I was able to go and work on the sugar maple from Monday as Asplundh was not there today. While working i found a chestnut on the ground. Checked the area for more nuts and none. A black birch and several conifers the only trees around. I honestly could not identify a chestnut tree if i saw it. The homeowner came out later and i asked her about it. She says yup they cut the one down next to the mailbox. (numerous EWP trunks and wood still in the yard roadside). I walked over and found a pignut hickory amongst the pine trunks and thought the lady didnt know what she was talking about. Im thinking chestnut is almost non existant in the area from the blight over 100 years ago. I ended up bucking the hickory and upon further investigation there was a strange tree i couldnt ID under the EWP trunks. The barks were similar from a distance and didnt have my glasses on. Pine trunk on top of the "chestnut" I cut one round off to take home I looked for more nuts but nothing. No leaves either. The pine branches in the prior pics are attached to the EWP logs. Fresh cut it had no smell. Wasnt as heavy as i expected. Wood wasn't that "hard" or dense either. So what do you think FHC? Is this chestnut? Cant say ive ever cut any either. Anyone ever have any experience with chestnut?
I cut a chestnut some years back. Think we determined it was something like a Japanese hybrid or somethin. Not a real American Chestnut. I was a bit surprised at the low btu, light weight of the wood. For some reason I thought it would be a heavy strong wood. No idea what you have there. I have a hard enough time telling white from red oak.
Looks like horse chestnut to me. We've got some small American chestnut here. The bark is smooth but i think it gets deep furrows when older.
We have a few Dunstan Hybrids and Chinese Chestnut around WNY. The true American are probably only stump sprouts or misidentified. We (scientists) are working on another chestnut that could (maybe?) be a viable and blight-resistant option for most of the original range.
Horse chestnut maybe, but I’ve never seen it scaly like that. The tree was over 100 years old that I had wood from. Very stinky stuff when burning. It’ll heat if you aren’t bothered by it. I couldn’t help it but smelled like antifreeze/syrupy smell in a sick way.
Being in an urban environment I would guess its the common Horse Chestnut. They are around in places and can be identified by leaves browning in late summer from blight. If you want a good book read American Chestnut, very interesting read. Let us know how it splits and burns Brad.
I thought it was an EWP like the rest of the trees felled there and until closer inspection. I gave the round i cut a good sniff (the nose knows) and zero pine smell. No sap either on any ends. Ive never seen a tree like this around here!
I only took the one round. The rest of the wood there was rather knotty so im leaving it. Plus i found a small hickory which was a bonus for the score. Ill split and put aside. Wood didnt seem that dense.
We had some old growth chestnut boards at the shop one time. Very light for the size, but I think it has good rot resistance....
I split the lone round yesterday. Several good whacks with the Isocore just to half it...13" diameter. Fiskars did the rest. Split texture reminded me of Norway maple. The verdict: i wont horse around with chestnut again. The logs at the score were rather knotty. Have to grab the hickory from there today so maybe ill buck some of the smaller ones to fill out the load.
I was pulling splits and found some from this score. Light as a feather. I would definitely not recommend this wood.
I agree with all the Horsechestnut responses. There is one 100yds from me and the nuts and bark are identical. I can take a bark pic. There were not as many nuts on it this year.
