This is some gnarly hickory or walnut!

[JimBear]

Hickory usually smells like cow manure a bit when you split it, did this have any odor to it?

I have never split any Hickory (shagbark is all I know of around here) didn’t realize it had that type of odor. Around the end of the year last year I cut down an elm that smelled like a Port O Pot on a hot August day, mama bear was none to impressed when I stuck the wedge cut out under her nose & said take a whiff of this.

 

[Kevin Weis]

American Elm for sure. Most of what I've cut was seasoned standing dead without the bark from Dutch Elm Disease. Burns excellent IMO. Unless you have a splitter would rather have oak but when well seasoned standing dead doesn't split too bad. Kevin

 

[Modenacart]

I think it could be that Pignut Hickory. It had those "worm like" flowers, like in this photo;
http://www.rnr.lsu.edu/plantid/species/pignuthick/images/CARgl64_web.jpg

That photo came from this page;
http://www.rnr.lsu.edu/plantid/species/pignuthick/pignuthick.htm

It was tall, straight, and somewhat slender, like this photo;
https://store.speedtree.com/site-assets/uploads/store-images/hickory_pignut_hero_forest.jpg

And nut pods looked like this;
http://www.discoverlife.org/IM/I_TQBH/0114/320/Carya_glabra,I_TQBH11405.jpg

Leaf pattern was also similar. I would eliminate the elm, not the same shape, leaf pattern and shape, seed pod look, etc...

I spent a good part of the weekend splitting it with the gas powered splitter I rented. Went fine, no clean breaks, every piece was fibrous. Most had to be pull apart by hand a bit (splitters go 95% of the way). Some logs needed to be have the fibers split by a small hatchet.

If you have the leaves you can rule out either elm or hickory pretty quickly. Elm has alternating leaves on each side and hickory are directly across.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[FLINT]

It could be hickory. Definitely not walnut. I've split hickory that was real stringy. Sweet gum fibers are not stringy, they are just super interwoven and the pieces you split off are never straight. If it's hickory it will feel really heavy for it's size. And won't feel much lighter when dry. Sweet gum is much lighter when dry. I've split hickory that was very white like that before.

 

[Rich L]

View attachment 224042
For what it’s worth, here are a few pieces of Elm I split a couple months ago. Is Gum stringy just like this? I haven’t dealt with it before.

Looks like you are splitting the elm during the right time of year and that's when it's cold outside.

 

[Eureka]

Looks like you are splitting the elm during the right time of year and that's when it's cold outside.

Yes sir it was a high of -5 the two days I was splitting it. Using a hydro splitter but it still cracks open way better when it’s frozen. Not my favorite wood to split but it’s everywhere and the stringy crap does ignite nicely in the stove.