Help Identifying Yellowish Stringy Wood

[Iowa22]

I'm looking for some help identifying some wood I recently came across. It's a stringy wood, with fairly bright yellow sapwood, it was cut green and holding lots of moisture when I split it. The tree was maybe 40' , and diameter is 20" or so towards the base, those are very rough estimates. Based on the size alone, 40', I'm thinking it's not any kind of hedge. I just want to make sure it's going to be decent firewood before I go get more of it. Don't want to waste my time if it's cottonwood or something. The yellow sapwood ring doesn't show much in the pictures, but the sawdust is certainly a yellow color. Also, those rounds are laying a mixed pile, so don't pay much attention to what else is there.

 

[begreen]

Might be locust. Do you have any leaves to show?

 

[Iowa22]

I don't have any leaves unfortunately. I'm cleaning up after a tree service downed a few of these. I was trying to research it and things seemed to be pointing towards locust. I wanted to confirm that though before I wasted a bunch of time on something that might be low BTU.

 

[ole]

grab an ax and peel some bark

If it stinks I would call it black locust

 

[Kevin Weis]

Heartwood of Black Locust more yellowish. Bark similar to Elm. Bark too rough for Ash. Pith not characteristic of an oak. I think maybe an Elm but not American. Maybe a Slippery Elm. Or Chinese Chestnut? Kevin

 

[JimBear]

The bark looks like it could be Hedge & pick #2 looks like hedge. Any limbs laying around? Check for thorns or hedge balls. Generally Hedge is a bit more yellow but the pigmentation of the yellow varies in Hedge trees, sizes & ages. Or at least that’s been my experience. But that split definitely doesn’t look to have much yellow/gold in it.

 

[JimBear]

Pic #1 shows some end cuts
Pic #2 more end cuts & a bit of bark
Pic #3 bottom row is all Hedge
I don’t have any other pics of Hedge on my phone at the moment

 

[moresnow]

Where in Ia? If your in the south end of the state it possibly could be what we called Osage Orange years ago down there. Or B.L. possibly. Bet its good stuff either way after a few years of being split/stacked.

 

[kennyp2339]

Im leaning towards a locust, but I have seen oak with that type of bark to. The rings look very tight which is another sign of locust, either way it looks like really nice hardwood.

 

[nrford]

Call it Black Locust and burn it...

 

[Kevin Weis]

Agree now with pics locust or Osage Orange. What throws you off is that this is not green wood so color is off some.

 

[Eureka]

Looks exactly like the black locust I’ve come across here in WI. I always thought mine looked less yellow than what I’ve seen on here.

 

[blades]

yep sure looks like black locust

 

[gzecc]

My vote is BL.

 

[weatherguy]

The colors dont always show accurate in pictures. Looks like black locust. You lucky diog.

 

[tgumby4]

Around here we call that yellow locust. I've heard it called black locust but not until I started reading internet forums. It's the same genius species though.

 

[Woody5506]

Definitely black locust. Take all you can get

 

[Simonkenton]

That is locust no doubt about it. I burn lots of it and it is great firewood.
Looks like dead, standing, it might well be dry enough to burn. Easy to split, too.

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

The only other possibility is Sassafras. It has a yellow/gray/brown sapwood. The pic below is wet so the colors are a little darker than normal. If so, it's a lighter wood, about 16MBTU/c.

I think the OP's wood still looks like Black Locust. Does it seem hard? How easily does the axe dig in? Cottonwood is like balsa wood. You'll easily dig in 1/4 to 1/2" with a light swing.

 

[coutufr]

If it’s heavy, CSS and then enjoy the heat!

 

[Iowa22]

Thanks for all the responses, I appreciate it. I'll try to respond to some of the suggestions offered:
ole: I peeled some bark, no real distinct strong smell, I'd just describe it as smelling 'green'
moresnow: I'm in Eastern IA, Tri-state area.
ValleyCottageSplitter: On a very light swing w/ 5.5lb maul I barely left a mark. Medium /fuller swing got it split 1/4 to 1/3 through.

Showed the original 4 pictures to an inlaw this weekend, he said cottonwood right away. For those that are saying BL, do you call feel confident in saying it's 100% not cottonwood? Like I said originally, just don't want to waste a bunch of time on something low BTU. Thanks again for all the help! More pictures for consideration attached.

 

[weatherguy]

I can see why some inexperiened can get cottonwood confused with black locust but that's BL, not cottonwood.

 

[Simonkenton]

Like I said, I have burned several tons of locust over 22 years. Am burning locust right now.
Guarantee 100 percent that is locust. It is the best firewood you can possibly get.

 

[nrford]

BL not a doubt about it.

 

[Kevin Weis]

Yes, Black Locust for sure. Kevin