Wood ID

Black cherry
does it have a wonderfully smokey kind of licorish smell to it?
a friend of mine showed me how to set up a grill using an old truck tire rim as the firepit and we filled it with chunks of cherry heartwood and smoked steak kabobs on it.

Cherry all day..

Applesister said:

Black cherry
does it have a wonderfully smokey kind of licorish smell to it?

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No, but that's certainly a colorful description.
That's the wood to burn when company comes, smells great outside. Creates a positive impression of wood-burning in all who smell it.

Applesister said:

Black cherry
does it have a wonderfully smokey kind of licorish smell to it?
a friend of mine showed me how to set up a grill using an old truck tire rim as the firepit and we filled it with chunks of cherry heartwood and smoked steak kabobs on it.

Click to expand...

X2.. Cherry. Nice find! Dries pretty quick and makes for a nice fire. Not the hardest of woods, but I still find it special.

Old cherry. Not quite as fragrant maybe.

Applesister said:

Black cherry
does it have a wonderfully smokey kind of licorish smell to it?
a friend of mine showed me how to set up a grill using an old truck tire rim as the firepit and we filled it with chunks of cherry heartwood and smoked steak kabobs on it.

Click to expand...

Yep, cherry. Just cut one up. I love it. Get all you can of it

HybridFyre said:

Any thoughts on this last set?

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Whack a piece of the last one open; if it smells like Wintergreen it's Black Birch-if it's just a sweet non-Wintergreen smell it's some sort of Cherry.

Im gonna say no to silver maple. The outer bark runs vertical plates that sits above the inner bark layer. This wood does not. And the maples in general have slightly to pronounced darker heartwood. This wood looks like sap and heartwood are same color.
Im not sure what it is, some rounds look like hackberry bark but not all.
The last set of pics are Pin cherry, if you hurry with the last one you might be able to burn it this winter.

Hard Maple and Black Birch, Nice score!

No need you have the correct answer already.

Looks more like a hickory to me, but I am not well-versed in the various sorts of hickory aside from the obvious Shagbark.

That is Red Maple not a doubt in my mind.

That it is.

spiltting black birch is always a nice surprise for your nose.. reminds me of beechnut gum

It keeps the mint smell for a while. Several months but if you buy black birch seasoned from a dealer, if you are lucky to get it, the smell is gone, Sadly. I was reading about the sap because yellow birch totes the same claim to wintergreen oil as well, and both are tapped for sap. Apparently the wintergreen oil is not carried in the sap and theres no evidence of it in flavor. But Birch beer soda is very good and quite different from rootbeer. ;-)