Hardest wood ever ID

[lizerdking]

Hard to cut and hard to split. Had to use the sledge and the wedge and it's slow going. Takes a 50cc echo with a new chain forever to get through.

Smells intoxicating in a good way when split. Like how gasoline smells good.

 

[Rebelduckman]

Can't see pics

 

[Clyde S. Dale]

Hard to ID from the pics too. I'm gonna say oak but not too confident. I think I see some medullary rays in one of those pics. Curious to see what others think.

 

[Osagebndr]

I'm assuming it's been down for awhile the way it looks. It reminds me of oak also maybe red oak. Hard to say like to see the inside of a split might help with a good I. D

 

[lizerdking]

It's been down for at least a couple years, maybe more. i can slam my x27 into it and it just gives a thump. It doesn't smell like oak on a fresh split, and the stringy grain is so fine it's strange. Osage?

pic three shows the inside of a split.

 

[porkchopexpress]

Walnut

 

[mass_burner]

By the 3rd pic, hard or sugar maple. BTDT.

 

[Jags]

Did this come from a yard or fence line - edge of tree line maybe? The wavy grain is a bit confusing. I am in the oak camp, but only if this was a wind blown tree. (hows that for CYA?)

 

[lizerdking]

Did this come from a yard or fence line - edge of tree line maybe? The wavy grain is a bit confusing. I am in the oak camp, but only if this was a wind blown tree. (hows that for CYA?)

You might be spot on with the wind blown part, it was at the edge of a fence line by a cow pasture. No way it's walnut or oak, smells nothing like it and doesn't split like it.

 

[Jags]

Bark and wavy grain could prove out to be elm.

 

[lizerdking]

Bark and wavy grain could prove out to be elm.

I might buy that... I just googled Elm splitting and found this gem

Finally, something I know about. We had some elm left from when I was a kid. My folks never used the fireplace so when I was home about 15 years ago I went to split some to burn. It was as tuff as when we cut it. I had to re-employ my old system. It's a secret but I can tell it involed and axe, a sledgehammer, six wedges, a chain and a 3/4 ton truck. I also added some new words to the english language.

 

[Osagebndr]

Sounds like every piece of elm I've ever tried to split . Did the wood have a kind of dirty or odd smell to it ? I had some Siberian elm the stank terrible and had a darker core like that

 

[Jon_E]

Don't know where you are located but the logs sure look like walnut to me.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I don't see any medullary rays (tough to see with all the radial cracks): not oak
Bark is thick and coarse: not maple
Bark looks like possibly black walnut but splitting is VERY tough: not black walnut (black walnut is probably the easiest wood on the face of the planet for splitting)

Coarse bark and stringy: possibly cottonwood? I have no experience with elm

 

[Woody Stover]

I don't see any medullary rays (tough to see with all the radial cracks): not oak. Bark is thick and coarse: not maple. Bark looks like possibly black walnut but splitting is VERY tough: not black walnut (black walnut is probably the easiest wood on the face of the planet for splitting.) Coarse bark and stringy: possibly cottonwood? I have no experience with elm

Agree, except I don't think Cottonwood. Not sure about elm...don't know the bark well enough, except Slippery (Red) Elm. Just looking at the wood, not the bark, I might guess hard Maple or Hickory, but I really don't know.

 

[Applesister]

Knowing where the tree came from helps eliminate. There is no oak grain. Not Oak, not Elm and not Sugar maple.
Not siberian or red elm.
Thick chunky bark like that only sports a few trees. The wood looks stringy like hickory but that aint no hickory.
Mulberry and Osage is orangy.
Maybe its petrified yellow pine?
IDK.

 

[Applesister]

If you look on the BTU charts for the super hard heavy BTU woods...what are your choices?

 

[Pennsyltucky Chris]

Some sort of maple.

 

[nrford]

Walnut

 

[claydogg84]

The bark and color of the wood is spot on for walnut.

 

[bholler]

walnut for sure it is just a section of the tree with twisted grain

 

[Applesister]

The grain doesn't look very walnuty but what else could it be?
The sapwood and heartwood is right for Walnut.

 

[David.Ervin]

I'll throw on a +1 for Burr Oak. Smells like oak, doesn't cut or split worth a darn, and it definitely has that dark color and wavy grain.

 

[Prichan]

Hard to cut and hard to split. Had to use the sledge and the wedge and it's slow going. Takes a 50cc echo with a new chain forever to get through.

Smells intoxicating in a good way when split. Like how gasoline smells good.

Looks like black locust

 

[Applesister]

Okay, take a split of that wood, fresh split from inside and cut an end off on a compound miter saw with a carbide blade and then take some macro pics and lets see some close ups.