From the USDA: White Oak: Specific gravity of oven-dry wood: 0.68. Average green moisture content: 68%. Common Persimmon: Specific gravity of oven-dry wood: 0.74. Average green moisture content: 58%. So, persimmon tends to be both denser and (to start out with), drier.
Thats embarrassing as a forester isnt it!!! Seriously I showed up looked at it about 3 seconds and then put a huge grin on my face with the saw. I just convinced myself it wasnt persimmon based on the massive size! Neither ash nor persimmon we really deal with though in work.
I don't know what I call ash, but up here ash doesn't have shagbark hickory looking bark, it's a solid bark with deep ridges that follow a similar pattern up the whole tree. Maybe I'm wrong but I googled White ash bark and this is one the first few pictures to pop up. The bark lifts a little bit but it's not like shagbark where whole pieces are curled up.
Upstate. Your right. That bark looks like hickory. Looks very similar to mockernut or pig nut hickory...not really anything like shagbark hickory...or much like persimmon really.
That should be some good heat, right at the top of the BTU list, I'm going to be burning some shagbark for the first time this year Osage Orange (Hedge) 30.0 Hop Hornbeam (Ironwood) 26.4 Persimmon, American 4,165 25.8 Hickory, Shagbark 25.3
