Help I.D. this wood

[sILlogger]

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=46951 i thought i was chopping up an oak tree (i am a newbie), but a very knowledgeable friend told me i was cutting up maple. it looks similar to the maple you are cutting. the link is to the thread i started a while back. i think there are some good bark pics too. the bark on mine looks thicker though, at least in places.

looks like a shingle oak (Quercus imbricaria) to me (leaves are long and pointy with no lobes, wood splits easy).....but it is some sort of red oak.....did the wood split easy? should burn pretty good.

 

[njtuna]

most of it split easily, and nicely too, except for the two big sections i saved for last. they were areas where good sized branches existed but were cut off some time ago. that was tough splitting. my friend said he could also tell by the smell that it was not oak. the heartwood smelled kind of sweet. do not have any leaves from this tree unfortunately.

 

[sILlogger]

sure looks like oak to me...never seen any maple that had red wood....but i'm just a logger with a forestry degree....don't know much

 

[njtuna]

silogger, i hope you are right. i got almost 2 cords out of this tree, and would love it to be oak. if it's not, it will still burn, and it was free i wish i had some leaves

 

[sILlogger]

im just about positive that it is oak. the wood it probably fairly heavy???

 

[njtuna]

yes, quite dense, very heavy

 

[sILlogger]

yea, im just about positive that is a form of red oak

 

[ericjeeper]

I am positive it is for sure a form of maple.. Look at the grain. resembles a butcher block. The red tint is exagerated from the moisture and rot starting in the log..

 

[sILlogger]

what form of maple do u think it is......maple is not heavy when it gets punky and it is not a dense wood....also the bark doesn't look like any maple i have ever seen...but does look like the red oaks that i cut every day when i'm logging.....i'm always up for an education so go ahead and school me....

 

[sILlogger]

but regardless of who things what as to the species, the man has a nice stack of good burning wood...fine job

 

[ericjeeper]

Maple is dense

That is why it is often used for flooring,cutting boards and butcher blocks. I am not sure what variety of maple he has.. But I know red oak is more open grain, Plus red oak is generally red all the way to within an inch or so of the smooth more attached bark

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I have to lean towards some sort of Maple, although it's hard to say which one. Kind of looks like Silver, then it doesn't; but the white cut-sides indicate maple to me. Even if it was fairly dry, Oak would still have that distinct "manure" smell to it-I wonder if this had any aroma like that?

 

[njtuna]

it actually had kind of a "sweet" smell to it. definitely not a manure smell. the heartwood is a red to red-brown, where as the sapwood was very white, with some red flecks in it. my friend, who has used wood heat his entire life (and so has his dad) is certain it is maple. i have to believe him at this point. i wish i had some leaves to id it. nonetheless, i am getting some more mystery wood this week. get it from my town. when they take trees down, they offer them to residents. guess it costs them to get rid of the wood, so they try to lose the wood this way first.

 

[sILlogger]

maybe it is different than the maple we have around here...because all we have around here is white int eh mddle....i've been wrong before...

 

[ericjeeper]

Maple from Illionois?

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w112/calebcrocker/IMG_0470.jpg
I notice it is not exactly wehite in the middle.. Unless it is not maple

 

[sILlogger]

sorry boys, been gone for a week. that pic is of a sugar maple that i cut. had alot of sap and mineral in it, has shaggy bark like a shagbark hickory....but, typically it is white with a bit of dark heartwood. and the soft maples are white and often have wormy spots in them