Hi Guys - phone was dead, otherwise, I'd have taken a picture yesterday while I was splitting. Whatever it is, its all my splitter can do to go thru the stuff. Its very stringy, it has a chocolate milk colored center and the rest of the wood is white. I was trying to split 8-10" round and my splitter didn't like them at all. (27 ton champion) I was originally thinking white oak, until I went thru the tree ID thread again. Maybe an ash or elm?
I just cut a dying tree that sounds like that, chocolate heartwood and thin layer of white sap wood. I haven't split it yet, but it was an Elm, not sure which kind, but the base sprouts were Elm for sure. While I was cutting it, I was thinking, "these bottom 6 pieces that are still green are gonna be a stringy mess on the splitter." I haven't split them yet. The rest of the tree on up was deader than an doornail. Most of the bark was peeling off. I'll try to remember to get a pic when I get over by the pile I stashed it on.
Probably not gum since he's in Wisconsin. Could be hickory or elm. Both are in this state. Could also be ash. There's a ton of ash that's being cut here in Wisconsin due to the ash borer. The yard trees are pretty stringy. I've been processing a lot of ash recently.
Could be an elm. Elm would make a splitter grunt. Being a hand splitter i avoid the stuff. See if you can get some pics of it Joe.
Did it look like this? Blasted over to the stash pile and got some pix of the Elm I cut yesterday. When I first cut it, it was much more chocolate colored in the heart wood. It was darker when cut, but is lightening in color as it starts to dry on the end. A couple pieces with a leaf stem from that tree. Another pic of the leaves. The elm pieces are to the left and the piece under it is Red Maple that had fallen on a trail. This is a piece from the upper part of the tree that was dying and had the bark peeling off. Sorry bout all the other species in the pix, but this is the temporary stash pile for 22-23 season.
Dark center, white color rest of the wood sounds like tupelo, or black gum to me along with the difficult to split.
