Help with ID of my wood hunt please?

[bucko64]

I found this tree down and cut it up can someone tell me what kind it may be?

Thank's bucko64

 

[Malatesta]

What color is the inside of the wood, split one open. The Bark piece to the right reminds me of Mullberry or Pignut hickory. Its tuff to tell. Any leaves to Id. ?

 

[beau5278]

The bark and spacing on the growth rings suggest pine,it's something soft.

 

[smokinj]

The bark and spacing on the growth rings suggest pine,it's something soft.

agree maybe cottonwood

 

[wiringlunatic]

What color is the inside of the wood, split one open.

I agree. Where I live (PA) I've never seen pine with that deep bark grooves. I helped a guy split wood for a firewood business to earn extra money a few times and we split a number of logs that looked like that. If memory serves me, they were tulip poplar. If so, splitting a piece will probably reveal a light, nearly white wood, often with mineral streaks that range from yellow through green and purple. If it is tulip poplar, burn away. It ain't oak or maple, and don't count on banking a fire overnight with it, but it should light fast and burn hot. It is generally on the soft end of the hardwood class (or the hard end of the softwood class, depending in who you ask.) Also look around it. If there are other trees, look at them. Tulip poplars tend to propagate heavily and you will usually find at least several more within 100 yards or so. They may be hard to id without leaves as well, though. Just in case you do find a leaf, tulip poplars have leaves with 4 points all pointing the same direction making them look somewhat like a tulip. The leaves are proportional in size to the tree. I've seen leaves nearly 12" across from a large one. In the spring they also get covered with tulip-like flowers (not that that helps you much this time of year......) Also, I don't see on your picture at least the masses of sticky sap that a pine tree bleeds. If it is tulip poplar, you will probably enjoy working with this wood. As I remember, this was the absolute easiest to split wood species around here -- a splitter was wasting time on most pieces. Enjoy!

 

[DWW68]

I would also agree, some type of pine

 

[whippingwater]

Looks like hemlock. Consistent growth rings, black ring around the knot, red chunky bark. Hemlock is a softwood without any pitch and is quite heavy. The wood is hard to the point of being brittle. When it is cut into lumber it is easiest to plane green because it will explode in the planer because of the brittleness. If left to dry as rough lumber it will be like grabbing a porcupine when dry.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I'm thinking Sassafras...split it open and smell it; it should have a unique sweet smell to it.

 

[wiringlunatic]

I'm thinking Sassafras...split it open and smell it; it should have a unique sweet smell to it.

Woodsman I'm about 13 miles south of you and you just may be right. Sassafras does have those deep bark grooves.

If there are leaves around, Sassafras has 3 different leaves on the same tree. One is a "normal" leaf similar to one leaflet of an ash tree, one looks like a mitten, and one looks like a mutant mitten with a thumb on each side. I rarely see sassafras trees that big anymore but our old church has one growing there and it does have that bark I believe. I'm still pretty sure that the logs that looked like that were the easy splitters, whatever they were.

 

[bucko64]

Hey all thank's for you'r repies. When I was cutting sort of yellow chip's flying.There was no smell of pine or sticky when splitting. Log's where heavy and wood seemed hard.Sorry no leave's to show you.Here is anthother Pic.

 

[wiringlunatic]

My vote is definitely Sassafras. Is there enough moisture yet to smell it? It looks like it split nice and straight. It was originally the roots of this tree that were used to flavor root beer and derivatives of it are the starting point for making ecstasy according to

(broken link removed)

They stopped using it to flavor root beer when they realized that it caused cancer in lab mice.(Surprise, surprise. I think everything causes cancer in lab mice. Maybe it's the white lab coats that cause cancer. Or maybe lab mice are causing the cancer.....)

 

[bucko64]

wiringlunatic I will ceck that out tommorw I have to bring some wodd in any way tommorw . I never burnt sass.is it any good?

