The bark tells me it isn't Elm, but it doesn't look like Oak bark either. At least no Oak around here, I'm interested in the final consensus.
Looks like Gum to me. I'm sure what it is, but that's the only thing that comes to mind with dark, blocky, bark...and stringy as heck.
It's definitely Hickory the bark in pic 2 left side is the tell tale sign. I had some a few years ago that was stringy like that quite a challenge to split.
Here are some more pictures of it. I have split white oak before. It usually has thin strings. This stuff had wide strings/ strands. This was probably the nastiest wood I have split. All the nasty looking pieces are buried in the pile. My second guess was gum but the bark looks different than what I see in a google image search. There was some hickory (shagbark) in with this load. I tried to keep it separate. I thought someone may like it for a smoker. What kind of hickory do you think it was JCMC?
The medullary rays in the first photo are the giveaway, so it does appear to be white oak. Sometimes it's hard to tell though.
I'm still leaning toward white oak. But as I said the smell of the fresh split would lock that down or not. Should smell like vanilla or like you just entered the Jim Beam barrel room.
Agreed. The medullary rays are the tell tale....... White Oak "family," if there are others in that group? Or just an ornery White Oak. Sweet farwood, that's for sure.
Twisted and wavy grain like that will make any wood tough to split. The rays in the end grain pic lock it in as white oak for me.
The bur oak is a member of the white oak family. The bur oak I have cut here in the Midwest has a slightly darker heartwood, but has wavy grain and is a pain to split.
