the only whiskey smelling wood i know is white oak. The cut end looks oakish, but the bark doesnt. Got me on this one and im very curious to know.
Kentucky coffee tree is an interesting thought. The sap and heart wood match but the smell and bark don't. I live in Kentucky and I don't think I've ever seen one! See: Gymnocladus dioicus english
The most whiskey smelling tree I have ever processed was a Shagbark Hickory...which those pics look like they have good Hickory possibility's to me...
Bark and split looks a lot like Honey Locust, just missing the thorns. We have a few here that don't have many thorns, but I don't remember ever cutting any that didn't have any, unless it had been dead for at least a few years. That spalting in the sapwood is telling me it's been dead a while?.? I agree with Wolvy, no rays says no Oak. That split looks just like HL. But I'm not good with ID without leaves or thorns.
Just to be on the safe side, you better drive it down here to Maryland. I can’t promise a positive identification, but I’ll let you know how warm it keeps me on a couple years, and we can infer where it lies on the btu chart. On the inside It does look like some old hickory That had been languishing in round form with no bark left near my locust score. The bark looks like red oak to me, and I thought hickory bark tended to have square plates.
I sell firewood. If this is something premium, it gets set aside because it brings more money. Plus, I like to know what I’m selling.
When I check out google images, honey locust seems to be the best fit. I have two logs of it. It wasn’t a very large tree, maybe 16”-18” diameter at the base so this piece here isn’t what I could exactly consider limb wood but would be closer up near the crown
If it's honey locust it's probably one of the thornless hybrids developed for landscape stock. They 'escape' via bird, squirrel and deer poop. The furry critters love the seeds found in the seed pods so it's not uncommon to find hybrids growing in the wild. Great wood.
If this is from up higher near the crown of the tree, it may be thornless if it's HL. I've noticed on most larger HL trees I cut and process that up above 20 or 30' the thorns typically disapear. Why, I don't know, but the thorns are mostly lower on the tree. Not all of them do this, but most of them are this way.
There is an oak, ol timers called it cherry bark oak, that looks very similar to that. Another thing, you won't see rays on an edge split like that. Try one down the middle and see. I have had a ton of oak spalt like that.
It could very well be honey locust. The one thing is that all the Honey locust I've processed, smells very sweet, and not like whiskey. Local soil differences could make it smell a little different though regionally. In any case, it's premium firewood.
I can agree with honey locust. I only ever processed one, and the heartwood was a little more reddish orange, but the bark does match. Burning some today actually.
See, the HL I've been into wasn't that dark...part of what's throwing me off here...other than that I guess I couldn't argue against it being HL I've been disappointed with how it burns too...not super high BTU wood IMO. I'd put it in line with Ash.
