what spec of wood is this
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the only thing is the poplar i had a while ago had a much thicker bark. i haven't seen any leaves because it was already cut down and bucked before i got there.
Simonkenton
Minister of Fire
its aspen or what a lot of guys call shaken ash, its like a type of poplar, i can tell by the bark, it looks all stringy kinda like cedar bark or something, all that shaken ash has bark like that, also looking at the bark id say it was probably either a top or a young tree cuz as they grow the bark gets much thicker than that, but the young ones have thing bark like this image
The "minty smell" put me in the birch family, but have to agree on all posts about poplar, I just find it fun to try and figure out the tree, I see the same thing over and over here, just some tree education from other areas
Caw
Minister of Fire
That's almost surely Black Birch given the bark and characteristic wintergreen smell. Yellow birch also has the the same smell but different bark (it's more yellow and the bark peels naturally all over like paper). Poplar has a more ridgy and distinct bark. Cherry wood is darker orange and has nutty smell to it.
Black Birch:
en.m.wikipedia.org
![[Hearth.com] what spec of wood is this](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/betula-lenta-bark-kent-mcfarland-cc-by-nc-2-0-webp.299936/ "[Hearth.com] what spec of wood is this")
Black Birch:
Betula lenta - Wikipedia
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Ah, this thread is comical. Is this why so many people don't like to burn birch? Because they're actually burning poplar?
We have tons of poplar around, and the bark all looks a little different depending on the conditions in which the tree was grown. As the tree ages the bark develops deeper vertical grooves. My bet is on Balsam Poplar, light, burns with little heat, and will leave a pile of ash. Regardless, the pictures from the OP are certainly not that of birch bark.
![[Hearth.com] what spec of wood is this](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/1664941994740-webp.299942/ "[Hearth.com] what spec of wood is this")
We have tons of poplar around, and the bark all looks a little different depending on the conditions in which the tree was grown. As the tree ages the bark develops deeper vertical grooves. My bet is on Balsam Poplar, light, burns with little heat, and will leave a pile of ash. Regardless, the pictures from the OP are certainly not that of birch bark.
a arborist around the corner said black birch the minty smell he said gives it away. i had 2 cord of poplar but the bark was gray and deeper and would fall off when dry. the wood on this tree is very light it almost looks like the finish side of a piece of plywood
Caw
Minister of Fire
You realize there are multiple kinds of birch trees, right? They aren't all white. Kind of comical you're making fun but totally wrong.
Caw
Minister of Fire
Looks like birch (to me, not you), smells like birch, arborist believes it's birch. It's most likely birch.
We can agree to disagree. Probably shouldn't be saying people's opinions are comical though.
Well what is comical is that we are debating a wood species of a log
. It's more interesting than comical. In the NE, it's fairly easy for me to ident a tree. Occasionally you get one that just doesnt follow the pattern right? But one quick look at the leaves and it's a done deal.
I cut down a locust that was dying from the ground up. Wife of course disagreed because 'there are still leaves on it!'. It was leaning in such a way that a good wind could topple it, and having kids running around where it was leaning stressed me out. After cutting it and removing the limbs/leaves for the burn pile, all I had left were the rounds. Neighbor came over and said "ah thats a nice cherry tree you cut down, why?" It isnt cherry, yet he was SURE it was because of the bark and for some reason this locust had some coloration that variated like the core of a cherry tree. But a quick show of one of the branches in the burn pile showed it was indeed a locust tree.
Without the leaves, it's always open for debate.
Caw
Minister of Fire
Very true and funny story lol. Normally I'd agree with you here but there are only a few types of tree native to this area that has a distinct mint smell. Cedar, eucalyptus, certain pines (it's clearly none of these) and birch. I also think if you look closely it has classic birch horizontal markings on the bark but that is subjective. The mint smell isn't. Poplar and Aspen do not smell like mint.Well what is comical is that we are debating a wood species of a log
It's more interesting than comical. In the NE, it's fairly easy for me to ident a tree. Occasionally you get one that just doesnt follow the pattern right? But one quick look at the leaves and it's a done deal.
I cut down a locust that was dying from the ground up. Wife of course disagreed because 'there are still leaves on it!'. It was leaning in such a way that a good wind could topple it, and having kids running around where it was leaning stressed me out. After cutting it and removing the limbs/leaves for the burn pile, all I had left were the rounds. Neighbor came over and said "ah thats a nice cherry tree you cut down, why?" It isnt cherry, yet he was SURE it was because of the bark and for some reason this locust had some coloration that variated like the core of a cherry tree. But a quick show of one of the branches in the burn pile showed it was indeed a locust tree.
Without the leaves, it's always open for debate.
It's all good. I enjoy these threads it's always fun to try and figure out a puzzle. Perhaps @CincyBurner would like to be chime in on this one.
Im one of the rare individuals that after covid has had his sense of smell INCREASED. When I returned to our cabin last weekend, all I could smell is that soapy almost bathroom toilet urinal cake smell that I get off of certain woods. It was driving me nuts. I thought for sure something happened to someones septic that uses some sort of odorizer, then I forgot that I split a cord of wood TWO WEEKS prior and we park right next to the wood pile. It wasnt the poplar, it was some other wood and I cant for the life of me figure out which one because everything is piled up and each piece of wood I would grab didnt have the smell, or my senses were overloaded and I could find the culprit Any ideas there? it has almost a urinal cake smell lol.
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