Wood ID - Standing dead so no bark/leaves

[Woody Stover]

It's hard, but it's not heavy like a piece of oak.

My BIL said he saw some bark and thought it was dogwood

Yes, the ends do look like Dogwood. But Dogwood is heavy...as heavy as dry Oak.

 

[Woody Stover]

Burned a few pieces yesterday. Didn't hiss or spit out moisture, which is good, but burned super slow. I.e. wasn't putting out alot of heat, caught slowly, and just overall burned really slow while not acting like wet wood either. Didn't smoke or anything, just slow to light off. LOT of coals.

Hmmm. Still sounding like Dogwood...

 

[firefighterjake]

First thought was elm . . . until I saw the heart of the wood . . . seems like oftentimes I see maple have heart rot in this fashion . . . so I would lean more towards maple.

I should mention though . . . I have had very easy to split, clean splitting elm before . . . when it has been standing dead for some time. Fresh cut American elm however is a whole other story.

 

[tfdchief]

I should mention though . . . I have had very easy to split, clean splitting elm before . . . when it has been standing dead for some time. Fresh cut American elm however is a whole other story.

+1

 

[The Beagler]

That is maple. That will burn great!

 

[joefrompa]

Lot of heart rot here. The splits I showed had solid hearts through and through, but an equal amount had been eaten/rotted. Outside of the heart though, it was still good wood, so burning it will be.

 

[redhorse]

I just worked up a couple of standing dead Red Elm (Dutch Elm disease killed them 5-6 years ago) that look just like that. the straight pieces split clean.
It almost looks like you could have taken those pics on my wood pile.

We've worked up tons of red elm and it has never split clean -- not even the straight pieces. The smaller pieces split, but not without a lot of effort and not without a lot of strings; the larger pieces were such a pain we gave up on some of them (decided to give them to the FIL to use as lumber when the chain saw would barely cut it!). We've found it to be about the worst splitting wood we've ever tried to split by hand -- mostly because of all of those darn strings.

 

[oldspark]

I just worked up a couple of standing dead Red Elm (Dutch Elm disease killed them 5-6 years ago) that look just like that. the straight pieces split clean.
It almost looks like you could have taken those pics on my wood pile.

We've worked up tons of red elm and it has never split clean -- not even the straight pieces. The smaller pieces split, but not without a lot of effort and not without a lot of strings; the larger pieces were such a pain we gave up on some of them (decided to give them to the FIL to use as lumber when the chain saw would barely cut it!). We've found it to be about the worst splitting wood we've ever tried to split by hand -- mostly because of all of those darn strings.

Yep I left some red elm in the woods a few years back when I was still splitting by hand, I could not get it to splitt at all.

 

[Wood Duck]

It looks like that tree was way too big to be Dogwood.

 

[Wingman]

First thought was elm . . . until I saw the heart of the wood . . . seems like oftentimes I see maple have heart rot in this fashion . . . so I would lean more towards maple.

I should mention though . . . I have had very easy to split, clean splitting elm before . . . when it has been standing dead for some time. Fresh cut American elm however is a whole other story.

I have been working on some of an American Elm and it looked like this and it did split fine.

 

[Woody Stover]

It looks like that tree was way too big to be Dogwood.

In relation to the blades of grass (and the toe :lol: ) it looks to me to be about 6" at most...

Lot of heart rot here. The splits I showed had solid hearts through and through, but an equal amount had been eaten/rotted. Outside of the heart though, it was still good wood, so burning it will be.

Mine showed the same thing, though these pics aren't the best examples.
The entire trunk can be rotted out but a little strip of bark will keep the tree alive, leafing and budding.



Above the light-colored Dogwood is some wet BL.
(broken link removed to http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h407/2bnator/Hearth/002-11.jpg)


The darker Dogwood here is wet from rain as well...
(broken link removed to http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h407/2bnator/Hearth/005-1.jpg)


(broken link removed to http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h407/2bnator/Hearth/006-4.jpg)


(broken link removed to http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h407/2bnator/Hearth/007-3.jpg)

 

[bogydave]

I vote maple.

 

[mywaynow]

Standing dead is indicative of Elm in my parts...

 

[Thistle]

First thought was elm . . . until I saw the heart of the wood . . . seems like oftentimes I see maple have heart rot in this fashion . . . so I would lean more towards maple.

I should mention though . . . I have had very easy to split, clean splitting elm before . . . when it has been standing dead for some time. Fresh cut American elm however is a whole other story.

I hear ya. I split a few 8"-10" American Elm rounds on Sunday afternoon.Tree was standing dead for 2-3 years easily,with no bark & 1 large vertical crack that was over 10 ft long,dropped it in late September.Split very easily,almost like most of the Red/Black I normally get.1 more Elm snag left barely 30 ft from where this one was,about same size.Bark still covering it,gonna wait til it falls off & dries on the stump a while before its dropped next.