Tree ID... ??

[Fred Perreault]

This is a large log I got at my friends' "wood recycling yard", which is a huge brush/stump dump. The log was about 6' long, and 24"+ across. It has a walnut looking bark, and as it got gouged off of the new wood it is stringy rather than papery. There is a brownish/orange color underneath the bark against the white wood, and the grain has rather large annual rings. It is a hard wood, and dense/heavy like ash or such, and the dried out bark that had been scraped up on the side some has a smell of drying field hay on a warm day (...???). I sawed off the end to show the clean wood, and the dark core is about 12" across, with the clean white new wood around it. We couldn't find anymore of it in the pile, as the snow and ice have just recently disappeared. He has a huge excavator with an hydraulic pincher, which he uses to make smaller chunks out of big stumps and short logs. He had this unidentified log in the jaw and cracked it open once before he realized what he had. He usually then sends all the chunks through a 12' tub grinder to process wood chips for resale.

The two halves of the UFO, and a couple of seasoned black locust stumps and a queer looking black cherry stump are what's on the trailer. I tried to get closeup of the bark and the orange coloration.

[Ron Stadler]

Looks like the bark of Osage Orange to me and it is a very hard wood. But on closer look the wood doesn't look like it to me, I think Mulberry might be in the same family but not really sure what its wood looks like, I'm sure someone will know what it is though.

[Reed Gray]

I would guess a maple, and most likely sugar maple. Maples will frequently be white or cream colored, with a darker core. Maple, unless it is starting to go sour will have a very pleasant smell. Look for medullary rays on quarter sawn piece.

robo hippy

[Fred Perreault]

Thanks Reed. This is Cape Cod, and we don't have as wide a variety of trees anymore, such as we had 100 years ago, unless it was planted as a specimen on an estate. And it does smell sweet. We have poplar, a few cottonwoods, sycamore, red maple, and the occasional norway or rock maple. This thing I have never encountered before. The dark core is a very large percentage of the cross section. I plan on hacking a section off in a few days and taking a core or two, and letting it dry for a while. I would really like to find the rest of the tree in the brush pile. :) :)

[Jake Helmboldt]

Fred, is the grain coarse? Is the bark really tight and hard to get off? I'm guessing Hickory. Some hickory has that creamy sapwood and dark coffee heartwood. Looks just like some I turned last year. And heavy as heck.

Also, the way it looks to be a bit splintered/stringy is also consistent with Hickory. Maple won't do that.

[Bernie Weishapl]

The wife and I took down a sugar maple on Tuesday this week and it looks just like your wood.

[Jon Nuckles]

Can't say what the wood is, but can say it isn't mulberry, which is bright yellow when freshly exposed. It turns brown after a while when exposed to light, but you can't mistake it when you cut into it.

[Marc Himes]

Our soft maple can look like that, with very dark heart wood and light sapwood. We have a lot of it here in the Upper peninsula of Michigan.

Marc Himes

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Not sure here, but the bark looks like Ash, not like hard Maple or even Silver Maple, Ash has quite often dark heartwood depending where the tree grows, the slight pink color is very much like Ash as well.
Anyway for what it is worth, my guess is it is Ash :-)

[Tony Greenway]

I agree with Reed and Bernie on the Sugar Maple

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Here's a picture of Sugar Maple bark, and Ash tree bark, just compare what come closest :)

Sugar Maple bark
183311

Ash tree bark
183312

[Cody Colston]

Gotta go with Leo again and say Ash.

I love these tree/wood ID threads. :)

[Reed Gray]

It could be ash. Most of the ash I have seen that is colored in the middle is an olive brown color, and not as dark as the pieces you have. Ash is coarse grained (poor man's oak), and the maple is very closed grain. Pretty easy to tell apart.

robo hippy

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Robo I could very well be wrong with calling it a Ash log, though I do not believe it is Sugar Maple, as the bark is not from a Sugar or hard Maple, but it could be something else, and yes that is very dark color, but it is from wet wood, still I do agree with what you are saying about the grain and color generally, so I'm waiting for another opinion that jives with what's there