Wood ID - black stains on splits
- Thread starter CarbonNeutral
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smokinj
Minister of Fire
It has been stacked all through the spring/summer, not in sun, but good air flow. It was at least a year old when I picked it up (though not split). Do you mean that from the looks of it, it must have been in the full sun, or that locust must be in the full sun to have any hope of drying?
Hurricane
Minister of Fire
I do not think it is locust. Locust has a much thicker and furloughed bark. Here is two pictures of the locust I picked up the other day. Locust does have a yellow tint to it. The black may be from some old nails or some thing painted on the tree, like tar. the black almost looks like oil stains or mold.
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andybaker
Feeling the Heat
Looks like Red Oak to me. I get stains like that all the time in Oak I pick up over at the golf course. These are very old trees, probably 100' - 110' tall. The stains go from black to blue and even purple sometimes. I usually try to season 2 years, burning the second year unless it bakes in the sun all summer and seems as though its dried out well.
Fairly certain it's not red oak (though don't know what spalted oak is) - I have plenty of normal red oak to compare it to - none of the characteristic oak grain or smell. Quite of lot of it has been bored by something. The rings I have are similar to the picture Hurricane posted.
CarbonNeutral said:
Spalted is just a fancy word for the beginning stages of decay. This is the stage that the most "colors" would develop in wood if at all. Sometimes highly sought after in the wood working world if the timing is right and the wood is still solid.
Hurricane
Minister of Fire
Maybe it is honey locust I do not know anything about them. I think the variety I have is black locust.
Was it easy to split ? Locust is very easy to split.
Was it easy to split ? Locust is very easy to split.
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
ICY99
New Member
Never seen locust like that. Locust resists decay for decades, thats why farmers use it for fence posts. Your pictures indicate a decaying wood, or spalted as mentioned above. Sorry, not locust.
Backwoods Savage said:I know it is difficult but compare the pictures.
Is that you Dennis?. Nice to put a face with the name!!
PapaDave
Minister of Fire
Yep, that's Dennis, and I think he's begun his log house building practice sessions.
Nice cross stacking Dennis. I use posts or poles sunk into the ground on the ends, but that means having to dig holes. Since you have to stack the wood anyway, your method seems pretty slick. I may do my next stack like that.
OP, bark doesn't look like oak to me. Stack looks like maple, and the black stuff is most likely mold.
Someone else's turn.
Dave
Nice cross stacking Dennis. I use posts or poles sunk into the ground on the ends, but that means having to dig holes. Since you have to stack the wood anyway, your method seems pretty slick. I may do my next stack like that.
OP, bark doesn't look like oak to me. Stack looks like maple, and the black stuff is most likely mold.
Someone else's turn.
Dave
Not maple, or at least nothing like my known maple. Will post a picture of the end grain when the sun shines again.
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