 

[wiringlunatic]

As far as I know it's good. It was included in mixed hardwood when sold by the guy I worked for. Sassafras trees grow fairly slowly from what I've seen, so they should be good hardwood. I've never burned it personally, but I have split it and it was a pleasure. How do you like the splitability? (Is that even a word?)

 

[JerseyWreckDiver]

The deep furrows in the bark look exactly like the Chestnut Oak that heavily populates this area. Although Chestnut Oak has a very distinct, white sapwood layer (just inside the bark) about an inch thick, your picks don't seem to show it. Except for the bark, the wood looks and smells exactly like red oak. The pictures of the splits is a little far away to see anything... Not a leaf in site from the upper branches?

 

[bucko64]

Hey guys i'm gonna dig some splits out tommorw and take a closer look . Ill try to get some pics up. No leaves in sight tree was down in the woods.

 

[Alan Gage]

Maybe I missed it but where are you located? What type of habitat was the tree in?

I'm far from an expert but it looks an awful lot like Oak to me.

Alan

 

[brent3556]

Looks like cotton wood to me.

 

[bucko64]

Hey all Here is more pics and I am located in Bear DE. Also there is no stuff betewn the wood and bark.I think it also reminds me of sort of oak by the grain.

 

[LLigetfa]

We have a kind of Poplar here that has a similar bark and white wood with coarse grain. It is sometimes called Balsam Poplar, Black Poplar, Balm of Gilead, or Bam tree. It grows fast straight and tall. When it gets really tall the center often is rotted or hollow. It is very easy to identify when in leaf. The almost heart shaped leaf is lighter on the underside and has a sticky sap. Unlike other Poplars that never regrow lower limbs that shed from over-crowding, Bam will sprout water shoots that develop into substantial limbs if adjacent trees are removed.

 

[andybaker]

Looks like Cottonwood to me. Cottonwood is very heavy when green and just the opposite when dry. Tulip Popular around these parts, northwest ohio, has a bark that isn't as deeply grooved. Sassafras, I have no idea. I buy sassafras lumber for outdoor furniture. It is cheap, hard, somewhat light-weight, has a grain simular to oak, holds up much like cedar would outdoors and I can get long pieces without any knots. I've read that Tulip Popular isn't that great for firewood, I turned my tree guy down with an entire dump truck full of it earlier this year. Hope I didn't make a mistake. Cottonwood I throw in the classification with Silver Maple. Personally I won't touch it. Right now we're lucky here in NWO, there is so much Ash coming down due to the EAB that I've got to be picky with what wood I take. If I take a softer wood chances are a much better wood will come along and I'm afraid I won't have room for it. Ever go through a winter burning Silver Maple after you've turned down Red Oak and Locust because there was no more room for it. Took some time but I've finally learned how to manage what woods I'll burn. Now, if I could manage the bugs. I just got through the Apple in my wood pile and I swear, it looked like the bugs thought it was dessert. I've never seen so much dust from whatever kind of wood boring bug it was. Some logs had 1" of dust on them. Hope they're all gone now. Good luck with your find. It's frustrating not knowing what your sweating over.

 

[Chief Ryan]

I split some wood a few months ago that looked exactly like that and it was said to be sassafras.

 

[bucko64]

Hey guys the co;or looks like tan to lite brown it looks wite in the other pics must be the light out side and cheap camera. Here is a better shot of it Chief Ryan bark does't look the same as what I have

 

[smokinj]

Hey guys the co;or looks like tan to lite brown it looks wite in the other pics must be the light out side and cheap camera. Here is a better shot of it Chief Ryan bark does't look the same as what I have

pine

 

[smokinj]

Hey guys the co;or looks like tan to lite brown it looks wite in the other pics must be the light out side and cheap camera. Here is a better shot of it Chief Ryan bark does't look the same as what I have

pine

 

[JerseyWreckDiver]

Uh, since when does pine or cottonwood for that mater have an open grain? I'm not familiar with it but I think the poster saying it is Sassafras may be correct.