Wood ID

[Edward Weber]

I just got a load of wood this morning.
It's still raining, so I didn't take any time to examine it, just enough time to take a couple of photos.
I'm not very skilled in identifying wood like this.
Thanks in advance
20230115_093345.jpg

[Dave Mount]

From the bark and color, my guess would be cherry. That's a whole lot of exposed end grain that's going to be checking badly as soon as it quits raining, better get it tarped to keep it moist until you have time to prepare and seal the blanks...

Best,

Dave

[Edward Weber]

Thanks Dave, I appreciate it.
I've already begun the processing

[John K Jordan]

Thanks Dave, I appreciate it.
I've already begun the processing

That would be wonderful if you had that much cherry to pick from in what looks like good size chunks.

There are several distinctive features of black/wild cherry that make the ID easy once you know them. A couple you can see easily, look up if necessary: from the end grain, cherry is diffuse porous instead of having a strong ring porous structure. And as Dave mentioned, the bark. Your picture is so tiny on my iPad that I can’t see the bark well enough to tell but you can easily ask Sir Google for pictures. Once you see it you’ll never forget.

Another distinction is the smell of cherry wood, sweet and pleasant but maybe hard to recognize without experience. Finally, the heartwood color is also also fairly distinctive although I’ve seen a wide variations. Maybe haul a chunk (with the bark) to a woodturning friend with some experience if you know anyone close. They will probably thank you. Or if possible, take a piece to a turning club meeting.

If it is cherry it’s nice if the weather where you live is cool and wet. In the summer green cherry here will sometimes start to develop cracks while you stand and look at it. (An exaggeration but not by much) Some is much worse about this than others. If you like to turn things other than big bowls you might process as much as you can as soon as possible, cut blanks without the pith and sapwood then seal and dry. (Besides or in addition to tarping you can keep the pile soaked down with a hose to buy some time as long as it’s not too warm out. If warm, work fast! )

Cherry is extremely common in this side of the country; what about your area? (things look mighty green in your photo!)

JKJ

[Edward Weber]

That would be wonderful if you had that much cherry to pick from in what looks like good size chunks.

There are several distinctive features of black/wild cherry that make the ID easy once you know them. A couple you can see easily, look up if necessary: from the end grain, cherry is diffuse porous instead of having a strong ring porous structure. And as Dave mentioned, the bark. Your picture is so tiny on my iPad that I can’t see the bark well enough to tell but you can easily ask Sir Google for pictures. Once you see it you’ll never forget.

Another distinction is the smell of cherry wood, sweet and pleasant but maybe hard to recognize without experience. Finally, the heartwood color is also also fairly distinctive although I’ve seen a wide variations. Maybe haul a chunk (with the bark) to a woodturning friend with some experience if you know anyone close. They will probably thank you. Or if possible, take a piece to a turning club meeting.

If it is cherry it’s nice if the weather where you live is cool and wet. In the summer green cherry here will sometimes start to develop cracks while you stand and look at it. (An exaggeration but not by much) Some is much worse about this than others. If you like to turn things other than big bowls you might process as much as you can as soon as possible, cut blanks without the pith and sapwood then seal and dry. (Besides or in addition to tarping you can keep the pile soaked down with a hose to buy some time as long as it’s not too warm out. If warm, work fast! )

Cherry is extremely common in this side of the country; what about your area? (things look mighty green in your photo!)

JKJ

John,
I've already got a good portion sealed, the rest is stacked and tarped over (waiting on more anchor-seal).
I'm not getting a "cherry" aroma from it, but from what I've read it's not always very strong.
These are pretty large pieces as you can see in the photos and I will process every little bit, I don't like to waste.

20230116_123639 (600 x 277).jpg20230115_162348 (600 x 277).jpg

[John K Jordan]

What kind of smell does it have? Where are you in the US? If you post closeup photos of the end grain and the bark it would be easier to guess the species.

Look at the wood pics on Hobbithouse Inc (here for cherry: http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/w...an%20black.htm)
In your photo I see something different in your logs but it’s hard to tell from photos since end grain surface appearance can change quickly and dramatically as the wood dries, especially when viewed from a distance.

If you care about knowing the type of wood the first thing to look for is the porosity in the rings. This divides the hardwoods into two basic categories: diffuse porous (usually very small pores evenly distributed across the rings) and ring porous, where the rings have a very distinctive narrow band of larger pores at the ring boundary (in the “early wood”) and smaller pores spread out across the rest of a ring in some way (in the “late wood”). Once you know whether the wood is diffuse porous or ring porous you will know for certain if it MIGHT be a certain species (such as cherry, elm, whatever) or if it CANNOT be a certain species. (Note some are semi-diffuse which adds to the fun!)

