Wood Identification HELP...PLEASE!!

[ReggieT]

Hi Guys,

Please bear with me...I'm a mere novice at this and as I stated earlier I just started cutting, gathering and burning firewood a little while ago.

I've uploaded 4 pictures in numerical order and I REALLY need some help in Identifying these various woods.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Again

Reggie

 

[AIM]

Tree1 looks like some kind of Oak
2 looks like hard maple
3 looks like a hickory I've seen in Florida
4 looks like a silver maple.

I'll be surprised if I got any of em right. NW Ohio and Alabama can have VERY different varieties.

 

[ReggieT]

Appreciate It!

Thanks for what you shared my friend...The last pic #4 the owner said it was "sweetgum" and basically worthless.

Tree1 looks like some kind of Oak
2 looks like hard maple
3 looks like a hickory I've seen in Florida
4 looks like a silver maple.

I'll be surprised if I got any of em right. NW Ohio and Alabama can have VERY different varieties.

 

[Steve2910]

1-Red Oak
2-Silver Maple
3-?? Bark looks like Gum, but the inside of the split piece would be a twisted mess!
4-I'd say Maple (Dad always called it "Broad-leaf Maple"), though there seem to be a lot of different regional names for the various Maples.

FYI-
Since you're new around here, the best you can hope for is a general consensus w/ a few dissenting opinions... Worst case-- a heated argument over what kind of wood you have!

 

[stumpy75]

Hi Guys,

Please bear with me...I'm a mere novice at this and as I stated earlier I just started cutting, gathering and burning firewood a little while ago.

I've uploaded 4 pictures in numerical order and I REALLY need some help in Identifying these various woods.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Again

Reggie

1. Box Elder
2. Hard to tell. Maple?
3. Black gum(Tupelo - Nyssa sylvatica)
4. Sweetgum Check out the star shaped leaves.

Those are my guesses!

 

[Bushmans]

#1 looks like hard Maple


#4 by the leaves it looks like sweetgum.

 

[stumpy75]

Did #1 stink as you cut and split it? That would be boxelder probably. If no smell, then I'd go with another type of maple too.

 

[haveawoody]

#1 Box Elder
#2 White Oak
and #3 +#4 Two different Gum species.
Both Gum species list as decent firewood here with silver maple sorts of BTU.
Energy Values - Hardwoods - Firewood

This might help you ID hardwood species.
Identify Hardwood Trees | Identify the Most Common Hardwoods

 

[Jakers]

Your pics. im not a wood expert so ill let the others decide what ya got

Slide 1

Slide 2

Slide 3

Slide 4

 

[darkbyrd]

slide 1, #2, oak maybe?

slide 3, #5 gum, got the same in my pile

slide 4, #6, sweetgum, no doubt with those leaves.

 

[climberjones]

Hi Guys,

Please bear with me...I'm a mere novice at this and as I stated earlier I just started cutting, gathering and burning firewood a little while ago.

I've uploaded 4 pictures in numerical order and I REALLY need some help in Identifying these various woods.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Again

Reggie

1is oak 5 is ash

 

[ShaneLogs]

Hi Guys,

Please bear with me...I'm a mere novice at this and as I stated earlier I just started cutting, gathering and burning firewood a little while ago.

I've uploaded 4 pictures in numerical order and I REALLY need some help in Identifying these various woods.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Again

Reggie

Number 3 looks like cotton wood to me.

 

[zogger]

oak good, hickory good, ? some sort of BTUs there, sweetgum midrange

the last is decent enough firewood, mid range, harder to split (sucks, let it dry a long time, get the bark off of it, splits easier then, you'll have to cut strings)

That one I think is hickory should be HEAVY, does it feel heavy compared to the other wood? Good stuff, get it split and stacked as soon as possible, the faster and drier it gets, the less the bugs will eat it.


I've started slabbing the outside bark off of mine, or removing the bark entirely. They got some dang hickory bugs down here will leave a pile of that stuff a pile of sawdust if you don't watch it.

Those are my guesses but I am mostly colorblind so working from pictures doesn't give me the 3-D and olfactory clues I usually use looking at trees. The color of the wood just doesn't leave an impression on me, whereas the texture and smell does, as does just hefting a piece. Muscle memory on handling all sorts of wood, you get a feeling how much something should weigh grabbing a piece, either green or seasoned or like half way.

 

[Steve2910]

They got some dang hickory bugs down here will leave a pile of that stuff a pile of sawdust if you don't watch it.

A friend of mine calls Hickory "worm wood"

 

[Fred Wright]

Agreed, #4 appears to be sweet gum. Lord knows these woods are rife with the darn things.

#5 appears to be maple. We don't have the alligator hide bark stuff here but the split grain looks like maple.

 

[zogger]

A friend of mine calls Hickory "worm wood"

And it stays pristine with the bark off! Them bugs need that bark there, no bark, no bugs! I found that out by close inspecting my stack. Splits with bark on, bugs, bark all off, no bugs. Same tree, same wood, big difference. This is the best time of year to get hickory, as you can peel the bark off green loads better than chipping it off dry. The Indians and settlers always got their peeled hickory for weaving in the spring. I was reading that, and went shazzam, makes sense now, they had to learn to deal with and they made all sorts of stuff from hickory and couldn't have bugs in it. And then it is easier to cut, dang shagbark grows boulders under the bark, eats chains bad. No bark, no boulders!

*Most* wood, better to cut mid winter when it is dormant and has the least water in it, but from now on, if and when I do green hickory, cut it in the spring and split it a little and peel the bark off right then, right down the trunk. I have one big trunk left to go now, nothing else marked (I'd rather leave them for the animals for mast and I gots plenty of other wood), but that one is all debarked now. This summer when it is drier I'll drive down and finish bucking it. There *were* a lot of bugs in it, but none now since I knocked the bark all off.

 

[ReggieT]

Oak for real???

Can you re-look at that 1st pic one more time...because the owner says he does not know the difference between "Oak & Box Elder"!!:msp_wink::msp_wink:

I'm not trying wear ya out...but just wanted to be sure before I load up 2 truck fulls....Thanks

Reggie

1is oak 5 is ash

 

[Nosmo]

Picture #4

If #4 is like what we in my locale call Sweetgum there will be spikey balls all over the ground underneath the tree unless they haven't fallen off. I've got one of them in my yard.

Two years ago a city worker gave me three pickup loads of sweetgum (big rounds). My splitter handled them OK and they burned fairly well after seasoning.

Nosmo

 

[stumpy75]

Most oak will have obvious rays in the end grain of the wood, radiating from the center to the outside. Box elder will not have that. Also, if there is any fresh wood, is there any pink or red on the endgrain? That would indicate box elder.

On the pic you supplied, I do not see those rays, although the checking on the end could be them. The rings are fairly good-sized for oak also. The round is old enough that the pink/red would have faded by now also...

I'll stick with my first impression. Box elder.

If you can get a pic of a fresh cut endgrain(even on something smaller that is from the same tree), it would probably solve the mystery.

 

[zogger]

Can you re-look at that 1st pic one more time...because the owner says he does not know the difference between "Oak & Box Elder"!!:msp_wink::msp_wink:

I'm not trying wear ya out...but just wanted to be sure before I load up 2 truck fulls....Thanks

Reggie

Well, under the first tree then should be acorns if it is oak. If it is box elder, for seeds they have "helicopters". The homeowner should know which is which then.