Stinking wood ID help

[Jere39]

I cut 90+% Red Oak for firewood, because that is what the woods around me is. But after the storms of last October I cleaned up everything that had come down, including some hickory, more beech and birch than I usually see, and some maple. It all goes on the mixed hardwood pile. I also had a couple big cherry trees come down and they stayed segmented for the smoker and barbecue clients.

But, this week I finally got around to splitting up some of a tree top that came from what I thought was a White Oak. But since I almost never get white oak, I'm not sure. Here are two pictures of the split wood. First is an 8" piece I split. You can see a very dark core wood and a fairly light sap wood. Second picture is a piece of this wood alongside a bigger piece of the Red Oak I am used to cutting and splitting. I love the smell of Red Oak and a fresh split pile of Red Oak is heaven scent. But here is the big difference, when I split this dark core wood it wasn't the same at all, in fact the core of the fresh split wood smells like crap, literally. Is this white oak? Or is it Black Oak which I don't think I've ever seen. Is this smell typical, and will it age away on my wood pile or will it stink when burned? I've reviewed prior Wood ID threads, and the sticky, but didn't find smell attributes listed in any.

Thanks!

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[flyboy553]

If you could just attach a scratch and sniff of the wood, we could figure it out!:hmm3grin2orange:

Ted

 

[wndwlkr]

In this area water oak smells terrible. hard to tell without a pic of the bark.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Dark Oak

The saw mills sell this as dark oak. It's good stuff. I build with it all the time and it smokes good meat.

When it comes to firewood, oak is oak.

 

[haveawoody]

Swamp oak i think.

 

[Steve2910]

I've gotten some mystery Oak myself recently. Bark looks like White (more than anything else), grain is red, but doesn't split as clean as Red, but not as stringy as White. I think of Red Oak as smelling like vinegar, White Oak smelling almost like a musty basement, these trees smelled like neither. I posted a thread similar to yours about a month ago, the replies ranged from *some kind of Oak* that I'd never heard of, to " they all hybridize".

How many licks does it take??... ah-1, ah-2, ah-3... CRUNCH.... The world may never know...

As was mentioned, Oak is Oak, all burns good & all brings good $$ if you're selling it

 

[haveawoody]

If you have a leaf this might help narrow it down.

Identify Hardwood Trees | Identify the Most Common Hardwoods

 

[haveawoody]

Steve2910,

Just one lick if your good

 

[TreePointer]

I love the smell of oaks. Sometimes I'll run into a diseased split or section that smells like cow manure. It's often from a pin oak (a type of red oak). The smell goes away after a few days and the wood burns just like other red oak when seasoned. Don't worry--just enjoy the BTU's.

 

[Steve2910]

Steve2910,

Just one lick if your good

Wasn't sure how many would get that...

 

[CTYank]

Steve2910,

Just one lick if your good

Depends on the tool you're using, too. Austrian artillery preferred here. See sig.

 

[discounthunter]

every once in a while ill split an oak with a less than fragrant smell. all the same kind but one will stand out.i believe it might have something to do where it was rooted.possible close to a stagnant water source. we call alot of our oaks water or swamp oaks. the smelly ones get labeled pi$$ oak.they all go in the same pile though.

 

[Jere39]

If you have a leaf this might help narrow it down.

Identify Hardwood Trees | Identify the Most Common Hardwoods

Thanks, great link. I went back into the woods today, found the topped tree this wood came from and pulled a few leaves from a lower limb and studied the site. I feel pretty confident it is the "Post Oak", the roundest leaves in the white oak family of oaks. From the site I learned there are many more species and sub species of oak than I would have guessed, and even more localized names, like water oak, swamp oak, and willow oak.

So, bottom line, I am not positive, but I will call it Post Oak till proven wrong.
Thanks again

 

[JEFBO]

Swamp oak i think.

That's what I was thinking

 

[haveawoody]

Jere39,

Your most welcome.
I head to that site when i get a tree I'm not quite sure on.

Post oak is pretty great firewood.

 

[Jere39]

More pictures: bark, leaves, tree itself

Thanks for all the comments, clues, and suggestions.

I went back into the woods and found the tree this wood came from (only the top had broken out and fallen last October) and took a picture of it.

I also zoomed in on some of the very rounded leaves that I believe are clearly white oak family, and most closely match the Post Oak.

Finally, I flipped one of my pieces over and snapped a picture with the bark showing.

So any additional comments welcome, and if any of the clues give you more confidence than I have in your analysis, please share. Thanks again.
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[4seasons]

I am thinking you have water oak there. But I would describe the smell as cat pee. The bark doesn't quite look right but that my just be because it is off a small limb rather than trunk bark that I am used too. If it is water oak it will burn just fine but don't haul it into your basement. I put a load of water oak in my parents basement back when I was a teenager and kept looking for that cat that had sprayed for weeks.

 

[Chris-PA]

It doesn't really look like white oak to me. The leaves kind of look like shumard oak. Around here we have more shumards than northern red oaks, but the wood doesn't look or smell much different between the two.

 

[Wood Doctor]

It's Good Stuff

It doesn't really look like white oak to me. The leaves kind of look like shumard oak. Around here we have more shumards than northern red oaks, but the wood doesn't look or smell much different between the two.

Shumard oak is one of the "dark oaks" that is sold around here by hardwood sawmills. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it and I use is all the time to make furniture. Many people like the contrast it offers with typical store-bought oak.

 

[Chris-PA]

Shumard oak is one of the "dark oaks" that is sold around here by hardwood sawmills. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it and I use is all the time to make furniture. Many people like the contrast it offers with typical store-bought oak.

It took me quite a while to figure out the difference between the northern red oaks and the shumards, and to figure out what those were. There are still some times of year when it's not real easy to tell. It's made all the harder because the northern reds have different leaves on the sun side and the shade side, and the shade leaves can look an awful lot like shumard leaves. For firewood the wood is pretty much equivalent.