Name These Woods?

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skw

New Member
Nov 22, 2017
11
Purcellville, VA
Last Friday, I went stove shopping, and I confirmed my online choice of a Morso 1440 for our new house which we are building next year. (Supplemental, ambiance, and emergency heat only.) It has a 12" firebox, so most people cut their wood to 10". Being a curious type, I wanted to see how big that really was, and see how much work it is to get wood to that size.

On Sunday afternoon, I spent several hours cutting and splitting wood. A 10x3x3 log is really cute! Splitting a 10" log is easier than splitting something longer would have been. It means more cutting, but the 10" rounds will be easier to move around. And it will probably dry a bit faster than bigger logs too.

I was working with 2 kinds of wood from some trees behind our property that the power company cut down just a couple of weeks ago. I would like to know what kinds of wood these are. I am in Virginia. These were deciduous trees that had lost their leaves for the fall before they were cut. Neither of them had a strong smell that I noticed.

The first wood was difficult for me to split with an ax. It had a darker heartwood and thick rough bark. It was much heavier. (Oak? Hickory? Locust?)
Wood1.jpg


The second wood split like a dream with an ax. The wood was almost white, and the grain was very smooth and even straighter. (Maple? Box elder?)
Wood2.jpg


They also took down a cherry. I recognize that bark, so it know that neither of these were Cherry.

The trees were cut down after the leaves were gone, so most of the Tree ID links I followed were of little use, because they tend to start with the leaves. I plan to burn this, whatever it is, but it would be nice to know.

I appreciate this site, and the Morso site, for helping me to understand that I can burn any properly seasoned wood. Some species may be better for some purposes, but it will all burn.
 
Are you at the Beech?
 
Beech and...Gum?? someone else may confirm the Gum, very little this far north
 
I agree with gum. Difficult to split without hydraulics. Def gray beech
 
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Sassafrass and beech are my guesses. If the trunk of the one that's not beech is sort of curvy, sassafrass is even more likely.
 
My stab: American elm and beech
 
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Beech is lovely stuff. Some of the bigger ones can be a huge pain to split, but the smaller ones like that usually behave well.