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OT Identifiy firewood

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Kickinbull

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I cut up some trees from our woods recently. One I am trying to figure out what it is. It had bark on it simular to ash. The inside was blonde with a small darker color heart. It was tough to split. I mean nasty. I finally hired the neighbor with his HD homemade splitter. The stuff was very stringy,splintery and hard to get apart. Finally got it done. Any guesses as to what kind of tree?
 
Ulmus Americana ??? LOL ! American Elm ? What you describe sounds like it.

Splitting it green or wet by hand is a real chore, best to buck it and let it dry down. Even then, like you said, hard to get apart.

If using a hydraulic splitter, seems to work better if you work around the outside of the log, take thick planks off, following the grain and please do have a sharp hatchet nearby, use that with care, but it will make short work of separating it. Some of the elm may have straight grain, depends on the tree, but much of it is spiraled and twisted. I don't mind splitting it, just takes longer, and I have noticed larger seasoned pieces are nice in the stove. Hopefully that's what it is, I have seen the dark center in it, could be something else, but elm sure does exactly what you describe when splitting. I've burned mostly elm this year so far, not bad, like maple or oak better, but I won't let any of it go to waste if at all possible.
 
I'll take any compliment I can get! ;)

I remember splitting wood by hand as a kid or just after being a kid, when the 5th wedge was buried in the block and we only had 5, then what.... That stuff really hangs together, elm was the most common hardwood around here until the Dutch Elm, still some left around here.

Paul
 
Yep, the only species of wood that I've found my splitter will struggle with once in awhile. A few left in my part of MN too, but I noticed quite a few of those look like they are dying off this last year or so.
 
Description would also fit cottonwood, around here. I've never tried to split any, because it makes the worst firewood in the world, so I never cut any. Did have a couple of big logs (24" or so) from land clearing that I gave to the neighbor, but he had to finally give up on it- buried every wedge both he and I had.

I was finally able to give it to a small local sawmill, but the guy told me DON'T put them in the mill pond- they sink!
 
Ultra Dog,

My dad used to go to New Ullem, MN - rather than New Ulm, like the rest of us. :)

Any chance your dad is of German heritage and they spoke it at home growing up? That is why my dad pronounces a few words oddly.
 
I think it's a regional thing.

Nearly everyone in my area pronounces it elm, but I have a close friend who knows more about wood and woodworking than anyone else that I know who pronounces it ellum.

Dean
 
Sounds like elm to me also. The stringiness and hard splitting characteristics gives it away. The color you describe sounds like the swamp elm we have here, a variety of American Elm.
 
Having split enough wood myself I'd have to chime in and say it sounds to me like Elm. It's tough to split, and stringy as heck, but it burns long and hot, so it's worth the trouble in my opinion.
 
Sweetfeet,
No my dad was one of those stubborn Frenchmen.
One of a few in a sea of Swedes and Germans around Aitkin.
He was the oldest child and barely spoke English till he started first grade.
 
I read the posts below, and elm has much corser bark than ash. It also has a very noticable foul odor when being split.I would sooner think you cut some iron wood or "hardhack" as we call it. It will only grow to around 12" in diamiter at the stump though, and very stringy to split. It burns like coal, very hot and long lasting. I cut a lot of it for firewood.
Loren, the Acg.
 
I'm gonna split from the herd and say it sounds like pignut hickory with the small dark center,.I've come across some of it that was a bear to split
 
I would say elm. I have some here that we cut last summer and it is the worse stuff to split. I have my wood processer running off my skid steer and it made that get right down and grunt to cut and split it. This was growing by a creek and we cut off about an acre of it. I kinda wish I would have left it growing
 
I'll go with the hickory as well, I had 2 nearly identical trees I split a couple of weeks ago, both hickory, both the same size and color wood.

One split like a dream, I think that one was the shagbark. The other split like the original poster describes. I only got it done by hand because it was straight with few knots. Not sure what variant of hickory it was.
 
We have a lot of Chinese elm around here, but it's actually Siberian elm. Some of it splits nice, some of it you can't split til it's set and dried for 6 weeks or better. Would probably take longer where you are, as it's quite dry here, average rainfall around 20 inches.
I can cut late in the spring, and burn it in the fall.
Cottonwood has a courser bark yet, tends to smooth out toward the end of branches, and much larger leaves. Elm has small leaves.
 
(quoted from post at 16:03:02 02/13/14) I cut up some trees from our woods recently. One I am trying to figure out what it is. It had bark on it simular to ash. The inside was blonde with a small darker color heart. It was tough to split. I mean nasty. I finally hired the neighbor with his HD homemade splitter. The stuff was very stringy,splintery and hard to get apart. Finally got it done. Any guesses as to what kind of tree?
Click to expand...

Not sure what it is either but it sucks. And burns stinky.
I live in east central KY and have some of it.
It has leaves like Walnut.
Mine is for sure not elm.
It is like splitting glued together cotton.
 
Dad said they spoke only German at home... until WWII came - then they learned to improve their English really quickly.
 
Sounds like a variety of hickory. Pignut or mockernut perhaps, but not shagbark. It can be really tough and stringy and have a small dark center and otherwise very light color. The hickories will grow in the woods. I haven't really seen many elms in a woods; they seemed to prefer the edges of fields or along roads or fence rows. Both elm and hickory burn decent when well seasoned. We heated our house in New York almost exclusively with dead elm when I was a kid in the 70's. I used to split it by hand with wedges and a 6 lbs sledge. Also operated the lever on the splitter my Dad, uncle and neighbor built together. It ran off the hydraulics of my uncle's John Deere tractor. Later they put it on a trailer with a Wisconsin engine. Good memories!
 
Smells just like sileage, for a good while, then no odor at all. Area around my stacks reeked for quite some time this year. Been keeping me warm this year so far.
 
Need more info, other than just the bark looks like ash, and it's blonde wood. Leaf shape? put a picture up, and you will get a lot closer to satisfaction...
 
judging by your description, here, sounds like alanthus, AKA tree of
heaven. Not sure if it's the same as the OP's wood, but he didn't
mention the leaf shape or the odor!
 
Elm.

When I was a kid we didn't have a wood splitter. We used to rip the stuff about 3/4 of the way through with a chain saw and the stuff barely split then. Used to saw it through with an old Muck-a-luc 325 gear drive. That was almost as bad as splitting it with wedges. Pop never really apperciated my sugestion that we bore a hole in the blocks and use dynamite to split em. Some people have no sense of humor. Sure wish I had my 385 Husky back then! And you are right. The darned stuff doesn't even split that good with a wood splitter. Decent fire wood if it's dry though.
 
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