Please help me Id this wood

[oldspark]

The black locust here in Iowa is not yellow at all, night and day difference between locust and mulberry in my neck of the woods.

 

[wood-fan-atic]

I can only tell you what its NOT....and thats Black Locust...at least not any that I've ever seen....and I burn plenty of it. It will season nicely in a good,dry,stack in the wind in one year.

 

[wood-fan-atic]

The black locust here in Iowa is not yellow at all, night and day difference between locust and mulberry in my neck of the woods.

WoW...thats wacky stuff. Up here, our black locust stands out of a stack b/c its pure yellow. Crazy.

 

[oldspark]

The black locust here in Iowa is not yellow at all, night and day difference between locust and mulberry in my neck of the woods.

WoW...thats wacky stuff. Up here, our black locust stands out of a stack b/c its pure yellow. Crazy.

That is weird, it kind of a brownish pinkish color.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Locust that I know is a pale, almost sickly color. Osage color can vary from canary yellow to orange and it does darken with exposure. I have seen old osage bows that were chocolate color.

 

[ddklahr]

That is hedge (Osage Orange). For me, not only is the color a dead give-away, but the bark is as well. This is very hard wood with a low moisture content. Some or most will disagree with me, but hedge can be burned green without any danger of creosote build-up. Unless I am desperate, I will cut hedge in the Spring/Summer and then burn in the following winter without any issues. The hedge I am burning right now has a moisture content of 7-8%. We tested a fresh split on Saturday and it was at 10-11% right off the splitter.

Someone else mentioned locust...at least in the mid-west, locust can be treated the same as hedge. It is a very hard wood as well and does not take but 6-8 months to dry down. I am guessing our hot summers have something to do with that. I have had some "old timers" tell me that you can cut down a male locust (thorny) and burn it green due to its high oil content. I haven't been that brave yet, but could see where it makes sense.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I don't think it looks like Black Locust. I think Mulbery or Osage Orange. This will be great firewood especially if you can season it at least a year, two would be great.

+1

Absolutely no way that black locust is that yellow. Black locust has a light yellow/green color to it. Hedge and mulberry are a brilliant yellow color fading to a burnt orange color when exposed to the sun/air.

An easy test is to set some outside for a while (couple weeks), if it turns colors it is absolutely, positively, 100% hedge or mulberry.

I'm sorry but I just don't see how you can get black locust out of that one.


Disclaimer: I have 4 cords of hedge & 10+ cords of black locust stacked in my yard, and a live mulberry in my parents yard.

 

[krex1010]

I have black locust in my woodpile that is more yellow than the mulberry I have, when they were first split, the mulberry has gone burnt orange by now, the BL is still kinda yellow but has faded some. Most of the BL I have seen is pretty yellow. This wood very well could be hedge, and not BL but that yellow color does occur in locust. The bark in the one pic looks like BL but I'll admit I didn't too closely at the others, which don't look much like BL.

 

[lukem]

I agree that it is hedge, but understand where everyone is coming from with Mulberry and Locust because of the color of the wood. The only other yellow wood I've seen that hasn't been mentioned is persimmon, but the bark of a persimmon tree looks much different (a lot like black walnut).

 

[Thistle]

Honey Locust ;-)

 

[smokinj]

Honey Locust ;-)

Awesome bowls! Looks like cutting side-ways makes you think! hhhmmm what can I make....

 

[Thistle]

Honey Locust ;-)

Awesome bowls! Looks like cutting side-ways makes you think! hhhmmm what can I make....

Thanks!! The main way to reduce (and usually eliminate) any risk of cracking/splitting when shaping green wood is to first cut a thin slab off the outside,then cut another piece,thats the rough thickness of what you want - with me its usually 2" to 6" depending on size of log,what its end result will be etc.THEN not using the actual heart/core of the log where the pith is,thats normally firewood to me.I rarely get over 50% yield from each log,the slabs/heart center/edgings are fuel,all shavings cut with chainsaw,bandsaw & turning gouge are excellent garden mulch.Since the wood is always free,that makes a difference when selling these items.Cant make any money if you had to pay for your logs! ;-P

 

[smokinj]

"Cant make any money if you had to pay for your logs!"

Thats a fact! Some people think there going to get rich off a couple tree's. lol You really need to be paid to take it.

 

[Thistle]

"Cant make any money if you had to pay for your logs!"

Thats a fact! Some people think there going to get rich off a couple tree's. lol You really need to be paid to take it.

Precisely. They dont think about the 40K + in equipment we have (sometimes many times more),plus our labor involved.If they think we can survive with $8-10/hr,they are delusional. :-S

 

[FLINT]

I'm just going to add that Eastern Redbud can also have very very yellow wood.

I don't think that the wood in the pictures belongs to redbud, but some people said that locust, mulberry, and osage were the only trees with yellow wood, and I just wanted to mention that there was another one.

 

[Thistle]

I'm just going to add that Eastern Redbud can also have very very yellow wood.

I don't think that the wood in the pictures belongs to redbud, but some people said that locust, mulberry, and osage were the only trees with yellow wood, and I just wanted to mention that there was another one.

It sure does.I've cut a couple of them in the past,storm damage cleanup mostly.Closely related to Honey Locust,Black Locust & Mesquite,among others in the Legume family.