A wood ID please

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

BillsDuster

Member
Oct 31, 2013
9
West Michigan
This weekend we had a couple rounds of severe storms come through and wipe out many many trees. My wife had this tree offered to us. It's not oak, but it'll burn and free is cool with me. We cut a truck load yesterday, it is light wood(hopefully good for shoulder season fires), and splits very easy with a plain old axe. Is it maybe elm? Is it any good and worth my time cutting more?

Im not real good at ID'ing odd ball stuff yet as our property I've been cutting on is all oaks. A couple Michigan tree sites kinda point to elm by my best guess.

Thanks!
 

Attachments

  • uploadfromtaptalk1397499876175.jpg
    uploadfromtaptalk1397499876175.jpg
    83.7 KB · Views: 422
  • uploadfromtaptalk1397499897123.jpg
    uploadfromtaptalk1397499897123.jpg
    81.1 KB · Views: 386
  • uploadfromtaptalk1397499907877.jpg
    uploadfromtaptalk1397499907877.jpg
    66.7 KB · Views: 363
  • uploadfromtaptalk1397499923541.jpg
    uploadfromtaptalk1397499923541.jpg
    91.5 KB · Views: 388
  • uploadfromtaptalk1397499944160.jpg
    uploadfromtaptalk1397499944160.jpg
    106.1 KB · Views: 355
Light and easy to split - it ain't elm. Looks soft maple to me. A pic of a couple of splits would help in the ID.
 
Box elder is a type of maple, common to Michigan and grows like a weed. That is my best guess. Certainly not elm for reasons posted above
 
If the splits have streaks of pink/red, I'd 2nd the guess on boxelder.
 
Here we are guys, a couple fresh splits.
 

Attachments

  • uploadfromtaptalk1397515623122.jpg
    uploadfromtaptalk1397515623122.jpg
    45.4 KB · Views: 286
  • uploadfromtaptalk1397515632231.jpg
    uploadfromtaptalk1397515632231.jpg
    40.6 KB · Views: 266
  • uploadfromtaptalk1397515649236.jpg
    uploadfromtaptalk1397515649236.jpg
    39.3 KB · Views: 265
I've only seen boxelder and willows grow all arched over like that. Growth rings in pic #3 are pretty big too, which fits with either of those two species. Surprised it blew over - usually they just fall to pieces - guess it was a bit of a leaner though.
 
It ain't box elder. The bark is wrong and the rounds would have a red splotch in the center folks sometimes mistake for splatting. After the rounds have been cut a wile the red fades and looks more like maple splatting. But if you splash a little water on the center, it shows red again. Also when you split it reasonably fresh, the red streaks in the center of the splits are very noticeable. I'm waging war on box elder on my bottom land property right now. It is more a weed than a tree and they draw bugs, box elder beetles. Sorry, I can't tell you what it is, only what it isn't.

bark1.jpg
Box Elder, sorry, no pictures of fresh cut box elder rounds.
 
Ralphie Boy said:
My guess too, but I miss more than I hit so mostly I don't say these days!:p
Click to expand...

I figure that if I am wrong the internet can keep my paycheck for the week.;lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ralphie Boy
I'm still not 100% certain except to say it is not soft maple, elm or box elder.
 
Does it have any aroma to it? It kind of reminds me of Sassafras in some of the photos, but not in some of them. There's quite a bit of variance in those pictures of the 3 split pieces.....
 
i too was going to ask about the smell. i had a few pieces that looked just like that that were light in weight and smelled weird so my guess is catalpa. when it dries it is very light in weight almost like dry pine and when burning it stinks
 
It's a mystery tree lol.

It's not sassafras for sure, at least not the variety I am used to with the three lobed leaves and the unique smell. I have never even seen a sassafras this large around here. Um, let's see, the tree had surface roots like a maple, if that helps any. No deep roots that I could see broken off.

Most of the splits were similar to the two with out the red center, very white and very light, very very easy to split. No real odor at all. I could pop some of them apart by only half swinging the axe(only lifting about head high and then down).

I'm not sure if I'm going to go back for more, I've been wiped out yesterday and today with sinus issues. And I figure if I'm gonna spend the time cutting I'll drive the few extra miles to our property and buck up the red oak I dropped just before the rain and storms ran me out of the woods this past weekend.
 
Here is frozen box elder--bucked the day before, split just before snapping the picture. The log ends darkened a little after a day, but you can see how white the sapwood is after splitting:

boxelder_fresh2.jpg

boxelder_fresh1.jpg
 
Yep, dat's box elder fo sho! See dem red streaks ah runnin through it? Real pretty, but hit burns like 100 year old newspaper!
 
but hit burns like 100 year old newspaper![/quote

that's a bummer. i got 5 cord drying
 
IDK , splits kinda look like American Elm, but not like maple, and not like boxelder.
I had a little bit of wood that looked like that, kinda smelled bad, still don't know what it was
 
The raspberry staining in Boxelder is a fungal stain and is not always present. But when you do see it, I guess it is pretty species specific.
Treepointers pics are definitely boxelder and he probably knew the trees.
The very thin bark in those rounds do not match the thickness of the first pics. Bark is a hard thing to pin down but I think thickness is pretty consistent.
The tree in question has pretty thick inner bark (like cottonwood) and its very cinnamon colored. I honestly have no clue what it is.
I feel sorry for the homeowner, though, root balls ripped out of the ground like that are a royal PITA to clean up.
 
Applesister said:
The raspberry staining in Boxelder is a fungal stain and is not always present. But when you do see it, I guess it is pretty species specific.
Treepointers pics are definitely boxelder and he probably knew the trees.
The very thin bark in those rounds do not match the thickness of the first pics. Bark is a hard thing to pin down but I think thickness is pretty consistent.
The tree in question has pretty thick inner bark (like cottonwood) and its very cinnamon colored. I honestly have no clue what it is.
I feel sorry for the homeowner, though, root balls ripped out of the ground like that are a royal PITA to clean up.
Click to expand...
I think maybe the stuff I had was cotton wood
 
Is it balsa wood light in weight? Could it be basswood? I have never logged basswood but the trees pointed out to me as basswood looked similar in structure to what was laying on the fence. I am 100% uncertain of the ID of your firewood.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

D
Free scrounge but should I take it?
Replies
16
Views
2K
The Wood Shed
sneefy
sneefy
Jonathco
Scored some free wood after the storm!
Replies
39
Views
3K
The Wood Shed
Ashful
Ashful
T
Wood ID: red, dense, very slow seasoning
Replies
19
Views
2K
The Wood Shed
Youp
Y
J
Please help with tree ID
Replies
7
Views
732
The Wood Shed
Stinkpickle
S
P
Two Year Old Eastern Hophornbeam
Replies
4
Views
1K
The Wood Shed
snojetter
snojetter
Top Bottom
Back