Wood Species Identifacation

[[email protected]]

I came across some wood recently. I little difficult to split, kind of stringy but not to bad. The real funny thing about the wood is that freshly split it smells like that old time chewing gum Beemans. Anyone know what it is? Is it elm? I live in RI

 

[begreen]

Beech?

 

[billb3]

sassafras (root ?)was put in gum
also root beer.

It's generally an understory tree and I've never seen any get big enough to split.
It has a course bark (like oak).

Beech has a smooth silver bark.

 

[JustWood]

Yellow or black birch.

 

[[email protected]]

It looks a little like birch but the bark is dark. Also it is bigger than the birch i usually see. Is that what black birch looks like?

 

[gpcollen1]

Black (or Sweet) Birch has a dark gray to blackish color. The bark on the Black Birch does not exfoliate/peel like that on Yellow or White/paper birch. It is uses in making birch beer and the young shoots are friggin delicious - ask the deer.

 

[sixminus1]

I think this is already mentioned somewhere on hearth.com, but it would be nice for us to start up a "firewood identification" picture gallery. There are a lot of sites that help identify trees by their structure, leaves, and sometimes bark, but that's not very much help for those of us who don't often take down entire trees. I've also seen quite a few helpful BTU charts out there, but they don't help unless I already know what wood I have.

A quick description, a couple of pictures of green/seasoned splits, and some info about splitting difficulty wouldn't be too hard to put together.

It's simple enough to (generally) tell if you have hardwood or softwood, and in some ways knowing the actual species is just trivia. Additionally, many folks here seem to "just know" species from years of experience, so it's probably not urgently needed, but it would be good for newbs like me

 

[SPED]

I think this is already mentioned somewhere on hearth.com, but it would be nice for us to start up a "firewood identification" picture gallery. There are a lot of sites that help identify trees by their structure, leaves, and sometimes bark, but that's not very much help for those of us who don't often take down entire trees. I've also seen quite a few helpful BTU charts out there, but they don't help unless I already know what wood I have.

A quick description, a couple of pictures of green/seasoned splits, and some info about splitting difficulty wouldn't be too hard to put together.

It's simple enough to (generally) tell if you have hardwood or softwood, and in some ways knowing the actual species is just trivia. Additionally, many folks here seem to "just know" species from years of experience, so it's probably not urgently needed, but it would be good for newbs like me

I second that suggestion, I can identify red oak....and that's about it ;-)

 

[njtuna]

sweetgum? hard to split, smells like bubble gum, from what i have read.

 

[gyrfalcon]

I think this is already mentioned somewhere on hearth.com, but it would be nice for us to start up a "firewood identification" picture gallery. There are a lot of sites that help identify trees by their structure, leaves, and sometimes bark, but that's not very much help for those of us who don't often take down entire trees. I've also seen quite a few helpful BTU charts out there, but they don't help unless I already know what wood I have.

A quick description, a couple of pictures of green/seasoned splits, and some info about splitting difficulty wouldn't be too hard to put together.

It's simple enough to (generally) tell if you have hardwood or softwood, and in some ways knowing the actual species is just trivia. Additionally, many folks here seem to "just know" species from years of experience, so it's probably not urgently needed, but it would be good for newbs like me

Oh, man, I would LOVE to see that happen! Those of us who have to rely on delivered wood, around here almost always "mixed hardwod," would be extremely grateful for that kind of guide.

 

[woodpile]

R Bruce Hoadley's book "Identifying Wood", a truely sharp chisel and a magnifying glass.

 

[gyrfalcon]

R Bruce Hoadley's book "Identifying Wood", a truely sharp chisel and a magnifying glass.

Thanks. I'll look that up.

In the meantime, trying to figure some pieces out, I came on this site, which has good pix and brief descriptions of a number of kinds of wood at the bottom of the page.

(broken link removed)

 

[brooktrout]

I think this is already mentioned somewhere on hearth.com, but it would be nice for us to start up a "firewood identification" picture gallery. There are a lot of sites that help identify trees by their structure, leaves, and sometimes bark, but that's not very much help for those of us who don't often take down entire trees. I've also seen quite a few helpful BTU charts out there, but they don't help unless I already know what wood I have.

A quick description, a couple of pictures of green/seasoned splits, and some info about splitting difficulty wouldn't be too hard to put together.

It's simple enough to (generally) tell if you have hardwood or softwood, and in some ways knowing the actual species is just trivia. Additionally, many folks here seem to "just know" species from years of experience, so it's probably not urgently needed, but it would be good for newbs like me

Oh, man, I would LOVE to see that happen! Those of us who have to rely on delivered wood, around here almost always "mixed hardwod," would be extremely grateful for that kind of guide.

Hey Craig- you readin' this? I second the motion!