Picked this stuff up from a friend's house. It was cut down and into lengths a few months ago. What do you guys think?
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Wood I.D. please...
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bigbarf48
Minister of Fire
paul bunion
Minister of Fire
BillLion
Minister of Fire
If that's what this tree is I found this thread from the past:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/tree-of-heaven-ailanthus-altissima-for-firewood.60407/
Doesn't look great, unfortunately. "Tree of Heaven" sounds like the tree from Hell.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/tree-of-heaven-ailanthus-altissima-for-firewood.60407/
Doesn't look great, unfortunately. "Tree of Heaven" sounds like the tree from Hell.
paul bunion
Minister of Fire
The very short answer is because it looks like it. What I id it off is the thin bark, the thin texture of that bark, the large growth rings and the way it looks when split. I can't smell it but I know that if it is still wet it smells awful. It starts out heavy as honey locust when wet and becomes light as balsa when dry.
I got a log of it in a log load once. I cut it up to see if it was as bad as it was said to be. I learned.
If it is then it is. It will become firepit wood then. I did smell it and it smelled sweet, but not bad.
I think it is Paulownia or perhaps Catalpa. To me the bark looks more like Paulownia (Paulownia tomontosa is the common one that is planted) than it looks like Ailanthus, although I think Ailanthus is a more common tree in most places. It might also be Catalpa, which is similar to Paulownia but I am not too sure exactly what the bark of a Catalpa looks like.
Paulownia is famous for growing very fast, and the wide rings in the wood indicate this tree grew fast. The wood will dry to be very light. One nice thing about the wood is that it doesn't rot easily. I have some that I used on the bottom level of a wood pile three years ago, and the wood is still solid.
I am not too sure of the ID, to be honest.
Paulownia is famous for growing very fast, and the wide rings in the wood indicate this tree grew fast. The wood will dry to be very light. One nice thing about the wood is that it doesn't rot easily. I have some that I used on the bottom level of a wood pile three years ago, and the wood is still solid.
I am not too sure of the ID, to be honest.
Yeah, definitely not ash but beyond that I couldn't say for sure. I will say that I've never seen a "tree of heaven" get anywhere close to that kind of girth.
paul bunion
Minister of Fire
It can. I am the 'proud' owner of one that is about 18" DBH and 65'+ tall. It has outgrown the red oaks in my yard. I know of others in my neighborhood that are similar in girth. I think the canopy of the oak trees next made mine grow taller than usual. I yank out and run over with the lawn mower 100's of its seedlings every year. It is one nasty piece of garbage. Unfortunately it's not a clean drop so I can't do it in without paying somebody.
Wow, that's quite large. I can't imagine them becoming so large commonly but the bark is spot on so I'll bet you're right. Edited to add: that wood grain is just right too for tree of heaven.
Do you live in a town or rural setting?
paul bunion
Minister of Fire
The burbs, 1/4 acres zoning, my lot is 1/3 acre. If it was rural that tree would have been down a long time ago. I was quite tall when I nought my house 17 years ago. I didn't catch on to what it was till recently.
I've got a set of climbing spikes, a climbing harness, a rope, and all the gear. I trim for the utilities at work but I have a lot of projects of my own at home as well. I can feel your pain, those guys who do residential work make a lot of money!
We have some Catalpa around here....bark in the pics doesn't look right. I've never seen any split.
I've been splitting what I've got for the firepit. Been doing it by hand for exercise since the holidays have me a little on the porky side
The wood is very wet. After tapping in, the initial full fledged hit of the sledgehammer into the wedge drives water out of the wood. Each log splits very easily. An entire half of a log can be split with a good hard swing of the axe. Once I'm down to creating two medium sized splits out of one hunk: I just take a half-assed swing with the axe and it comes right apart. Junk wood. Each split has the serrated edges to it like in the 2nd set of pics I posted. Each split is very light, and I'm cutting most of the splits very large. So I'm speculating that once it's seasoned, this stuff will be light as balsa like paul bunion said. I feel that it's almost a waste of time even for the firepit!
The wood is very wet. After tapping in, the initial full fledged hit of the sledgehammer into the wedge drives water out of the wood. Each log splits very easily. An entire half of a log can be split with a good hard swing of the axe. Once I'm down to creating two medium sized splits out of one hunk: I just take a half-assed swing with the axe and it comes right apart. Junk wood. Each split has the serrated edges to it like in the 2nd set of pics I posted. Each split is very light, and I'm cutting most of the splits very large. So I'm speculating that once it's seasoned, this stuff will be light as balsa like paul bunion said. I feel that it's almost a waste of time even for the firepit!
I would give it a try. For the fire pit, you want some stuff that burns quickly and gives a lively flame. I'm using some Red Pine at present....
Not positive, but I'm pretty sure it's tree of heaven, as was said.
If it is, you'd probably get a longer burn from rolled up newspapers..
If it is, you'd probably get a longer burn from rolled up newspapers..
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