Normally not yellow at all. Varying shades of red/pink heartwood. Cant say I've ever seen cherry with that color before.
Looks more grainy than I remember cherry being. Maybe it's from living in the understory of a forest and in the shade all the time? I've cut some sugar maple like that. 6" in diameter and 30+ growth rings makes for some grainy maple too.
If this is cherry... it always is an understory tree here. So many other species tower over it. I never see real big ones like some other trees grow. Oak, hickory, gum, they grow big. And pines, of course. Do the ends showing end grain look like cherry pattern? Wondering if this is not cherry and something totally different, lol. If so, I've been calling this tree cherry (from the bark) wrongly for a long time! And, again, it split crazy easy the day after it was felled. I actually think I could have split it with a hatchet!
I'm thinking it's cherry. I don't know many other trees with that kinda bark. That's typically of cherry from my experience. There's the occasional tough one but most are easy like red oak. If I get ambitious today I'll wander out and get some pictures of Michigan Cherry for ya.
It does, but the color is what threw me. Bark is all there including lichens typically seen on cherry. The thing that caught my eye were the wide growth rings. Cherry here is a common "weed" tree growing along property lines and roadsides.
I see what you mean now on that second, end grain, picture. That's kinda opposite what I was thinking.
I recall now... leaves... over the years, I came to easily recognize cherry by its bark but the leaves are also a giveaway, they are easy to make a confirmation. Surely, this is cherry. This tree was taken from "hill land" and the soil type would either be red clay or sandy. If sandy soil, that would be because there is a sandstone that outcrops around here in various places. I dunno if soil type would cause color change in the wood.
I would say so. They claim flamingos are pink because of what they eat. Soil type and mineral content with tree growth.
Here's what our cherry looks like. Im sure its a regional thing as far as color. Does the stuff you have smell like cherry? I only ask because I once got a big buckthron that I thought was cherry.
I will often call dead standers 'stove ready'. Stove ready means that it can be burned but may have a little extra moisture (rain soaks). If I bust it and cover it, it will turn into 'dry' firewood pretty quickly. Larger diameters seem to hold their water a bit longer.
Me being the scrounger, there’s few types I won’t take. Then it is, how far do I drive for whatever. Some of the lighter woods are best burned early, like after one full summer to season, aspen, white birch, box elder. One type I detest is willow, ‘weeping willow’ in particular, very poor burning. The other day I added some dry red pine to my hardwood fire, really got the flames up. It’s also easier to get the peripheral wood types, elm easy, nice hickory often harder to get free.
Dont let the easy splitting fool you. I've had cherry that had more twists in it then Chubby Checker. Hand splitting it was a PITA Around here, I've burned cherry after 8 months. Everyone says how good it smells. Dry cherry yes. Green cherry IMO reeks.
Agreed, I just cut some fresh and it smelled odd, almost like red oak. I started scratching my head and double guessing myself. Very lighter in color when cut fresh and darkens. I usually don't burn in the stove because I have mainly oak, I grab it for the smoker all I can get.
