Another ID...

I've been helping a buddy from church (the guy who helped me install my AS) with some tree ID. Went to his place last weekend and helped him drop some dead ash and an elm. He said he'd been riding around a split that he couldn't ID, and kept forgetting to show it to me..he remembered today at church. He knew it came from a limb that fell into the pasture...he thought it came from near a red maple, but I told him definitely negative on that one.....






I know the pics aren't the best. I was thinking maybe mulberry, I asked him if it was yellow when he cut it, he said no. He said it split awesome (by hand) when he hit it. Seems like I should know it.... Maybe one of the elms that's a better splitting variety?

I can probably get him to send me a pic of fresh split face, maybe even a saw cut end if need be

 

Where are you located? It looks ashy to me but is lacking a few tell tale signs.

 

The grain reminds me of sassafras.

 

Looks just like slippery elm. If so, I burn all I can get. Medium density and easy to light.

 

Red elm would be my take

 

In southern VA. I tore a splinter piece off....it had very little smell. I've smelt sassafras leaves and twigs, never had any sassafras firewood, so not sure it the wood has much smell. It looks like it might be kind of 'brittle' like ash....

 

I got a bunch from my old boss that looked just like that...never did figure it out for sure. Burnt nice.

 

When i was looking at it with him, i mentioned the elm I cut and posted a while back, that was quite red inside, and split decent for elm. The splits he had were kinda light for their size, compared to what oak or hickory would be....

There is a fair amount of elm on his place, not sure what variety(ies). I didn't see any sassafras while we were working...obviously doesn't mean that there isn't any. And you can tell the split came from a decent sized limb. I've never personally seen any sassafras around here that large....6, maybe 8 inches, is the biggest I've ever seen.

 

Its not some flavor of pine, is it?

 

Don't think so. Had no pine-ish smell, and we don't have any around here that are/turn that color. And he doesn't mess with pine, if he'd thought/knew it was pine, he'd have thrown it in the woods.

 

Ah...another delusional "pine is the devil" wood burner, eh?

 

I wanna say ash of some variety but I’m not too good at this game because I don’t have much experience with very many types of trees

 

catalpa

 

sassafras and catalpa are very similar in weight, grain appearance and texture. First time i scored some catalpa i thought it was a variety of sassafras. Sassafras left with catalpa

 

All catalpa pics Eckie (first pic with a sassafras log)
When i scored the barkless i thought it was elm at first, but once CS it wasnt.

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Did he sniff them? Sassafras has a root beer smell. One of my favorites. Being long dead it may have lost its aroma. Its very rot resistant so logs last a long time on the ground.

 

The sassafras Ive cut has smelled more like menthol or ecalyptus than rootbeer.

 

Looks like no center pith so Id say elm now.

 

Hahaha....I don't think he's that bad... I have educated him on pine, and he says he's going to cut some to have.

I smelt the piece after I broke the small section off. Very faint smell, and nothing dramatic about it

I'll see if I can get him to split me off a piece of it for further pics and analysis. The pics probably don't show it justice with the way the light was, but it was quite reddish orange tan...don't have a good color to put with it.

 

The color you describe is classic sassafras. I forgot when i read the OP how rot resistant it is, so didnt think it was. The pics are very good btw. I pulled a couple pieces of sassy today and ill get pics tomorrow in the daylight.