Ash vs elm?

[Split]

I'm wondering if I'm looking at Ash and Elm in this photo.
I think I got a lot of Elm and Ash in my current fresh cord. This is for winter 2025.
Elm would be on left and top in 2nd pic. It feels denser and heavier.

 

[Ashful]

Elm is a great wood for burning, but hell on the splitting, unless you have hydraulics.

Where's @Jags with that pic we always love to see?

 

[Jags]

This one...

 

[johneh]

Burns nice and
Makes it's own kindling

 

[aansorge]

Elm is fantastic if dead standing and the bark falling off. Much of the top will be low in moisture count and it splits way easier than when fresh.

 

[Wood1Dennis]

My favorite elm pic from a few years back. Not like ash that I can split by hand!

This one...
View attachment 318783

 

[Kevin Weis]

Bark says Ash. In my book Elm is a better firewood though. But Ash dries fast and burns efficiently.

 

[peakbagger]

Bark on left says Eastern Hornbeam (AKA Ironwood) to me. Very dense an high BTU content. Not easy to split and usually on found in smaller diameter trees (a 10" is big one)

 

[Doublebogey]

I thought the bark on the left looked an awful lot like honeysuckle.

🧐

 

[cadyfatcat]

Is it all relatively small diameter? Looks like Hop Hornbeam to me, one of the species known as "ironwood." Have a lot of it around here, great burning wood but the trees don't ever really get that large.

 

[Ashful]

Ironwood is an interesting name, as I've seen it used to refer to at least three different species. I had always known it as applied to Ipe, a popular African hardwood that eats even carbide blades, snaps drill bits, and is heavy enough to sink in water. I make all of my boat trailer bunks out of the stuff, and it literally outlasts the steel trailers, if you can manage to fasten carpet to it.

 

[cadyfatcat]

Here’s some Hop Hornbeam from my property that fell victim to some large pine blowdown.

 

[Ashful]

Here’s some Hop Hornbeam from my property that fell victim to some large pine blowdown. View attachment 320059

View attachment 320060

View attachment 320061

I could see how this could be confused with a small hickory, from photos alone. There are surely other indicators that separate the two, and even their appearance differs slightly, but there are a lot of visual similarities.

 

[Split]

Interesting. We do apparently have hornbeam here in Nova Scotia. However elm is very common here so that what I'm thinking. I just received a new fresh cord and I'll get some more pics. Thanks for all the replies.

 

[mtarbert]

Try Splitting a piece...Elm is Hard

 

[peakbagger]

Splitting Eastern Hop Hornbeam can cause a person to question if they splitting across the grain instead of with it

 

[Ashful]

Splitting Eastern Hop Hornbeam can cause a person to question if they splitting across the grain instead of with it

At least with Elm, the answer is always "both", no matter which way you turn the stupid thing. I've never split hop hornbeam, but elm has the most badly-interlocking grain of any wood I've ever seen. You don't so much split it, as tear it apart or pulverize it to death.

No one would ever confuse this stuff with ash, if they try splitting it.

 

[Caw]

On the bright side all the elm shed will be A+ kindling next year.

 

[ohlongarmisle]

This one...
View attachment 318783

Junk, don't waste your time.

 

[johneh]

Junk, don't waste your time.

What do you mean by junk Instant kindling!

 

[Ctwoodtick]

My gut tells me that picture has ash on the left and hop hornbeam (ironwood) on the left.

 

[Ashful]

My gut tells me that picture has ash on the left and hop hornbeam (ironwood) on the left.

,,, and on the right?