Can't I.D. This Wood?

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ReggieT

ReggieT

Member
Aug 13, 2015
99
Birmingham, AL
Picked up this load late this evening and I admit two things, "I'm rusty on my wood ID & I'm wayyyyy outta shape!"
Anyhow, it was free & so was the lecture on the wood type...the guys swears its a rare strain of hickory!
I think perhaps white oak or white ash...;?

I didn't see any nuts lying about, the small twigs/limbs were limber, but hard to snap, and it the wood weighed a ton.
Yet, my MS 261c chewed through it a little quicker than most hickory I've encountered.
Maybe I'm underestimating my saw with square chisel & a 16 in bar!!

Here are the best pics I could muster.
What are you guys thoughts?
White Oak 1.jpg White Oak 2.jpg White Oak 3.jpg White Oak 4.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It looks like ash to me, but I don't feel absolutely sure.
 
dosen't look like ash to me - poplar or soft maple - maybe bass wood
 
End grain picture is a little blurry, but I would say this is ash (probably green ash).
 
Well studs I reckon the verdicts in, just spoke with the guy I got it from and these are his words, "Yeah, she use to drop a bumper crop of hickory nuts every other year fer many years yung feller...them wuz da tastiest dern nuts this side of my scrotum:eek:_g???"!!!!!WTH???;sick;sick;sick:confused::confused:
 
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I am no expert, but do you have a butternut tree there? They are more like a white walnut. That would make sense on the nuts (vs. bitternut hickory).
 
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Lind,
You may have something there. I did look up a hickory tree called a "Nutmeg Hickory" that loves to be covered in lichens it looked very close. Then again I also looked up Butternut also and this looks almost identical...Hmmm....lost on this one.
So far even in lieu of the hickory nut confession...95% say its ash.
 
Smells kinda sour
 
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Here are some pics of this mystery wood split today.
Plenty of knots & stringy as HADES!!!
split 1.jpg

splits 1.jpg
 

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ReggieT said:
Well studs I reckon the verdicts in, just spoke with the guy I got it from and these are his words, "Yeah, she use to drop a bumper crop of hickory nuts every other year fer many years yung feller...them wuz da tastiest dern nuts this side of my scrotum:eek:_g???"!!!!!WTH???;sick;sick;sick:confused::confused:
Click to expand...

And hickory is not out of the question from those photos. One of the less common ones. Clearly not shagbark.
 
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That’s hickory
 
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Many of my tree service buds and Arborists impersonator now swear it either Elm or Black Gum!;em!!!
 
Pretty good chance it’s gum too, but I thought the owner told you it dropped tons of nuts. Hickory is hard and heavy. Splinters can be used for toothpicks.
Gum trees drop “balls” but are stringy wood. Both species should have more color in the heartwood than your pictures though. I’ll go ahead and say what you have is firewood.
 
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The splits look like hickory to me. Pignut maybe.
 
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Eureka said:
Pretty good chance it’s gum too, but I thought the owner told you it dropped tons of nuts. Hickory is hard and heavy. Splinters can be used for toothpicks.
Gum trees drop “balls” but are stringy wood. Both species should have more color in the heartwood than your pictures though. I’ll go ahead and say what you have is firewood.
Click to expand...
I think he's also confused about his "nuts!"::-)
 
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