My WoodPile & Wood Scrounge Finds / Help with Tree ID

[kevinlp]

Got a bunch of pictures to post here. First pictures are of my woodpile. I began splitting and stacking last fall when my stove was just a gleam in my eye


Thought I'd post some photos of my woodpile. The first 5 pallets (4 ft long) have two rows. The sixth pallet in progress now has 3 rows. Been working to stack everything to at least 5 ft high.

 

[kevinlp]

From a different angle

 

[kevinlp]

Being that I am a rookie, can anyone tell what type of wood I have in my pile and in the round and logs from from Scrounging. Thanks...

 

[kevinlp]

These are my two most recent Scrounge piles. Let me point out that they were done with a NEON. DEDICATION or INSANITY?

 

[kevinlp]

What kind of trees are these logs? Have I grabbed good stuff?

 

[kevinlp]

Some on rounds ready to be split. What are these? They split great whatever they are.



NOTE:ALL MY SPLITTING HAS BEEN DONE USING A SLEDGEHAMMER AND A WOOD GRENADE!

 

[kevinlp]

This close up of the leaves on some of the logs may help the ID.

 

[kevinlp]

Any idea what this tree is? There were probably 15 of these surrounding the property when the house was completed two years ago. About half have died very rapidly. I took down 4 of them in '04 / '05 and they have been in the woodpile since last fall.

There are several more of the variety that started out ok in the spring and has a decent amount of leaves and then all of a sudden the leave started going brown late July. Any ideas???

 

[wg_bent]

Kevin, You and I should get together and do some tree identification. I've gotten a lot better at it this year.

You've definitely got some oak, and I think some sumac there. the last picture is Locust. Really good stuff.

The sumac will burn hot and fast, almost like pine, maybe a bit better.

If you look around our area, and see a dead tree...(mostly with poison ivy growing on it) it's almost certainly elm I know elm it's my favorite wood to hate, but there is sooooo much of it around and it does burn well, that it's hard to pass up.

PM me if you want to hook up some time. Be cool to have a real person to shake hands with and swap experiences with who is a hearthnet member.

 

[wg_bent]

Some on rounds ready to be split. What are these? They split great whatever they are.



NOTE:ALL MY SPLITTING HAS BEEN DONE USING A SLEDGEHAMMER AND A WOOD GRENADE!

That is sumac. May take a good year to dry. It will suck the life out of your stove if you try to burn it wet. It's like 99% water.

 

[wg_bent]

What kind of trees are these logs? Have I grabbed good stuff?

That one blotchy peice on top is Sycamore. I have never scrounged any, but I understand it's horrible to split.
Very twisted grain.

The other stuff looks like it could be young cherry trees.

 

[kevinlp]

Kevin, You and I should get together and do some tree identification. I've gotten a lot better at it this year.

You've definitely got some oak, and I think some sumac there. the last picture is Locust. Really good stuff.

The sumac will burn hot and fast, almost like pine, maybe a bit better.

If you look around our area, and see a dead tree...(mostly with poison ivy growing on it) it's almost certainly elm I know elm it's my favorite wood to hate, but there is sooooo much of it around and it does burn well, that it's hard to pass up.

PM me if you want to hook up some time. Be cool to have a real person to shake hands with and swap experiences with who is a hearthnet member.

Definately.

 

[Robbie]

Kevin, that is a great looking pile of wood. Your going to stay warm for sure this winter.

I really can't tell too much from the pics, but some of those logs on top, (where you can see the garage door in the shot), looks kind of like shag bark hickory, hard to tell though.

Robbie.

 

[Rhone]

What kind of trees are these logs? Have I grabbed good stuff?

That picture on the left sure looks like birch, if it's black birch on top it's one of the best in the area at 26,800,000 btu's/cord which is even better than the oaks which, is what I see on the right side of the same picture at 24,000,000 btu's/cord. If it's gray birch instead of black... and it very well could be it's 20,300,000 btu's/cord. Gray birch is a little strange in that the further north you go the more white it is. Places like VT, NH, Maine gray birch is blinding white and I find it even whiter than the white birch (white birch the bark is peeling, gray birches bark doesn't). I always wondered who was the dumb one to name blinding white trees gray birch. It wasn't until I hit MA, CT, I noticed the same tree's bark was gray, and the further south I got the shades turned even darker. It must've been someone in that area or parts south that named it. So, it could be gray birch and you're further south so it's even darker than it is in MA & CT.

I didn't see any shagbark hickory, which is king as far as btu's/cord at 27,700,000 btu's/cord and stands out like a soar thumb... the bark of it pulls away from the tree so much bats can often be found using the space under the bark for housing during the day. Here's a picture of shagbark hickory http://www.cnr.vt.edu/DENDRO/dendrology/syllabus/picts/covatabark3.jpg

 

[kevinlp]

What kind of trees are these logs? Have I grabbed good stuff?

That picture on the left sure looks like birch, if it's black birch on top it's one of the best in the area at 26,800,000 btu's/cord which is even better than the oaks which, is what I see on the right side of the same picture at 24,000,000 btu's/cord. If it's gray birch instead of black... and it very well could be it's 20,300,000 btu's/cord. Gray birch is a little strange in that the further north you go the more white it is. Places like VT, NH, Maine gray birch is blinding white and I find it even whiter than the white birch (white birch the bark is peeling, gray birches bark doesn't). I always wondered who was the dumb one to name blinding white trees gray birch. It wasn't until I hit MA, CT, I noticed the same tree's bark was gray, and the further south I got the shades turned even darker. It must've been someone in that area or parts south that named it. So, it could be gray birch and you're further south so it's even darker than it is in MA & CT.

I didn't see any shagbark hickory, which is king as far as btu's/cord at 27,700,000 btu's/cord and stands out like a soar thumb... the bark of it pulls away from the tree so much bats can often be found using the space under the bark for housing during the day. Here's a picture of shagbark hickory http://www.cnr.vt.edu/DENDRO/dendrology/syllabus/picts/covatabark3.jpg

THANKS. The logs that you are suspecting are black birch had almost a wintergreen type smell. Not sure if that helps.

 

[Burn-1]

THANKS. The logs that you are suspecting are black birch had almost a wintergreen type smell. Not sure if that helps.

It's definitely black birch then we used to make tea with it. Good stuff.

 

[kevinlp]

THANKS. The logs that you are suspecting are black birch had almost a wintergreen type smell. Not sure if that helps.

It's definitely black birch then we used to make tea with it. Good stuff.

There was some more from where that came from. Since that's the good stuff, I'll go back there this weekend and get the rest...

 

[ourhouse]

Some of the logs you have look like Hickory. As for the trees in you'r yard they look like loucst trees.

 

[ourhouse]

Some of the pics also look like they have black birch and tree of heaven.