rot.

 

[Laird]

I'm surprised about your response coog. I have a bunch of it and it seems like it burns hot and last a long time. If I'm not mistaking the BTU's are up there with Oak. Maybe someone knows for sure.

Never burned Butternut but have done some woodworking with it. Other than looks it is most similar to Black Walnut in terms of weight and hardness etc. Walnut is an OK burning wood but certainly not one of the best.

 

[boda65]

I'm not an expert, but a friend gave me some wood from a tree he topped that looked just like that in the center, and is harder than heck to split with a maul. It also seemed quite heavy. He called it Chinese Elm.

 

[jcappe]

Coog,
I've been burning bitternut hickory. I thought that's what we were talking about. I misread your butternut as bitternut. They aren't the same wood are they?

 

[coog]

No.Butternut (juglans cinera) is a relative of Black Walnut (juglans nigra )All of the Hickories make excellent firewood.

 

[coog]

By the way,JCappe, that is one nice buck on your sig.We have a lot of big ones down here, but the biggest one I ever saw was in Iowa.He was less than 3 feet from me as I drove by him at 80...scary stuff!

 

[sleddude5]

Chinese elm.

Jerry C

 

[jcappe]

By the way,JCappe, that is one nice buck on your sig.We have a lot of big ones down here, but the biggest one I ever saw was in Iowa.He was less than 3 feet from me as I drove by him at 80...scary stuff!

Ok, makes sense now.
Thanks for the comment, that was last years archery buck. You do have some big ones down there. Found that out first hand when I was down there quail and pheasant hunting. First mulie buck I had ever seen.

 

[rms61moparman]

Well guys here is an up date!!!

I went a bit further down the holler and found a grove of these trees.

It is DEFINATELY some variety of Hickory.
I went to the site that Stackwood posted for me (thank you) and the closest leaf I saw to the ones on the trees I found was a Mockernut.

It wasn't exactly the same but close.
The leaves on the trees I found were mostly (almost ALL) seven leaves to a stem with three LARGE ones at the end and two smaller pairs toward the petiole. (I believe that is the word, it's been a LONG time since 7th grade science)

I will research some other varieties of Hickory later on and update as anything new comes to light.


Mike

 

[atlarge54]

My neighbor had some pignut hickory in his woodpile last winter. Neither of us have ever seen so much sawdust in a woodpile. Are borers pretty common to pignut or was it just a rare occurance? I sure wouldn't plan on keeping it too long the way the bugs went at his pile.

 

[stdydub]

100% pignut hickory...i cut it all the time