The key is to get a clean look at the end grain. This is usually impossible with a sawn or even sanded end grain surface. The best way is to shave across a small area of a small sample of the end grain with a single-edge razor blade. (I usually cut a wood sample about 1/4” or 3/8” wide that crosses at least several ring boundaries.) Shave a clean spot that shows at least one ring. Look at the clean cut with a low power magnifier - a 10x lens is recommended and a cheap lens works fine. (I use a cheap lighted loupe from Amazon but also have a low power stereo microscope which is even better when I get serious.) Section 7 on this page describes the procedure: https://www.wood-database.com/wood-a...ication-guide/

If you get interested in wood ID I recommend the book “Identifying Wood” by R. Bruce Hoadley. I’ve used my copy so much the pages are falling out.

Note that on that Wood Database page at the bottom of section 7 is a Still Stumped paragraph that tells how to get professional help, even for free from the gov for US citizens.

Another option is to cut off a small sample and mail it to someone with wood ID as a hobby. Years ago a person on another forum mailed a sample to me and I told her it looked like elm to me. At the same time she mailed a sample to the gov lab and a few weeks later she got a one word reply: “elm”. BTW, is elm has distinctive wavy bands of latewood pores so it’s usually easy, although it can be confused with hackberry.

JKJ

John,
I've already got a good portion sealed, the rest is stacked and tarped over (waiting on more anchor-seal).
I'm not getting a "cherry" aroma from it, but from what I've read it's not always very strong.
These are pretty large pieces as you can see in the photos and I will process every little bit, I don't like to waste.

20230116_123639 (600 x 277).jpg20230115_162348 (600 x 277).jpg

[Edward Weber]

Thanks John, I sent you a PM

[Dave Mount]

Having seen the close-up of the close-up of the cross-cut in the later pictures I withdraw my cherry opinion. John's got good stuff on why and how to proceed.

[Edward Weber]

After doing more research (looking things up on the internet) and actually finding a piece with needles attached, I'm 99% positive that it's a Monterey Pine
https://www.wood-database.com/radiata-pine/
The storm/s out here took out some very big, old trees
At a rough count, this was 40+ years old

[John K Jordan]

After doing more research (looking things up on the internet) and actually finding a piece with needles attached, I'm 99% positive that it's a Monterey Pine
https://www.wood-database.com/radiata-pine/
The storm/s out here took out some very big, old trees
At a rough count, this was 40+ years old

That must be a fast growing tree to get that big in 40 years! The wood database indicates Monterey Pine is another name for Radiata Pine (Pinus radiata), used a lot for plywood these days. I confess to knowing less than nothing about identifying softwoods, with the exception of Eastern Red Cedar and White Pine. The books say to do it right may require looking at the cells with high power microscopy. Where we live the forests are overwhelmingly hardwoods.

On the subject of rings and age, I thought this was interesting, almost 100 year ring count in an oak tree limb on my farm. The limb was about 40' long, unusual in that it was almost exactly horizontal except the last 10' had a dip in it. It was my favorite limb until it suddenly died. This photo shows a section cut next to the trunk, maybe 12-14" at the widest - extreme reaction wood, imaging the stresses!

reaction_wood_extreme.jpg

Unfortunately, a few years later I heard a staccato crack crack crack crack sound from the house, like a series of firecrackers going off. I know what it was and went down the hill to survey the damage. I found the last will and testament of that 120' tree requesting cremation in the wood-burning stove:

tree_down.jpg

It took me several days of thoughtful planning and chainsawing to convert the tree into chunks on the ground without getting killed. One trunk weighing tons was held high off the ground by a "spring pole" branch driven 2' into the ground during the fall. Then I had to fix the fence it crushed before I could let the livestock back in the back field.

JKJ

[Edward Weber]

I was just taking a wild guess with a quick ring count,
If you look at the photo, you can see how large some of the growth rings are.

These trees can grow up to 8 feet in height per year. They do not go dormant in winter, they just keep growing.
closeup.jpg

[John K Jordan]

I was just taking a wild guess with a quick ring count,
If you look at the photo, you can see how large some of the growth rings are.

These trees can grow up to 8 feet in height per year. They do not go dormant in winter, they just keep growing.
closeup.jpg

Does that wood have pockets of sticky resin/pitch like some of the other pines? The pitch is usually “set” by heating the boards in a kiln but I think it will eventually harden given air and enough time. I’ve sawn several local species of pine on my Woodmizer and had to periodically scrape the buildup of gunk off the bandmill blade.

[Edward Weber]

No "pockets", it does have pretty evenly spread out canals. No real issues with pitch sap at this point, well soon see.