ID This Wood

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ridensnow23

Member
Feb 29, 2012
88
Western PA
Just picked this up today. I'm not sure exactly what it is just looking at the bark and the cut ends. I'm trying to get better at tree identification.
 

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Red Maple? This was one trunk of the tree and it had four trunks. All of the other tree of this species on the lot also had multiple trunks.
 
That is in the red oak family.
 
Not red maple; big giveaway is that heartwood is wrong.

In one of the pictures, there is a twig with buds on it. A good picture of that (or other twig with buds) should remove all doubt as to which species it is.

If the smooth bark may be confounding your ID, note that immature northern red oak bark looks like that. It won't have the furrows and "stretch marks" until later.
 
Sometimes a view of a fresh split face helps ID, but those pics look like oak. Tight rings.
 
Looks a lot like a Pin Oak I took down last Summer. Smoother Bark and Dark heart wood.
 

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Next time I am at that site, I'll get a pic of a branch. I guess it could be a Red Oak. There were a ton of Oak leaves on the ground.

I figured it wasn't an Oak since it didn't have an leaves on the tree. All the Oaks on my property still have all of their dead leaves on them still.
 
That's a red oak. I'm 99.999999999% absolutely positive of it.....
 
Piin Oaks seem to hold leaves the best. My White Oak that is in my yard seems to hold leaves on the lower branches only. Reds do drop most all leaves. My opinion is Red Oak as well. I worked a lot of Red Oak and the bark thickness, appearance and wood grain are screaming out Red Oak. Heavy as heck?
 
Two oak trees side by side with similar age characteristics - one may hold it's leaves while the other drops them?? Not a fool proof identifier unless they still have the leaves of course.

That is definitely red oak or some sub-species there of. SMELL it - it will smell like oak furniture or an oak barrel, etc... Once you have smelled fresh cut oak you will always know if something is or is not oak as soon as you cut into it.
 
Yeah, the wood was heavy. Didn't seem as heavy as the Mulberry I scrounged in December. Then again, I was hauling the Mulberry uphill whereas I was hauling this load down hill.

It's hard, it's heavy, I'm sure it will burn well.
 
DexterDay, those are some good looking dogs you have. I bet when they want to play stick, you have to grab a log off the stack and throw it for them! : )
 
I'll go with "What is Pin Oak for a 100"? The Bark and the wood has the appearance of all the Pin Oaks that I've seen. But when you split it, I think any ways, it will be very aromatic wonderfull smell.
 
ridensnow23 said:
DexterDay, those are some good looking dogs you have. I bet when they want to play stick, you have to grab a log off the stack and throw it for them! : )

The Shepard (Oscar) loves to fetch, while the other dog (Princess), is 14 and kinda just goes with the flow... :lol:.

If I get a moment. I will snap a pic of the Pin Oak Bark from some splits later.
 
Here are a couple more pics of the stack. The sun is shining on one side and the other is on the shade side.
 

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Nice load definitely oak,Red.
 
Nice Red Oak! Now hurry and get it split and off the ground! ;-P
 
Oak; Medullary rays visible...
 
I'm not a big hurry to split this. There's a lot mo where dat came from!

I'll be cutting more of this out and some cherry over the next couple months. Once I get it all hauled out, then I'll rent a splitter for a weekend and do it all at once. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.
 
ridensnow23 said:
Just picked this up today. I'm not sure exactly what it is just looking at the bark and the cut ends. I'm trying to get better at tree identification.

And here is a pin oak we cut. As for the oaks holding leaf, around these parts the pin oak tend to drop their leaf first and it is the white oaks that hold the leaf. Anyway, there is no doubt you have some nice oak there. And you no doubt already know but a pin oak is in the same family as the red oak and there is not a huge difference in the bark but the pin tends to be a bit smoother.

Pinoakcut-2.jpg
 
I think it is Pin Oak, but I could be convinced it is another tree in the red oak group like Northern Red perhaps. It is certainly an oak.
 
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