Another What wood is this post?

[ecfinn]

Hey everyone,

I've got a lot of this free, yellow heartwood. I don't have any pics of the tree or leaves as it was already in rounds and sitting for 9+ months when I got it. Its rather stringy when split and is almost mustard yellow inside. Within 24 hours of splitting it starts to dull so I don't have a great picture of the color. This pic is the best I have so far. It seems to be quite heavy. When the rounds are cut to 10" diameter or less its much easier to split. There are often dark brown or almost black sections in the very center of the logs that are not rotted, just a different color. Any ideas what it is?

 

[Roospike]

Sounds like , Looks like Mulberry @ 25.7 mil btu / per cord ( Oak is 27 )

 

[philaphire]

can't help with wood ID - but saw you're a neighbor so I e-mailed you....thanks!

 

[struggle]

Ditto Mulberry. I split a lot of it today uuuhhh for like 5 hours of course there was some ash and elm in the mix too.

 

[ecfinn]

Great. I'm glad to hear its a quality wood. I knew it was heavier than most of the other logs I picked up, just didn't know what it was. Never seen anything like that before. Thanks again Hearth.com.

 

[ourhouse]

I'm going to say mulberry also. Tough to tell with no bark on it.

 

[Roospike]

Alright youz Mulberry and tree gu-ru's ..............

Does anybody know when to spot a mulberry tree and to tell the difference between the "Female" mulberry tree and the "Male" mulberry tree?

NOTE: If you have to look it up that cheating.

 

[colsmith]

Reading the description I also thought mulberry, because that is a wood that does a lot of weird fast color changing. The other clue that it is mulberry is if when you split it, it smells funny, a bit unpleasant. Maybe not so much when it is aged, but when it is new it is downright icky. I am not kidding, split some and give it a sniff. I am not a wood pro but have dealt with a few mulberry trees already.

As for gender of a tree, I never noticed them having those sort of parts.

 

[Roospike]

Ha , Yes .......... you guys are close . :gulp:

The female Mulberry tree has Mulberry berries and the male tree does not. Normally its the female tree you will see.

 

[ourhouse]

Ha , Yes .......... you guys are close . :gulp:

The female Mulberry tree has Mulberry berries and the male tree does not. Normally its the female tree you will see.

You beat me to it. I was going to answer that this morning.

 

[wg_bent]

I've cut some mulberry, and it's nice wood to burn. I'd say similar to burning maple or cherry on the btu scale...maybe a bit more. (I think Spike actually found the number a couple weeks ago)

I've also come across a wood that I though was mulberry, but doesn't look like this mustard yellow stuff seen here or the stuff I KNOW to be mulberry.

so another mystery wood. The description:

Rather light when dry, and had distinct red streaks through it when split. When I say red...I'm talking "Kids toy red" Intense red like the brake lights of a car.

Somewhat difficult to split, and if there's a crotch in the tree...it's absolutely impossible...I litteraly cut my way through one with the maul....I might as well have beat my way through with a sledge hammer. Finally gave up and cut with the saw.

Any ideas? I'd have to dig into the split pile to find a chunk...but that's what I thought was mulberry last year....May not have been.

The mulberry I picked up this year weighs a ton and is rather easy to split.

 

[ecfinn]

Ok, here are some more pics. First one is a few rounds I haven't split/cut yet. The second is the bark that came off of some of the pieces before I split them. Still look like Mulberry?

 

[ecfinn]

2nd pic

 

[Corey]

Looks like mulberry bark to me. Here is a file with some leaf and bark pics...see what you think.

http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR_237.pdf

Corey

PS - Mulberry should be close to 24M BTU/cord which puts it slightly above red oak and sugar maple, but just a tad below hickory and white oak. Overall, a pretty nice wood to burn.

 

[berlin]

that IS black locust and one of the best woods you could burn. it is one of the top three N. american btu content trees, the others being hickory and eastern hophornbeam. get as much of that as you can.

 

[Corey]

I see the similarities with the black locust bark, but does the black locust have the fluorescent / mustard yellow wood the OP described? All the locust I have cut around here just has normal "wood" colored wood. (and huge freaking thorns!) The leaves would be a dead give away as they are totaly different between the two trees.

Either way, locust or mulberry, it is a good, high BTU/cord wood.

Corey

 

[berlin]

yes, black locust can be a very flourescent wood, but it can also varry considerably even in the same tree. this is one of the reasons people like black locust for flooring, it has very unique properties that make it do interesting things depending on the lighting; also it is very hard, and shrinks less than any other N. american species of wood as it ages and drys. It is well regarded as a "domestic exotic".

 

[CountryGal]

Alright youz Mulberry and tree gu-ru's ..............

Does anybody know when to spot a mulberry tree and to tell the difference between the "Female" mulberry tree and the "Male" mulberry tree?

NOTE: If you have to look it up that cheating.

If it asks for directions, it's a female.

 

[Roospike]

Alright youz Mulberry and tree gu-ru's ..............

Does anybody know when to spot a mulberry tree and to tell the difference between the "Female" mulberry tree and the "Male" mulberry tree?

NOTE: If you have to look it up that cheating.

If it asks for directions, it's a female.

%-P

 

[magnumtoy]

I've cut a lot of black locust and some mulberry. I don't recall the black locust being as yellow as the mulberry (and your photos I've seen). I know most mulberrys are very branched, even close to the ground, while the locusts are very straight, almost no major (large) branching. The locust also sounds solid and hard (almost "echoes" in it's sound) as hell when you whack a couple pcs together, while the mulberry will just be a dead "thump". The mulberry once split will soon turn dark, dark, brown almost black, especially on the end grain. It needs a good amount of time to dry out tho'. Don't rush to burn it if it's not dry or it will just sizzle and stink like crap (and the water in the wood will stain your hands when you try to pull a stinking wet pc out of the stove).