Wood ID: What the @#$% is this stuff??

[slayer7]

Saw an ad on Craigslist a few months ago for free "poplar" which I thought would be great for shoulder season with my pine because it was that really light, white wood which dries out quick and burns fast. The guy even offered to deliver it in town because he needed to get rid of it fast for a party supposedly. Well, I'm thinking this should've been the first warning. He showed up with these extremely heavy rounds that don't resemble any poplar I've dealt with which we had to struggle to roll into the back. Next I've tried to split this stuff several times and it is actually the only wood which has ever stalled out the Husky 22 ton. It is like dense rubber which won't split at all. The wedge ends up tearing through the wood if it goes in at all. Now I've had to go back and manually cut this mess into quarters and smaller with the chainsaw to even have any hope of working with it. So, what is this hell-spawned junk??

 

[BenTN]

I have had some horse chestnut that was similar but maybe elm. I will call it crotchety old yard tree. Hopefully it has some good btus for all the work youve put into it.

 

[Lakeside]

Looks like elm to me , maybe red elm. Don't walk but run away quickly before its to late.

 

[slayer7]

Looks like elm to me , maybe red elm. Don't walk but run away quickly before its to late.

Hmmm, it does resemble elm in the pics I just looked at and is stringy as hell as they mentioned. So, it definitely is not some kind of poplar. Unfortunately, it is too late to run away as my only recourse is to 1) suffer through trying to spit it, or 2) load it back up on the truck and dump it in the woods somewhere

 

[johneh]

ELM the biggest reason I bought a hydro have
lots of it in the fence lines here burns good

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

Hmmm, it does resemble elm in the pics I just looked at and is stringy as hell as they mentioned. So, it definitely is not some kind of poplar. Unfortunately, it is too late to run away as my only recourse is to 1) suffer through trying to spit it, or 2) load it back up on the truck and dump it in the woods somewhere

Maybe you should try to grind the wedge on your splitter sharper and polish the faces, keep a spray bottle of tire bead lubricant handy (to spray on the wedge) and grease any parts on the splitter that could benefit from lube. Make sure the engine is running well too. I've faced a wide variety of interesting challenges in my life and it's amazing how many of them can be solved just by optimizing every possible part of the "equation". Think it through, you may be able to identify some optimizations I've neglected. Particularly at the point at which the splitting happens. Maybe a wood shim to get a better splitting angle or to hold the round higher. It might not be as hard to split as you think.

 

[zig]

It looks to me like your the new owner of a bunch of cottonwood. It will burn but smells like sh&t. I have a big pile of it too because it was free.

 

[slayer7]

I'm leaning toward the elm but some of the cottonwood pics look similar as well.

I actually thought of some of those ideas with the splitter wedge and so forth but the problem is, the grain of this wood is ridiculously twisted even on the straight-looking splits. The wedge starts to go in, then ends up trying to cut through it like a butter knife. It starts tearing the piece and basically makes every other split into a shredded junk and/or ugly.

Worst. Wood. Ever.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

I actually thought of some of those ideas with the splitter wedge and so forth but the problem is, the grain of this wood is ridiculously twisted even on the straight-looking splits. The wedge starts to go in, then ends up trying to cut through it like a butter knife. It starts tearing the piece and basically makes every other split into a shredded junk and/or ugly.

I know. That's why I suggested lubing and sharpening the wedge!

 

[Corey]

Looks like cottonwood to me, based on that thick bark with large furrows and overall stringiness. Assuming cottonwood and adding up the logs in all those pics I'd say you have enough wood for a good 20-25 minutes of heat ...on a 40 degree night.

On the plus side, you will quickly be able to get definitive answers for several of the 'myths' / 'wives tales' which circulate on the forum...

Sharp / dull splitting wedge: Sharp! - It's the only possible hope you have to cut through that stuff.

Cover / uncover wood for drying: Cover it! - Once cotton wood dries out (I think about 80% of its weight is water) the splits might blow away in a good stiff breeze, so keep 'em under cover.

Proper splitting technique: If you're one of those 'aim for the center' guys, abandon all hope now! Cottonwood will really teach you the value of learning to split slabs off the edges and work toward the center.

Cold / frozen wood splits easier: Either way, split cottonwood in the cold! You're going to get way more 'warmth' from the work you do to split it than you'll ever get from burning it.

Anyway, some light-hearted fun... at least the guy delivered cut logs to you, so even though it's junk wood, that is about the easiest way to get it. I once drove about 6 blocks for "free locust - already cut" only to find it was cottonwood when I got there. I considered turning back and going home empty, but my wife persuaded me to load up the dozen or so logs. After 2 weeks work to split it, then watching it go 'poof!' in the stove like a couple wadded up sheets of newspaper, I still think I got the short end of that deal!

 

[slayer7]

Corey - Hilarious!

That was a good way to shake off the foul, furious mood I was in after spending the better part of the afternoon dealing with that mess which included several scrapes, bruises and pinched fingers. Does cottonwood have similar smell to red oak, like that deep pungent almost vomit scent? This stuff smells a lot like that and I also noticed what you mentioned about splitting off the edges. It seemed that the wood had about only about ONE direction which you could hope to find the grain and get a split that wouldn't tear but instead resulted in making "shingles". Trying to attack it from the center was hopeless as you mentioned.

All in all, a horrific experience, my worst dealing with years of firewood processing. If this junk was the only wood available to burn, I would just get rid of the stove.

Thanks to everyone for replies, opinions and helpful tips.

 

[Dobish]

First thought was cottonwood, then moved quickly to quaking aspen.

 

[Wood Duck]

One of the pictures shows a round that is darker in color, perhaps because it sat face down on the ground. That face has strong medullary rays, which are characteristic of oak but not elm nor cottonwood. I don't know what I think this wood is, except hard to split. Any type of wood can be hard to split if the tree grew out in the open or was twisted.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Saw an ad on Craigslist a few months ago for free "poplar" which I thought would be great for shoulder season with my pine because it was that really light, white wood which dries out quick and burns fast. The guy even offered to deliver it in town because he needed to get rid of it fast for a party supposedly. Well, I'm thinking this should've been the first warning. He showed up with these extremely heavy rounds that don't resemble any poplar I've dealt with which we had to struggle to roll into the back. Next I've tried to split this stuff several times and it is actually the only wood which has ever stalled out the Husky 22 ton. It is like dense rubber which won't split at all. The wedge ends up tearing through the wood if it goes in at all. Now I've had to go back and manually cut this mess into quarters and smaller with the chainsaw to even have any hope of working with it. So, what is this hell-spawned junk??

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I think you got some summer cut tulip poplar. I've processed a lot of it. If you get it when its water is up, it is heavy, and behaves just as you describe, particularly if the tree was twisted or in some other way distressed when growing. The worst one I have come across was last summer. I bought a splitter to deal with it, because it was so stringy. It really put me to the test.

 

[CheapBassTurd]

The tree guys drop that stuff off along with the pine they give me cuz
no one else wants it. I take it as it's delivered free rounds. Wouldn't
enjoy paying for it with the fast burn time/ low return on labor.

Yes it burns and keeps us warm when we need it to. Still, instant ashes.