What’s do I got ? PNH or BNH ?

I stumbled across this dead one a couple months ago while checking fences. I just don’t know if it’s a Pignut or Bitternut ?

Here are some pics :

Butt & stump


Twig structure


Limb bark

 

Pignut.

 

What’s the drying time on it ? 2 years ?

 

Pignut. Just cut some today. Good stuff there. How common is hickory in your area Jim?

 

Id give it two years. Ive used it at 18 months but at least two Summers.

 

Some timbers have a lot of them & others have none, they seem to be rather patchy. Of coarse at the rate things are getting dozed out around there are nice ones just being shoved into piles & left to rot or burned with everything thing else in the pile.

 

Pignut. Two years is best, standing dead maybe one good summer. It's utterly stupid to waste good Hickory. Great smoker wood and awesome fuel wood.

 

Thats ashamed it get dozed and goes to waste. Didnt realize that hickory was dead, but id still give it a couple years. You could always check a split a year from now if you need it. Not that rare around here, but scarce for me to score any.

 

If I could get ahold of some hickory I wouldn’t care as to variety

 

It’s probably only about 5 hours one way from there to here…

You can have this one, a few chunks of the Shagbark that’s ready to burn & a bunch of Osage. Let me know when you will be here, after Thanksgiving will work best.

 

2 years and you'll have some of the best firewood there is.

 

Thanks for the offer but I try my best not to get that Far East, west is good, but not east!

 

That’s funny, I hear the same thing around here.
The Mississippi River is the limit for lots of folks…

 

So after going to the pile yesterday to do some shuffling, I grabbed a few splits & stopped in amazement at the feather light weight. I started rummaging around in the stack, everything on the top 2 layers was super light, I grabbed a similar sized 2y/o c/s/s Lindenwood chunk & compared weights; the Lindenwood was heavier.

After some contemplation I just tossed about 10 splits in the pickup & hauled them to the house & put 5 of them in the stove. They lit almost instantly with little effort, I checked about 4 times to see if they were sizzling or pizzing moisture out the ends; none of the above. The glass was not sooted up. I loaded up another load overnight last night, with the same results; decent heat output.

I loaned out my moisture meter but given the weight, non sizzling/pizzing & no sooting of the glass, I conclude that it’s plenty dry.

So my question after all of my rambling is I do not believe this to to be Pignut Hickory. Is it possibly Lindenwood or something else ? I will try to snap a couple pics of bark comparisons with my Lindenwood today.

 

I agree it can’t be any type of hickory. Hickory doesn’t dry that fast and when it is dry it isn’t lightweight. Bark looks like basswood to me. The lighter colored wood grain does too. The dark center has me questioning that verdict, but it could simply be the wood starting to rot. That would make sense considering the tree was already dead when you felled it.

 

Here is the side by side

confirmed Lindenwood on the left, mystery wood on the right.



Stack of the mystery wood

 

After looking at the first pic of the tree partially limbed up I had a thought, and could be way off. Any chance that it's some sort of Pear? Something about the branching.

 

Doubtful but I could be wrong. The only thing I have seen in the area it came from are Oak, Honey Locust, Shagbark, another nut bearing tree which I assumed to be Pignut & Osage.