Help on wood ID

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smoker62

Member
Jan 29, 2012
94
Kenosha, WI.
I was out with my buddy cutting wood. He said it was Ash and Box Elder. It looked the same to me but he didnt want to take the Box Elder . We cut 4 truck loads and he said its all Ash with the exception of a couple pieces of what he called Poplar. You can see a piece in the righ of the pic. Can you tell me what this is, both species from the pic ? I also have a shot of some Black Locust I just split on the trailer and you can see a pile in the back that needs splitting. Thanks.
 

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Looks like maple to me. Just don't ask me which maple.
 
I see ash, at least the big one on the right closest to us. Looks like a big load for the wagon !!
 
Sorry, cant get the pic posted of the Locust. DNR guy said it was Ash . I just could not tell the Ash from the Box Elder if indeed thats what it was. Both looked the same , bark and core.

My buddy said the Elder has reddish branches at the end and they were more wispy . What ever wispy means . I just cut the stuff, figure it will burn.
 
Ash and boxelder maple can easily be mistaken if you don't see them a lot. A lot of your pieces look less ash-like and more like boxelder maple. Split some of the larger larger rounds and you might see the telltale red stain of boxelder maple..

This is a known boxelder maple, the ends had darkened because they have been exposed to the air for a few days. The split was fresh, so you can see how white it had been and the red stain. Boxelder maple often has an amoeba-shaped darker core on the ends of rounds:

boxelder_fresh2.jpg




In addition, a few of your rounds look like poplar--perhaps bigtooth Aspen.
 
Thanks, yes a few rounds are Poplar as he said. I though they were Birch , papery bark that had diamonds , kinda looks like alligator skin.
 
Difficult pictures but there is definitely some ash on that load. For example, that one on the right, second picture is ash. Most though is too difficult to see and tell what it is.

Treepointer is correct in that box elder will have some red in the grain. It is not as bad of wood as most folks think it is. Dry it and it will burn fine but not give long burns.
 
I split the big round and a few others. No red in the splits. Ill try and get some better shots tomorrow. The site was not letting me load pics for some reason. They were not too big for individual posts . The poplar didnt split too good , glad I dont have a lot of that , really wet stuff.
 
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