I have a positive ID on this and thought I would pass this along for those who are new to tree ID and looking to learn different species. I have a pic of the split but thought I would start with these two.
Fitting thread title. I hope folks zero in on the obvious distinctiveness of that end grain. Would be better if you cleaned the sawdust off of it, & maybe re-wet it for the tell tale sign.
the bottom piece looks like hickory. the top piece looks like its ring shanked. damaged from wind making it useless to mill cause the center of the wood falls out, still good for firewood.
Top piece has bark that is not typical of oak (more like a redwood, ponderosa or lodgepole pine) but its definitely an oak, bottom is either hickory or ash, very tight grain for ash though.
Oak on top Bottom I’ve got three guesses but they likely all wrong. Could be Birch, kinda looks like what I call yellow locust ( I think it’s known as honey locust), or possibly Ash. When do we get the answer?
