Help with wood ID

[Doublebogey]

Had a tree guy loading up a truck near my business and told him he could drop it on my property and save himself an hour of driving. He thought this might be maple but wasn't sure. Any help is appreciated.

 

[NickW]

Silver maple

 

[Doublebogey]

Definitely not silver maple. I have piles of silver from a previous drop and at least a cord of it cut split and stacked already.

 

[Vg3200p]

I ran some of that stuff through a saw mill this summer. Beautiful blood red grain in the heartwood. I was guessing some kind of elm

 

[Stinkpickle]

I’m leaning towards Elm, too. Maybe American Elm.

 

[NickW]

Revising my reply to agree with the elm. Should have enlarged the photo before replying. Usually be a bear to split but heats pretty good, very stringy.

 

[Vg3200p]

Nick. I split some of that stuff as well as sawmilling it. It was stringy and quite wet.

 

[greengiant]

By the looks of the leaves by wood, I agree elm. First tree I ever cut down was a gigantic elm, used a homelite 350, brand new, my heart was pounding like the first deer you ever shot or the first time ever bidding on ebay. Tree was so big, my chainsaw bar being 16", I had to go all around after cutting wedge out. When she finally came down, I felt like king of the forest. I remember cutting it all up and being stringy on the splitter. That was back in my twenties, about 50 years ago. Nice memories !

 

[Doublebogey]

The leaves are not at all related to the wood. The wood was dropped on a different part of my property and I seperated it by species and hauled it to my splitting area with a forklift. I have an American elm on my dad's farm that I use as a hundred yard marker to sight on from the barn. I will check it out this weekend and see if the bark matches up. Here are some more pics.

 

[qwee]

The elm around my parts (Southern Idaho) is Siberian Elm. It looks similar but the white ring around the colored center is always smaller. Maybe Slippery/Red Elm? I think White/American elm is all white on the inside.

 

[MongoMongoson]

Doesn't look like red elm to me. Red elm would be mostly red throughout with a bright white section between the bark and the sap wood. That relatively thin white inner bark is the slippery part. The sap wood is red on red elm, same color as the heart wood.

 

[MongoMongoson]

I have rock elm growing in my yard and the woods next door, but I have never cut one. Google shows me that it has a dark center with light sap wood. The bark looks similar to what you have there.

 

[qwee]

MongoMongoson I think you have it - Rock Elm. I hope you have a hydro splitter. This guy is doing a lot of swinging and the round isn't splitting.​

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Doublebogey]

Ugh. Yes I do have a hydraulic splitter. Looks like I'll be needing to gas it up. Maybe if the guy in that video didn't drag his edge through the dirt with every single stroke his tool would work a bit better for him.

Definitely not red elm. I had a pretty sizable trunk of that early this spring. Thats in my 23-24 stack now. That stuff split EASY.

 

[MongoMongoson]

He needs to get that off the ground on top of another log, and to try to split the sap wood off of the heart wood rather than trying to split it down the middle.

I have split a lot of red elm by hand, and it isn't too bad. I wouldn't call it easy, though. I would say it depends... not sure on what, maybe how strong I was that day. I also thought it split better frozen.

Let us know how it goes with the rock elm. I am curious, since I have never split it before.

 

[NickW]

I commented in a post about a year ago that anyone who splits elm by hand deserves to have his man card validated for life... It's a pain even on the hydro splitter.

 

[gzecc]

More proof that there is no such thing as free wood!

 

[hickoryhoarder]

Much better photos. I'd say near zero chance that is maple. Elm sounds like a reasonable guess.

 

[fbelec]

doesn't look like the elm i just took down. it died of dutch elm disease

 

[patrickk222]

kinda looks like butternut in the pics of the wood in your first message there

 

[Doublebogey]

Cut some 16 inch rounds today and pounded my 4 lb axe into the first one. Took me by suprise. Moisture just about splashed out and I had to beat the heck out of the back of the axe to get it through. I am a pretty strong guy and an eight inch round never puts up a fight against a good swing like that. My x27 may go through it better. Very stringy stuff. Seems to fit with what everyone has told me elm would be like. I may stick to my hydraulic splitter with this stuff. I like a challenge though.

 

[Vg3200p]

The fiskars will do it!

 

[fbelec]

the wood is exactly like the elm i took down but it didn't have the dark heart