Shag bark hickory or oak?
- Thread starter Wayon Jr
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Colonel428
ArboristSite Operative
That is white oak.
Thanks
Colonel428
ArboristSite Operative
Shagbarks' "scales" are in bigger pieces and jut out more when they overlap. Plus, the shagbarks' bark is kinda like a ceramic tile in its hardness.
With them being in your yard did the trees drop acorns or Hickory nuts?
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Smell it,, hickory is easy to tell by smell.
If it is hickory, you will be saving it for your grilling,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I have used most of a 10" diameter hickory that blew over just grilling,, over about a three year period.
AND,, I am running low!!
I use so much hickory, that it reduces my charcoal consumption,, I use almost 50% hickory.
If it is hickory, you will be saving it for your grilling,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I have used most of a 10" diameter hickory that blew over just grilling,, over about a three year period.
AND,, I am running low!!
I use so much hickory, that it reduces my charcoal consumption,, I use almost 50% hickory.
Colonel428
ArboristSite Operative
You know, I've got quartered rounds (whole trees worth) of both shagbark and white oak that I need to split. Also just finished splitting a standing dead hickory (not shagbark) and didn't really know what it was until I started to quarter it. I usually suck at wood id but the stuff in his pictures is 100% white oak. And for some reason I don't get much of a smell from hickory when I'm working with it.
Colonel428
ArboristSite Operative
Maybe all that wood is why I need a new axle for my trailer...lol.
Colonel428
ArboristSite Operative
Lol. Yeah, the bark reminds me of the old time siding that was on the house my mom grew up in. You can bang two pieces of bark together and it makes that distinctive sound like hitting coke bottles together.
Oak
White Oak usually takes about 2-3 years to season before you burn it.
Same here. I burn mostly hickory for heat. I can smell it, but it's not real strong. Oak, on the other hand, smells really strong to me. I can smell it about as soon as I put the bar on it. Love the smell of both, well white oak anyway. Not a fan of the smell of red oak...
I don't care for the smell of Cherry when I'm cutting or splitting it.
Smells like sour, rotten something...lol
Hickory bark is pretty useful for getting a fire going too. It does not light very easy, but once lit, it does make a LOT of heat for several minutes. It doesn'tseem to hold any moisture so it burns instead of smoldering. I keep a stack of it and crumple a few pieces up and lay it on top of my tinder. If you're starting a fire outside, the bark makes a great wind block, and sheds water well if it's raining.
Colonel428
ArboristSite Operative
I'm not fond of the smell of red oak either. Where I do my cutting and splitting is out in the country. Right across the only road through there is a pig farmer. If I'm working with red oak it's hard to tell what stinks worse, it or the pigs!...lol.
In my part of Indiana on the higher sand Black oak trees dominates and most fire wood cutters think it's a Red oak. It is in the Red oak family and is or was sold as red oak in the lumber industry long as i am aware. True Red oaks I believe grow in lower ground usually. I have seen them near rivers. Black oak also crosses with pin oak. My dad brought the cross up in my younger years and i thought he didn't know what he was talking about. Mentioned it to a state Forester years later and he confirmed the black and pin oak cross.
My sense of smell has been going down hill about 50 years, since last year most what little I had seems to have been lost. But as for when i could smell especially strong odors it seemed some of the pin oaks and black oaks smelled strong and rank and some not so bad. Location and conditions of the trees played into how they smell. I recall at least 1 or more white oaks that smelled rotten also, but normal ones had a pleasant smell. Hollows collect water sometimes and spoil wood and the nasty water leaches and taints the smell and i believe the ground water and soil plays into how strong the smell gets. After 6+ months drying after split I have not encountered any problems with those trees though, with hundreds of cords of those species of wood being sold seasoned as such. I have had at least 1 complaint on fresh cut and split pin oak I believe it was.
I have all of those and
I have two types of hickory and the seasoned shagbark will darn near melt your stovetop if you aren't careful! I get hungry every time I get a whiff when it is in the stove.
Not a fan of the red oak smell but good when seasoned
I have all of these in my woods and w/cherry it definitely depends on the tree - sometimes it is super sweet and fragrant like the fruit, other times not so much. I save the sweet heartwood for the smoker.
I have two types of hickory and the seasoned shagbark will darn near melt your stovetop if you aren't careful! I get hungry every time I get a whiff when it is in the stove.
Not a fan of the red oak smell but good when seasoned
When I worked on a farm, during the winter, we would cut the "hedgerows,, trees along the fields.
There were over 600 acres of farm fields, that is a LOT of hedgerows, the way Virginia farms are chopped up,,,
We cut an amazing number of cherry trees, (the birds must have done a great job of moving seeds,,)
All the cherry that we cut had a wonderful sweet smell, we always knew by smell when we cut a cherry.
The James River was a mile wide next to the farm, every year, we would find a peanut plant growing somewhere.
Farmers on the other side of the river planted peanuts,
we could only assume that birds dropped peanut seeds, dug up across the mile wide river.
There was no hope with the trees,, they thrived due to all the fertilizer put on the farm fields.
I would bet those trees grew roots over 100 feet out into the farm fields,,
There is a lot of both, the way the bark looked on the middle of this tree is why I asked.
