Mystery Wood ID....Stumped!

[BurnIt13]

I've got a tough one. My neighbor is a tree guy and drops log length loads of softwoods and mystery hardwoods on my lawn once in a while. He processes and sells about 50 cords a year of the hardwood he cuts down so I'd like to think he knows his trees. This one even has him stumped!

He dropped this pile a couple of weeks ago. After a few cuts I started looking around to see if I stepped in crap! It smells exactly like cow manure. Reminds me of a cow barn! Its very heavy and dense....my back says its about as heavy as oak.

Here it is. There is some mixed softwoods and some maple in there but the large log in the front comes from the mystery tree.
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[BurnIt13]

One last thing. It splits pretty easily. I'm using a hydraulic splitter but it doesn't split anything like the elm I've dealt with in the past that was very stringy....even on the splitter. I didn't bother buy I bet this would have split just fine with my Fiskars.

A guy I work with is a Luthier on the side (guitar maker) and he is pretty geeky on exotic and domestic woods. Even he is confused....and I actually gave him a round for his guitar projects. He cut a few thin slices and looked at the more structure under a microscope. He said the pore structure looked like elm but the wood color looked like some sort of hickory.

So what do you guys think??? Thanks!

 

[lindnova]

That looks like red (slippery) elm. It splits much easier than american elm and is excellent firewood.

 

[Applesister]

Its definitely Red Elm, same chevron pore structure under a microscope. Unfortunately all that weight evaporates. It is absolutely the most stunning wood like mahogany. But just not as durable. Have your guitar friends take the wood if they want.
Heat wise after all that water leaves is on par with cherry.

 

[BurnIt13]

Well I'll take that as good news! I have plenty of black cherry in my wood stack, actually most of 2014-15's wood will be cherry.

Is Red Elm the type of wood that dries reasonably fast? I was hoping to use this for 2015-2016 but it wouldn't be the end of the world if it went with the 2016-2017 pile.

 

[Applesister]

No it dries really well within the one year range.