Identifying wood continued

[Jay H]

I am starting to split a bunch of wood I got and could use some help identifying some of these folks for my own knowledge and interest...

I know I split a big maple cause I could see the sap and feel it on the grains inside but trying to identify other rounds I've been cutting.

There was one that was really dark, about 23" diameter in most of the thickness, really heavy and had some purple staining lengthwise towards the bark in spots, a real dark intense purple. Is there an online reference with photos of various wood grains to help identify them? No leaves since I got trunks. Is this a black walnut? I know they are quite pricey as far as trees go.

I've read about elm and hickory being very stringy and nasty to split. Do they look orange colored and have very straight fibers with distinct lengthwise lines in the grain? I split a bunch of rounds and the ones I split were very stringy, sometimes the wedge would split the round but I'd have to hack at it with a hatchet or use my bow saw just to cut the strands that didn't want to separate. Another heavy wood and the splits have a real dark orange hue to it.

Looking for pictures, if anybody knows a good online reference, that would be great. Trying to google sites now but most of them tells me how to identify the live tree, not the wood itself.

Jay

 

[Jay H]

Lookee what I found:

http://www.woodworking.org/WC/woodsampler.html

I also found that Edlin book, although it does appear to be out of print (amazon.ca has some pictures of it), it is available in the marketplace...

Jay

 

[jpl1nh]

You might try books on silvaculture, the study of wood. I'm not familiar with splitting either walnut or hickory. We have a lot of hickory around, just haven't happened to get any. Walnut is pretty scarce in these parts. Elm can be very fiberous, especially the heart wood, but splits pretty easily if you "flake" off outer sections. It's pretty light colored. Make your split half way between the outer edge and the center and continue like that around the log, leaving the center heartwood as its own log. The heartwood may split easier like that if you need to split it further. The heartwood seems denser to me, perhaps longer burns from it than the outer wood, but not sure of that. Oak is also quite stringy, especially white oak. Red oak is stringy too. but splits pretty easily when fresh, harder when dead or dry, and shows a coarse grain as well as being a beautiful redish orange, especially when first split. Plus oak just smells good. MMMmmm... Got any pics?

 

[jpl1nh]

PS, notice you're from NJ. I grew up there and black walnut was pretty common there. There are still trees left in NJ right?

 

[Jay H]

PS, notice you're from NJ. I grew up there and black walnut was pretty common there. There are still trees left in NJ right?

I dunno if there are any trees left, but there are at least tree service people cause I got my free wood from one. I know there are a lot of rocks up here from the damm ice age glaciers....

BTW, I do believe I have split an elm since looking at the shots and the description of those on this forum.... But I'm using a gas splitter

Jay

 

[jpl1nh]

PS, notice you're from NJ. I grew up there and black walnut was pretty common there. There are still trees left in NJ right?

I dunno if there are any trees left, but there are at least tree service people cause I got my free wood from one. I know there are a lot of rocks up here from the damm ice age glaciers....

BTW, I do believe I have split an elm since looking at the shots and the description of those on this forum.... But I'm using a gas splitter Gotta love those tree service people huh? I grew up in the Princeton area, not many rocks, just shale and good ole garden state fields, mostly developments now You must be from nortwestern area. Lots of red oak round there, bet thats your orange stringy wood. If so, great burning!!


Jay

 

[Jay H]

Well, north central, Morris county anyway.

From the woodworkers site, I'm pretty positive it was/is an elm since the grain/lines that run lengthwise are quite distinct and solid whereas looking at the oaks and red oak in particular, the grain is dotted, more like a dotted line versus a solid line. I can take a look at the bark and check online sources for that too...

Jay

 

[jpl1nh]

Both red oak and elm can be quite stringy, but the oak is definately redder, the elm pale in comparison. White oak can be more similar in color to elm. The oaks are denser, and if its oak, again, mmmmm.. the smell! Little fragrance to the elm. Can you get pics??

