We don't have black maple, I was even thinking sugar maple as well but the bark ribs are way too uniform. Originally I thought it may be fruit wood, if so, I would cut them into coins and then hack them into baseballs sized chunks to sell for smoker wood. I'll split one open today and post later
The middle leaf is the lass common look. It is more round-bodied. The ones on the left and right look more signature. you can tell the box elder from ash because box elder tends to grown fast and twisty as it is a softer hardwood and on ash, the limbs curl up and then down.
you can tell its popple (we call it poplar) by the black spots on the bark. Popple is related to birch and linden (aka basswood). I call white. paper birch :behold a pale horse" and popple "behold a pale horse"
Actually we do have black maple according to Ontario trees and i think you're right. I've been too busy going through 30 yards of silver maple and 90 yards of sugar maple. I'm so sick of it all seeing that I fill my IBC totes with mixed species so I've been cleaning up the red oak, cherry and mulberry at the back of my pile so I can stockpile the now 30 yards left of maples at the back and make room for other species. In doing so, I've been in close proximity of that black maple which is at the back so I've had my eyes on it last few days. I'll get the maul and bust it open to confirm what seems to have been confirmed (too much silver maple in the way to wheel the splitter back there!)
Dont laugh at my fiberglass axe, this one's just for hacking up 4 inch smoker wood coins and separating logs coming off of the splitter. Black maple it is?
Hey if it works for you why not. I have a habit of destroying them no matter what they are. My Collins axe died recently and broke a wood handle on my lighter sledge.
It does have a solid hickory feel though I must say. Not that old but it doesn't seem like it's gonna bust. I hate the idea of broken wood handles. My 6 lb fiberglass is solid too. I find those 3 and 4 pounders wont split most wood, or efficiently at that
Would love some help from the experts identifying this wood from Austin, Texas. I honestly can't remember where I got it. I thought it was from a certain neighbor's tree, but that looks like an Arizona Ash to me, and this wood does not seem to match. I've attached shrunken photos, but you can find all 8 full-size originals here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/uC2FehRrssGMMxmG9 This stuff doesn't split very well. Sometimes my axe would start down one path, but the log would decide to go its own way and split from top to bottom in a completely different grain than my axe even entered.
So I had a Chinese Flame Tree (cousin to Golden Rain Tree) die in the January freeze. I'm doubting it's enviable firewood, but I don't like to let anything go to waste so I've split and stacked it up. Anyway, I'm realizing this old wood I'm trying to identify above may be the same species, although I can't for the life of me remember when I would've acquired it. Here's a photo of the confirmed flame tree wood (Left) next to the old bark of the mystery wood (Right). Do y'all agree this is the same stuff? I'm also including a picture of what I was describing before where the wood would split in an entirely different place than where my axe was traveling. Not sure if there's a name for that. Speaking of oak, I have some old Texas Live Oak rounds that I split the other day. Toughest wood I've ever dealt with. Required me to ditch the splitting axe and use an 8 lb maul with 2 wedges.
Yeah, they're definitely a match. In the attached photos, left is new confirmed Chinese Flame Tree and the right is presumed. I think what threw me off was how different the barkless exteriors looked as you can see in the last photo. It might not be clear from the photos, but the aged wood has deep grain grooves that the new wood doesn't have. That may just be how the right seasoned while uncovered with bark-on, or it could have something to do with the left coming from a tree that died 8 months ago but was only recently cut down. I'm actually embarrassed I didn't realize this earlier, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't've acquired any of this before. But now I'm realizing that this tree had to have a limb removed a year or two back, so surely that's where it came from. But thanks for helping me realize this! Edit: Oh, and it was definitely interesting to see how differently they split based on age. I split the new (dead for 8 months) stuff immediately and it wasn't too bad, but seemed unideal. But the old stuff was definitely more of a pain in hindsight.
Anyone have an idea of what these are, dead wood I cut up in Chicago area, I don’t think it’s pine/spruce but could be wrong? Seems too solid to be a softwood.
Also another good resource is the Virginia Tech Tree Id app. It will give you a listing of all of the potential trees in the area that you are located or you can pick another location. You can then click on the name and it will give descriptions and pictures of the tree. Link: https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/vtree.htm
