Wood ID please! This stuff is like iron!

[Normande]

I actually broke my ax splitting it today. It was not the handle that broke........The cutting ax I was using to beat the crap of the splitting wedge cracked and broke at the top of the ax where the wood stops all the way to the bottom where the wood goes in. I'll try and get a pic of it. Seriously...this is some tough crap!

Broke a wedge on some sugar maple earlier this year, door yard and fence row trees defiantly seen harder than their forest cousins. Cherry can be some seriously tough stuff. Now a question for the more serious wood guys "wild" or "black" which is prefered and is there and actual difference?

 

[onetracker]

Looks like Tulip Poplar to me!

i'll be dipped - i think you're right! not the first time i've made that mistake.

and....i've had rounds of tulip that were a be-otch to split.