 

[restorer]

As a WW'r I think the listing is better used to identify wood cut into boards. Split wood can look very different from cut wood. Don't take the actual color too serious as this changes very quickly with exposure to light and air in many woods. The best way is to use the bark and leaf shape of the tree. Yesterday I was asked by a friend to identify a sapling in their yard ("You work with wood, what is this tree?" Like I can tell from the stick with 10 leaves? Well, the leaf was definitely an oak leaf, but the questions were many, white, red, scrub. bush, tree, etc.? Well, it was as big as a pencil with the little leaves and no distinguishing bark. I said to ask me in a couple of years.

Even though I have been around wood for years, I can tell someone what the machined wood is far quicker than most, but I also have a caveat, if it's more than twenty years old, I can give them a group to chose from, but not a particular species.

Check the archives there are some very good identifier sites that have been referenced here. I had them on my old box, bookmarked, but it tanked so I can't give you a quick reply. I think searching for "tree identify" would get you started.

 

[Gooserider]

I've found (what I think is) red oak has a strong smell when first split (I like it, the GF is less fond of it) but the smell doesn't last. When freshly cut there is a distinct red color to the heartwood, about 2/3 of the round diameter, surrounded by a much lighter, almost white sapwood. The color change is a very sharp line, no more than a tree ring or two transition. It splits easily and cleanly, except when you get a gnarly chunk - any strings are large and few in number, and peel easily from one split or the other. The split surfaces are clean and relatively smooth. Once the round "cracks" it takes little or no effort to separate the splits, mostly they can be ripped apart by hand (if the maul didn't break them apart) or maybe a second easy hit will be needed. If I use a wedge, (seldom needed) the log will usualy crack through by the time the wedge is 1/3 in, and the next hit will drive the wedge all the way home and split the log cleanly.

OTOH, the stuff I call elm is fairly uniform in color across the round, and VERY stringy with lots of fine strings that don't want to separate or peel, and have to be ripped apart. The round actually "cracks" fairly easily, but that is only the start of the battle, 90% of the effort is to get the strings to let go so as to separate the splits. I will often get the log to crack with the maul, but almost always need to use a wedge to rip the splits apart - usually the wedge needs to be driven most of the way through the round to get it apart.

I can't really do the "split the sapwood off, and leave the heartwood alone" trick since most of my elm is in the size range where I only want to split it in half or quarters, but I'm not sure it would help.

One of the best ways to describe the difference is that I find there is a "fun" aspect to clean splitting wood, where nasty stuff turns into "work". Oak I have to hold myself back and say "OK that's small enough, no need to hit it again..." With elm the conversation is more on the order of "Is it small enough that I don't HAVE to split it again?"

Gooserider

 

[keyman512us]

I am starting to split a bunch of wood I got and could use some help identifying some of these folks for my own knowledge and interest...

I know I split a big maple cause I could see the sap and feel it on the grains inside but trying to identify other rounds I've been cutting.

There was one that was really dark, about 23" diameter in most of the thickness, really heavy and had some purple staining lengthwise towards the bark in spots, a real dark intense purple. Is there an online reference with photos of various wood grains to help identify them? No leaves since I got trunks. Is this a black walnut? I know they are quite pricey as far as trees go.

I've read about elm and hickory being very stringy and nasty to split. Do they look orange colored and have very straight fibers with distinct lengthwise lines in the grain? I split a bunch of rounds and the ones I split were very stringy, sometimes the wedge would split the round but I'd have to hack at it with a hatchet or use my bow saw just to cut the strands that didn't want to separate. Another heavy wood and the splits have a real dark orange hue to it.
Jay

Jay,

I would bet on OAK. One thing to keep in mind...if you see "Blueing (purple 'stains')" it's usually common to OAK...and it is usually indicative of the fact "it has iron in it" (i.e. hardware nails etc.) If you see it away from the bark...it points to where you might find nails and "what not".