Been trying to catch up. A wood I have not seen before.

I understood ya Andy. That bark looks like plain old red oak to me

 

I vote for red oak as well, seems to fit the profile nicely. And I've never heard of choke cherry before?

 

That wood looked like red oak to me. If it splits super easy, that's my vote. White oak and red oak are different in that department. I would take all the red oak I could get if I was patient. Ash and maple are still the go to when you aren't far ahead, although I'd take anything I could get.

 

I've gathered both. Red and White oak are a piece of cake compared to American Elm.

 

Lol Dennis. Uh, both, but not inside. Your right about those Choke Cherries. Here they grow about 20-25' tall and die. In the woods I'm cutting in they are everywhere. I would cut one every once in a while if it was in my way. It would maybe be 2" in diameter. One day this fall I went to the back of the wood lot and found a way in to get this dead leaning White Ash. After I cut it up I looked around for some more dead wood. Almost invisible I started noticing these Cherry trees dead and fallen over but because of the thick under brush they never make it to the ground. I cut one and was surprised how brilliant red the wood was and how hard and heavy it was. I looked around for more and found plenty. Some of them at the base are 12". When they fall the root ball comes up with it. I even took the root balls cause the rain had washed all the dirt away and that's some pretty good wood. That leads me to another question I have for all you guys. When the burn season comes back around and you've been out scrounging up what ever you can you are left with a pile of uglies. I think this is the most enjoyable part of the burn season. How many of you enjoy spending an evening or weekend just burning nothing but odd pieces of discarded wood? This year I think I'm going to get around two months worth of burning just using up this stuff.

By the way, I'll go with what you all are saying about the Red Oak. I got into splitting some of the larger pieces today and it's singing Red Oak all the way. What else smells like fresh split Red Oak?

 

I enjoy having ugly/chunk/scrap fires in the firepit while I'm out splitting

 

I've thought about doing this too. Cept I have a female fire pit

 

OK... gonna need pics of a female firepit. Rules...

 

Going to have to wait til spring. It's packed away deep in the shed for the winter. It's one of those pits built into a table on an aluminum frame, ceramic tiles inlaid around a sheet metal pan which is the fire is built. So the fire is at table height. I only use it maybe twice a year since I know even at this rate it will burn out that pan within a few years anyway. I bought some more tiles and inlay those on top a thin piece of plywood I cut to fit over the fire pan so you don't even see or know it's a fire pit most of the time. So I call it a female fire pit since it's so dainty. Nothing like the "macho" ones I see that many of the guys here have. I'd like to build one of those keyhole firepits in the yard somewhere. I just haven't decided where since my space is so limited. It may never happen.

 

Fire pit is one of the best things we've ever done to the yard . They're super easy and cheap to build too

 

I'm looking forward to meeting you. And I'll have to send you out with a few goodies too. Sounds like it will be before Christmas so I will be very busy. Just let the girls know out in the store and I'll have them send you back to me in the kitchen area. By the way, us bakers call it "baking".

 

Someone on here last year told me I can just use what ever rocks we have in there area to build the edges with. In the summer when the river water level drops there is a lot of easy access to the rocks on the bottom. I plan to use those if I ever get around to doing this. I have a very closed in back yard and making smoke that will fill neighbors windows or my own is not a good thing. Maybe I should invent the first "EPA" rated and approved fire pit. The kind that will burn with no smoke.

 

Cat pizz comes to mind.... Seriously though its great stuff,roughly 70% of the wood I cut/split/burn every year is dead Red/Black Oak.Even the stuff that's standing a few years or on the ground can still smell pretty funky especially on a hot summer day.

Winter time its not so bad of course.Glad I don't process much of it when green.White/Bur Oak smells wonderful when green/freshly cut however,a nice vanilla-caramel scent.When dead/dry the smell is very faint,almost non existent.

 

I was looking for you Pete. Did I miss you in all the "Christmas Rush"?

 

I was looking at these pics this morning. I think some of this wood is "Tree of Heaven." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailanthus_altissima I've had quite a bit of it over the years and the bark acts just like you say. The top middle pic and the bottom left look strongly like Tree of Heaven. It'll get light pretty quickly if it is.

 

Did we get a moisture meter reading on the mystery wood. I wonder if it was just split even though it has been dead for so long. Guessing some of the pieces will still be high.