Another wood ID Question

[HittinSteel]

Hopefully this works, I have spent the last hour trying to figure out how to post pictures (yes I have read the sticky and the other threads on how to post pics, I am just slow!)

I cut this stuff up the other weekend and the farmer said it was elm. I had a hard time splitting it, but it does not look stringy like elm. Had to take some to another farmer's place to use his splitter and he gave it a good sniff and said it was oak. Sorry there is no bark as it was standing dead and shiny silver.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Looks like oak to me. Some varieties are stringier than others.

 

[HittinSteel]

Here is a better picture of the ends. I hope it is oak becuase it is ready to burn now.

 

[My_3_Girls]

Might it be hickory?

 

[HittinSteel]

That was my guess after I split it

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Oak has a distinctive smell, so I'm going on that a bit as well. Hickory or oak- either one is pure gold when the snow starts flying.

In the end - it will all burn.

 

[HittinSteel]

You are right, either way I think it is worth my time to go back and get the rest. Probably a cord left on this tree and one standing dead next to it that looks identical.

 

[Tfin]

Looks like red oak to me.

 

[Joey Jones]

It does look like my red Oak, but there are a thousand woods that look alike and I did learn my craft from R.Bruce Hoadley at Yale University, but nothing was done by eye only under 30 power lenses and light.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Is Bruce at Yale now? He was at UMass when I was there. He taught me to tie fishing flies. Good guy.

 

[ScottF]

Is Bruce at Yale now? He was at UMass when I was there. He taught me to tie fishing flies. Good guy.

Hey I went there too for mechanical engineering. I didnt know Bruce but I do have his book Understanding Wood, According to the book he is a professor at U Mass.

 

[Joey Jones]

Gee A.P. that was some 20 years ago...I did keep a correspondence with him at yale for a couple of years and did know he was the at The University of Mass since 1962 but did get his PHd at Yale in sometime before 1990...Sorry I can't place his whereabouts now.
Joey Chang

 

[billb3]

From as much as one can tell from a pic online - it looks like a red oak to me, too.


One peculiarity I'm noticing - the oak I cut down green and split gets lots of checks and splits on the ends - which I-ve always watched to indicate "dryness".
With all the dying red oaks here (for a number of reasons) the ones I cut down quite dead (no bark even standing) don't check or split on the ends hardly at all.
Must be the slow(er) evaporation rate.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Checking happense when the outside dries faster than the inside. Since the outside is shrinking more, it must check to relieve the strain. If it's kept whole, then water slowly evaporates through the bark (when it's on there)- it has more time to even out the moisture content and therefore shrinkage throughout the mass. If it's pretty dry when you cut it- then it won't shrink further and therefore won't check.

 

[billb3]

Yeah, that's what I figured.
My cutting ans stacking method has changed.

Used to always cut to rounds, then carry out of the woods into a pile, stack another day, with all the different trees and types getting mixed up.
No more piles. Straight into a stack even if not split.

I now have seperate stacks of cherry, maple , white oak, red oak, apple, etc.
Or at least identifiable sections of stacks.


Anopther vagary for dead oak left standing for quite a while is the ends don't turn grey fast, either.
Some oaks I cut down last Spring are still brown. At least on the north ends.

 

[countrybois]

I would not say it is red oak. Red oak usually splits alot cleaner than that. Now I've split some pin oak that splits like that. I don't know, kinda hard to tell from those pictures alone. I'm with everyone else though. Dry it and burn it.

 

[Tfin]

Checking happense when the outside dries faster than the inside. Since the outside is shrinking more, it must check to relieve the strain. If it's kept whole, then water slowly evaporates through the bark (when it's on there)- it has more time to even out the moisture content and therefore shrinkage throughout the mass. If it's pretty dry when you cut it- then it won't shrink further and therefore won't check.

Ah ha......I was just noticing this exact situation in my stacks. The first two cord I plan on burning this season is from wood that I cut/split/stacked over a year ago. It has nice checking through out.

The third cord I have is from dead standing (no bark) that I processed this last spring. Its nice and dry, but hasn't produced the checking over the summer the other two cord have. I was wondering about that, so this clears it up then.

Danke schon

 

[Jags]

Red Oak.

 

[willisl64]

I'd be surprised if it is hickory, around here, any hickory that is dead and standing for more than 6 months or so is completely infested with boring bugs. I'd vote for a variety of oak also.

 

[sapratt]

Heres a way to see if it is Oak. Look at the end if there are lines going from center to the outside then it is Oak.

 

[HittinSteel]

Thanks for the help guys, I think the Oaks have it.

 

[Joey Jones]

Heres a way to see if it is Oak. Look at the end if there are lines going from center to the outside then it is Oak.

Those lines are called rays my friend

 

[billb3]

My name's not Ray and please return the wood.

 

[sapratt]

Thanks Joey, Thats how I was told to identify Oak. I never looked into what they were called.

 

[Cluttermagnet]

Red Oak? Looks like it was cut from standing deadwood? (no bark)