I'm leaning more toward red elm but if it loses that red cast pretty quick it's likely american......either way other than being a little hard to split it is good firewood. I really learned to appreciate the american elm I burnt this winter, my second winter with the cat stove and elm really off gasses nice.....cat probe would hang at 1500 to 1700 and just cook out the heat.
Thx Upstatewoodcutter - I'll have it CSS and on pallets within the month, covered with metal roofing facing south
I burned a lot of dead standing american elm this past winter. It's great wood, throws nice flames even in my old open fireplace. I would think if cut fresh and wet like that, it will need a year to season. It might possibly season over summer, but I wouldn't count on it. Sounds like you'll be set if you plan on issuing that elm 2 winters from now.
I've found that Red holds up well. I find them in the woods, lying around with no bark on them. After several years the sapwood will start to go but the heart will be in great shape for a long time The charts I use have Slippery (Red) at 21.6, considerably better than American. I love burning it. Split one open and post the pics. It has a lovely red hue, pink if it's pretty dry. .
Sorry, got called in to troubleshoot some transformer issues... Might very well be red elm, I'm looking at some bark Id's now...
Ashwatcher, can you snap a close up of the stump, maybe we can see the size of its pores/ tightness of grain.... After a few minutes of comparing some barks, the red elm's bark seems to be less "flat" in appearance. In other words, the furrows are deeper, more diagonally laid out. Not trying to rock any boats, but I have some maple types in the stacks here that bleed their colors together between the sapwood and heartwood like the first pick you posted. I could be way off...
My ID'ing skills have been way off lately, but going purely from the bark and the trees I have in my woods, I'm thinking it was a younger White oak. The bark does look a little like Am Elm, but it would be very rare to see one that size that's not dead. I think a smell test is in order. If it smells good, like vanilla, then it might be white oak. If it smells bad, like a cat box, time to put the Fiskars away...
It's definitely not a white oak-I'll check it again this weekend, I expect by consensus it is red elm but we'll see if the color changes. By all accounts, very decent burning wood. Thanks to all.
Like I said, my trees, my woods. This tree definitely is a white oak. It still has leaves clinging to it from last year. It could explain the water, as oak is notoriously wet when its fresh. Here's a close up of a young branch for comparison: This is elm:
