Horrible at Wood ID...

[bwise.157]

I am horrible at wood ID without leaves on the trees. It all burns and creates heat, but would like to know what you think this is. It appears to have a blueish ring between the light and dark sections. Thanks in advance for your help!
(broken image removed)
(broken image removed)

 

[jatoxico]

Thinkin' Walnut.

 

[Applesister]

Black walnut

 

[Applesister]

The blue green band is not normal and may be the wound and or metal contact.
If it gets concentrated anywhere be watchful of a nail or barbed wire or something.
Nice pics

 

[johneh]

The blue ring could be copper or copper sulfate .
Some of my black walnuts have the same ring . they are growing in an area
that was seeded with copper sulfate as a fungicide. No idea why .
The line tends to show between heart wood and live wood .

 

[bwise.157]

The blue green band is not normal and may be the wound and or metal contact.
If it gets concentrated anywhere be watchful of a nail or barbed wire or something.
Nice pics

I took down two trees this morning, and both were on the edge of a field. No fence lines or anything of metal close by. The blueish ring went the entire length of both trees.

 

[gzecc]

Probably black walnut. Smell the interior after splitting, you'll never forget that smell. Very mediocre fuel, leaves a lot of ash. Truly a shame to burn such nice wood when its not rotten.

 

[2PistolPacker]

It is black walnut. gzecc is right, it's not the best firewood for btu value but it's not trash to be left behind either. The blue band around the dark core wood is something I've never encountered before.

 

[Applesister]

The green band is not normal, I hate to think its copper sulfate or any such thing. I cut alot of hedgerow wood. Mostly ash elm and cherry and I've never seen it.
I don't like the idea of burning chemicals taken up by trees at the edge of crop fields.
It could be just that.

 

[Ashful]

I heated almost exclusively with BW a few years, as that's the predominant tree in my yard. Ditto on the ash and BTU notes. Equivalent to Maple, in those regards.

 

[Firefighter938]

It's black walnut. I will disagree about it as firewood. It is good wood in my opinion. Like you, I burn a lot that lines creek lines around fields. Not all black walnut is lumber quality, although that tree looks like it may have been. I clean up a lot of tops left by logging operations as well. It is worth getting.

It does leave more ash as stated, but produces good heat and smells great.e

 

[Ashful]

One thing I didn't see anyone mention is how easy Black Walnut splits. Easy as poplar, but definitely more BTU than poplar.

If your stove tends to back-puff, you're going to have some fun with black walnut. I had continuous back-puffing troubles in the years I was running exclusively black walnut, which went away as soon as I switched back to ash and oak.

 

[bwise.157]

One thing I didn't see anyone mention is how easy Black Walnut splits. Easy as poplar, but definitely more BTU than poplar.

If your stove tends to back-puff, you're going to have some fun with black walnut. I had continuous back-puffing troubles in the years I was running exclusively black walnut, which went away as soon as I switched back to ash and oak.

How quick does Black Walnut season? I normally split small.

 

[Ashful]

At 12 months, your smaller walnut splits will be good, but the mammoth ones will be holding moisture. By 24 months, everything seems good. I'd aim to give a walnut stack a good 18 months (two summers), unless I split everything on the smaller side.

 

[bwise.157]

At 12 months, your smaller walnut splits will be good, but the mammoth ones will be holding moisture. By 24 months, everything seems good. I'd aim to give a walnut stack a good 18 months (two summers), unless I split everything on the smaller side.

Thanks for the input! I will put this stuff with my Chestnut Oak that has been split for a year already, and we will hopefully be ready for winter of '16-'17.

 

[BlackGreyhounds]

Definitely black walnut. Blue, green, purple, pink are all NORMAL at the junction of the heartwood (dark inner) and sap wood (cream outer). Here's some lumber I felled and milled myself. My brother is building guitars from these and specifically asked for character pieces so I resawed some bookmatched from the heart/sap junction to accentuate the funky colors there.
(broken image removed) (broken image removed)
That said, walnut naturally grow at the edges of clearings and field, so it very frequently has nails, ceramic insulators, etc. in it. Always be careful.

 

[Ashful]

Had four large BW's come down in Sandy... one was a real monster, one of the two largest trees on my 4 acres. Three of these four, including the monster, were straight as a pencil, including quite a few bf of good lumber. I had thought about making lumber out of them, but mills were just about impossible to schedule after that storm, and I was swamped with work myself. They all became firewood.

 

[BlackGreyhounds]

Had four large BW's come down in Sandy... one was a real monster, one of the two largest trees on my 4 acres. Three of these four, including the monster, were straight as a pencil, including quite a few bf of good lumber. I had thought about making lumber out of them, but mills were just about impossible to schedule after that storm, and I was swamped with work myself. They all became firewood.

As a woodworker, I cried a little when I read your last post. Black walnut is such a great looking wood and absolutely wonderful to work with. I'm all about lumber first, firewood second. Luckily, I have a great local guy with a portable Woodmizer. I've milled up 4-5K bd-ft of red oak, white oak, cherry, birch and maple on my property in the last couple of years.

 

[Ashful]

I'm a woodworker, too. That's what's ironic about it. Unfortunately, at the time, all of my equipment was stacked in a barn, waiting on my new shop to be built. I could have milled myself, if my two bandsaws weren't in storage. My larger bandsaw is 32", and my table saw will sling a 20" blade (not a typo).

In my hands, at the present moment, that timber would have more likely become mouldings or framing components for the carriage house, than anything else. Our house is full of walnut trim (painted), and walnut floor joists, being the predominant wood around here.

 

[BlackGreyhounds]

Holy moly that's some enormous 'quipment. Too bad about the walnuts, but, I guess you had to do what you had to do...

 

[Ashful]

You're local. If you're interested in either, let me know. I'm finishing my new shop this summer, and when done, I'm seriously considering downsizing. My table saw is very cool (1903 Oliver dual arbor USB), but it weighs 2200 lb. with the motor. I think I want to replace it with something in the 1000 lb. class (eg. Delta 12/14), with more modern safety features. Moving my saw is just too difficult, when I want to convert the wood shop over to tractor or car mechanic.



The band saw is a 1920's Crescent. No guards. I don't mean crappy guards. I mean no guards. Like this one, but with a much larger motor.

Also got a 16" jointer that I need to make a call on. I decided to stop using it as-is when I had kids, since it's a clamshell (aka widow maker) design "safety" cutter head, from 1912. Gotta decide if I'm going to upgrade the cutterhead, or just buy a newer jointer.

Fun stuff! Sorry for the hijack.

 

[Wood Duck]

There is no other wood in North America with a center as dark as Black Walnut, so there is no doubt you have Black Walnut. The white sapwood is also typical, but the blue band is odd. I like BW as firewood.

 

[BlackGreyhounds]

Nice shop Joful. Thanks for the offer. I'm good for now.

 

[bwise.157]

I split those walnut rounds today. You guys are right, a smell you will never forget! I work in the dairy industry, and they smell like a milkhouse. If you have ever been around dairy, you know what I mean. A good smell!