Im guessing there's a difference in black cherry and bing cherry bark. Now I see all of these bark types for cherry trees but the scales are not common with me.
Don't want to think that Im right , my persistence is really to question some why's and other reason thereof's. plus I don't want to burn the wrong kind of wood, Ive heeded warnings on some and took the precautions seriously. I do appreciate your input and you have been indeed helpful in realizing there are several ways to find out cherry! Thanks
I realized that my page wasn't refreshing so I wasn't seeing the cool MO. Wood pictures that he posted that showed the difference.
Burning a couple trees like Oleander are poisonous. I dont know what oleander looks like so I try to be cautious. They also say not to burn saltwater driftwood or poison sumac. These are just your regular cautions. I burn driftwood at the ocean all the time but its a big no no in your house.
One thing Im starting to see is the bark diiferences in cottonwood in different places. Some trees really develop thicker bark for the cold. That is for when temps are often -20 commonly. WA its not as thick. The smell isn't good either...
Yeah cottonwood has the deep brown center, if you split it where its constantly raining the wood has this really off-white-brown color of the sapwood. I'm really against burning it because it gets so smoky. The wood also punks easy so the more waterlogged it gets, you might as well just get it burned fast. Lots of ashes too. Its common on the oceanside where we sometimes get it as firewood, cut, split and stack nothing serious.
the salt in the driftwood destroys your stove or furnace. People who burn driftwood around here have to change their smoke pipes once a year.
Not only that but it emits sodium chloride vapors, cancerous as exposure goes it should be avoided at all. Completely odorless so thats why the ocean wood burned is best outside and open air. Wind blows all the time down there anyways so its not a big deal if you got a pit with a smoke stack high.
driftwood - good for outside campfires. Once dried, there's different colors due to the minerals and salts that have been absorbed. Never burn inside.
Oh yeah cedar turns this black when wet and then grey. If you catch it early enough it stays the reddish color when split. Grey if its white cedar though.
I think the original tree is a maple. I am not familiar with the maples that grow in Washington State, and I am sure they are different than any species we have in the east, but it still reminds me of maple. Doesn't look like cherry to me.
By the way, oleander is a shrub that never gets trunks larger than a few inches and grows in frost-free or almost frost-free areas only. Poison Sumac is found only in the east and Midwest and is rare and also too small to be a likely candidate for firewood. You don't have to worry about those two ending up in your firewood stacks.
