Tree/wood type ID help

[duff0369]

I recently moved into a recently built house on the site of a dairy farm in the late 1800s with about 20 odd wooded acres. I stumbled upon a fallen tree that looked really old but petrified but I couldn't tell what it was(I'm picky with my firewood) so I didn't burn it. The tree was the bottom fifteen ft log and two large-ish main leads but no small branches or anything nearby that looked anything like it. Well one day I had to cut part of it out of my way to other firewood and it was just beautiful wood so I took some in and burned it. It burns great and for a long time.

Anyway

The first photo is the grain of the wood. For comparisons sake there is petrified white oak on the right so the unknown wood is the one on the left in all of the pictures.

This second picture is of the split of the unknown on the left and the white oak on the right.

The last one is the only possibly identifying features of the logs. They're all over the them.

My guesses are petrified american chestnut that died from the blight or some type of elm because I've seen those chancres on certain elms(though they're much smaller). I'm honestly stumped though because I don't believe that chestnut or elm burns very nicely and this stuff is like a charm.

 

[Applesister]

Chestnut grain looks exactly like Oak minus the very visible medulliary ray flecks. The color Im not sure. The items I possess are finished and have a stain on them.
Also another characteristic of Chestnut is the evidence of wood boring insects or worm holes.
I have read the fungus borne blight appears as orange fruiting bodies in cracks in the bark with blackened areas.
Nothing I have come across mentions burls or cankers.
Also the wood in your pics strikes me as cedar. Chestnut is rather heavy wood. Not quite that of white oak.
There is a website Woodweb I think that has woodgrain samples of chestnut.

 

[Applesister]

Im not saying your tree isnt chestnut, just that at first glance the color tone looked like cedar. You didnt mention if it was a lighter or heavier wood.
Chestnut is ring porous like oak and ash.

 

[Eater309]

I recently moved into a recently built house on the site of a dairy farm in the late 1800s with about 20 odd wooded acres. I stumbled upon a fallen tree that looked really old but petrified but I couldn't tell what it was(I'm picky with my firewood) so I didn't burn it. The tree was the bottom fifteen ft log and two large-ish main leads but no small branches or anything nearby that looked anything like it. Well one day I had to cut part of it out of my way to other firewood and it was just beautiful wood so I took some in and burned it. It burns great and for a long time.

Anyway

The first photo is the grain of the wood. For comparisons sake there is petrified white oak on the right so the unknown wood is the one on the left in all of the pictures.

This second picture is of the split of the unknown on the left and the white oak on the right.

The last one is the only possibly identifying features of the logs. They're all over the them.

My guesses are petrified american chestnut that died from the blight or some type of elm because I've seen those chancres on certain elms(though they're much smaller). I'm honestly stumped though because I don't believe that chestnut or elm burns very nicely and this stuff is like a charm.

duff0369, Chestnut it could be Elm possibly, it is some type of wood. What it isn't is petrified wood... Petrified wood is wood that has turned to rock, I don't think you can burn rocks. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Have to sharpen your chain a bit extra when cutting petrified wood.

 

[Applesister]

If you want to bypass all great helpful comments here you could try contacting American Chestnut Foundation.
Im sure they have a testing lab, somewhere in Virginia I believe. You coyld send them a sample of wood.
That would be a more absolute answer. But also a lab fee.

 

[duff0369]

Im not saying your tree isnt chestnut, just that at first glance the color tone looked like cedar. You didnt mention if it was a lighter or heavier wood.
Chestnut is ring porous like oak and ash.

It is fairly heavy and from the look of what remained of the tree I'm almost certain it isn't cedar.

duff0369, Chestnut it could be Elm possibly, it is some type of wood. What it isn't is petrified wood... Petrified wood is wood that has turned to rock, I don't think you can burn rocks. Just my 2 cents worth.

Yep, I know that petrified wood is wood that has turned to rocks. If you can't burn rocks then how are so many people able to burn coal?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

You can tell it is a softer wood than the white oak. It certainly has a beautiful grain but I do not know what it is.

 

[oldspark]

Red Elm?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I had considered that too oldspark. You may be right.

 

[duff0369]

Red Elm?

After looking around the internet and finding another(on the other side of the property) fallen slippery bark elm(red elm) that is my guess as well. The other one I found isn't quite as red but it also looks like it only fell a year or two ago and the tree the wood in the picture came from had to have fallen 20+ years ago.

 

[nrford]

Red Elm. That "petrified" Oak will burn very nicely

 

[gzecc]

Looks like an old split of honey locust on the left to me, no?

 

[Paulywalnut]

Did you try to burn the petrified wood? Its all you'll ever need. It burns forever!