American Hophornbeam

I made the run up top, this was the only thing across the trail so I cut most of it up but left the rest. After checking on the downed beech (spring job) I came across another American Hophornbeam which I cut up.

Pic 6713 is the one that was across the trail.

I made my way down so I could check the trails on the rest of our property, if the weather is ok tomorrow I'll be getting some topped off cherry.

I LOVE that wood.
I've got prolly around 30-40 acres of that and regular hornbeam in some bottom land I own to cut over the next 20 years.
It's all under 8" so not much splitting. I rate it right up there with white oak and hickory.
Great stuff.

We burned some but not enough to say so, my neighbor who sold us the land loves it. I offered him a load of cherry one day when I was coming out of the woods, his answer was no thank you, about three weeks later I came out of the woods with a load of Ironwood so I stopped by his place since he was out front, what do you have there, he took the load of Ironwood.

I'll second that ! It doesn't smell like cherrry but it doesn't burn like it either. Happy Days

Wow. Zap and Lee have some good stuff there.

Sounds like Lee has a chit load. Once I was back in the wind picked up some, made it feel real cold.

Looks like Sunday I'll grab some topped off Cherry at the base of a west facing hill, lets hope the sun is out.

Great stuff.Where I cut there isnt much of it & not many are over 7"-8",but it sure burns a long time what little I've burned. Right up there with White Oak,Hickory,Honey Locust.Wish I had 10 more acres of the stuff,it rarely grows in pure stands around here unfortunately.

Hornbeam is the best

We have some Hophornbeam .
Hornbeam (blue beech) grows like weeds here everywhere. Lots of bottomland around swamps with nothing growing other than aspen and hornbeam.

When Sav was up he noticed we had some blue beech (muscle wood) how long does it take to season?

Same as Hophornbeam.

That shaggy stuff in pic 6714 is hornbeam aka ironwood?

Nope,its the closely related Hophornbeam Ostrya Virginiana Both are similar in density,color,heat value etc.Different looking bark,seeds though.Both are called Ironwood in several locations.

thanks, now I know what to loo for, havent burned any yet

Zap, will you split those, or burn like that? I have some on the other side of the property - I'll have to get use of a neighbor's land for access, and have enough to do on this side of the ridge, so it keeps getting put off. I remember my Grandfather introducing me to it as ironwood many years ago.

Good stuff...I had about 2 or three good size wheel barrows of it. Kept it seperate so I could give it a try as don't get a lot of it. Brought some in about a week ago during our cold snap and it burned darn good and lasted well. Close to locust but mind you I said close.

I've heard great stories about that hophornbeam but I've never had any. It does grow here but none where I've been cutting. Send me a couple of rounds in 2 years so I can try it.

I've heard great things about hophornbeam but never had any. It does grow around here just not where I've been cutting. Hey Zap, stick some stamps on a couple of rounds and mail them to me so I can try them out in a couple of years!

Most of that will stay in rounds, I did cut some before fall that needed splitting. I take the ironwood that is topped off or down, still have some nice stuff standing.

As dense as that stuff is,it'll take more than a couple stamps! I have a couple 6 1/2" diameter x 23" long rounds - semi-dead when cut over a year ago.Each one's about 20lbs! Will be lamp bases or something similar one day....

Two years ago in the spring I flew into http://www.cvgairport.com/ from North Carolina, everything was flooding then while waiting for our plane to Syracuse we had a tornado warning, tunnels here we come, it was called off 15 minutes later.

I split some for my neighbor today, nice color on the inside.

Agree with all who like hophornbeam. Hard stuff but decent to split, and burns long and hot with great coals. We have a grove of it in our woods that I harvest a little from every year or so.

When we bought our farm, one of the hay mows in the barn was built using 6"- 8" hophornbeam logs as joists. We removed that mow and as a result I had about a dozen logs 16' long to use for firewood. Man, THAT was an easy score for sure! I originally thought the logs were oak before I learned what they actually were and that they had been taken from the farm woods back in the late 40's to make the mow joists.

BTW ZAP, always love your trail pics. Nice place you have there!

Thanks AJS56. The original owner loved the woods, he did some trapping,hunting along with some fishing in the brook, he even had a small sawmill back on the property, he put in all the trails so we have the easy job of just keeping them open.

I wish I had some pictures but the family lost there house (belongings) to a fire long ago.