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Thread: Name that wood !

  1. #1
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    Name that wood !

    My arborist friend took down a tree last weekend, and I got the wood, including one log for milling. It looks like some sort of oak, and does smell a little like oak, but it's not a red or white oak to be sure. But don't let that bias your opinion. What do you think this is? Unfortunately, the leaves aren't out yet near Niagara Falls where I live, so all you've got to go on are the two photos. It is heavy and hard. Thanks.

    IMG_6134.JPGIMG_6135.JPG

  2. #2
    Looks to me like it could be hickory, based on the color, and the shaggy bark. If your buddy's any kind of arborist, he should be able to tell you.

  3. #3
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    Black locust maybe? Do the small branches have thorns?

  4. #4
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    I'm gonna guess hickory as well, based on the bark and that you said it is heavy.

  5. #5
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    Thanks, but I don't think those are it. It's definitely not a black locust or a shag bark hickory; he and I both know those. Another type of hickory? The color and weight seem to suggest so, but if you look closely at the close-up picture you may be able to see the medulary rays. Anyway, they're there. I don't recall hickory having any rays, but many oaks do. Does this additional info (sorry for forgetting to post it in the original) provide any more clues. The arborist thought it might be a live oak at first, but then later said they don't grow around here. Then he thought it might be a black oak.

  6. #6
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    I am certainly no expert but the bark looks strikingly similar to a tree I had cut down a few years ago in my back yard. It was a Silver Maple

  7. #7
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    Is it elm?
    "Remember back in the day, when things were made by hand, and people took pride in their work?"
    - Rick Dale

  8. #8
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    Not a a silver maple nor an elm. We both are familiar with those. In fact, we took down an elm yesterday (chinese), and it's quite different and I'd say heavier than this tree actually. I think the medular rays in the this tree are key to it's identity.

  9. #9
    Could be Hop Hornbeam. The bark sort of looks like that, and so does the inside. The sapwood can sometimes be darker than the heartwood too. This is just a wild guess.

  10. #10
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    Nope, not Hop Hornbeam either, thank goodness. This tree was at least 60 feet tall, taller than Hop Hornbeam. That stuff is really hard, too, and doesn't burn for nothin'. Thanks for the effort, though. Keep 'em coming, folks. I've looked through my book on trees and keep coming back to some sort of oak.

  11. #11
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    I am also no expert but my money would also be on oak of some sort. I would say a white oak.

  12. #12
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    John, I've milled a lot of oak, and the cross section of that log really looks like one of the species of white oak to me. Most of the variety's that I've sawn here in the southeast do not have dark sapwood though.

  13. #13
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    The split limb looks like hickory to me. There are other types of hickory other than shagbark. Maybe a pignut. I think hickory can have medullary rays.

  14. #14
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    I thought maybe a pignut hickory, too, but Hoadley's book says that you can't see the rays in hickory with the naked eye, so it can't be. I would like to say it's a white oak, but it doesn't smell like a white oak. Actually, it only smells a little like an oak at all, but I still think it is of some sort. I think I'll bandsaw a log into a piece I can dry and measure the specific gravity on. Stay tuned. Thanks.

  15. #15
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    Have any small branches with buds attached?

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