wood identification and newbie questions

Sorry I don't have a picture. I can try to get on if it is needed. I just got a tree from a neighbor (southern NH) that I would love to identify. Here are the characteristics.

rough bark but not peeling looking like birch.
All that the company who cut it left was about 38 feet of the tree. The bottom was about 20 in and 38 ft up was about 15 in in diameter.
It has a dark brownish grey center about 3 inches in the bottom of the tree and about 2 inches 38 ft up.
The rest of the wood is real white
There is a red layer between the bark and the white wood.

I also have another question - I cut these to 20 in rounds and while trying to split them down the center the fiskars splitting ax just bounced. It would take me about 10 - 20 whacks to get it to finally stick. My question is, is this normal for green wood (it was cut less than 1 week ago) or is it more of a function of the wood, or is it because I cut it at 20 inches.

Thanks for your help.

shawneyboy said:

Sounds like a tree to me !!

Shawn

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This was the most helpful... Lol I'll get a picture today and post. The neighbor called after the tree was already down and in grapple length. He also had a pine cut so there is no way of getting a leaf.

I wanted the pine too for shoulder season but the tree guy told the neighbor that I really didn't want it so he took it. It was about 30 inches in diameter. bummer...

Adios Pantalones said:

What color is the birch-like bark? Local trees with that bark include:
White and paper birch, gray birch, black birch, yellow birch, various cherries, (and slightly less birch-like) quaking aspen, big tooth aspen, poplar, and others.

Most of the cherries have more heartwood- and it's not gray.

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Hi, I said it is not birch like bark. Here are some pictures. I think it might be maple like the #2 or #3 post suggested. I do some word-working and when I looked closer at the grain, it looks to have some maple flecks in it. Here are the pictures

As for the dumb tree guy - nope - I think he was a pi$$ed off tree guy. He was charging the neighbor so much to cut the trees, then another $300 to haul it away. In turn, I'm sure he was going to sell the wood, so me taking it would have cut into his profit. At least by taking the pine, he still charged them $300 and got some of what he would have got by selling the wood.

Here are the pics

first pic is an unsplit round
second pic is 2 splits with the bark back to back - you can see the red
third split is the brown/gray center

Thanks everyone. I'll go with maple.

As far as splitting it - I got the hint after trying too long to split one down the middle. (I told you I was a newbie.) I ended up taking the sides off and then finally getting the middle to split. This one tree scavenge gave me about 1/2 of a cord. I think the pine would have given me at least a cord more, probably more.