I sawed a couple hundred BF of who knows what.

[Part_Timer]

2 weeks ago a friend of mine offered me 2 nice logs free for the taking.  When I went down to get them he told me they were red elm.  My last experiance with red elm was not so good but what the heck they were free, and I haven't had a good beating in awhile.

Well when I started to cut them I knew it weren't elm.  This wood has large growth rings.  It had no tension in the logs what so ever.  It cut very fast and easy, more like sycamore.  I even let some lay out on the trailer in the sun to dry, but no bow or twist, and it dries FAST and has almost no weight.  That sure leaves out elm.

So I did what any good miller would do I called a couple of friends that used to be millers to get an opinion.  A lot of help they were.   ;D ;D : : :  3 guys and 3 different opinions. 

I figured if I posted a couple of pics i'd get about 300 opinions here but I'll try anyway ;D ;D

Here is the guess so far.
cotton wood
basswood
catalpa
willow( my guess)


I sure don't know what it is but I'm sure I can find something to do with it.

[SCSawyer]

Is the pic. of the wood sawn dry or wet ?

[Part_Timer]

It's fresh sawn.

[DanG]

I'm thinkin' it's Catalpa.  Whatever it is, it's pretty stuff.

[TexasTimbers]

I don't know what it is but when you find out I want to know. I love the characteristics you have described.

[Robert Long]

Hi Part_Timer ;)

I will use the process of elimination!

It is not cotton wood..Cotton wood is whiter wood and the bark is thick with deep crevices.
It is not Basswood...Linden is a creamy yellow wood, soft with unnoticeable grain (carvers wood)
It does not look like catalpa (at least that Pic). The grain is usually not as pronounced and the wood is a more green brown.
It does not look like willow...as it is irregular in colour and texture and the wood is stringy so the saw dust would show long shavings, not the dusty sawdust in the pics and the bark is heavy textured

Now.....what is it?
???
By the look of the bark it could be walnut, butternut,or even bitternut.
The wood in the pic does have the look of these same trees but if it were walnut you would know by it's distinctive smell.
More pics are needed and did you have a chance to see the leaves?

Robert

[Tom]

I vote for one of two.  The wood looks like willow and the bark looks like black willow.

Thee is the chance that it could be mulberry.  Mulberry wood on older trees is red like that but it takes a really old tree to have a bark that rough.

Whatever it is, it is pretty.

[Robert Long]

Tom;

I too was thinking mulberry but the wood in the pic looks small or narrow as you can see sapwood both on the top and bottom of the pic so I ruled out older trees.

Now I will have to go out back and look at the pile of mulberry. ;D

Robert

[WDH]

Can you take a close-up pic of the end grain?

[Dodgy Loner]

It doesn't really look exactly like anything I've seen before.  The bark doesn't look flaky enough, and the furrows look to dark, for that to be willow.  The texture of the bark resembles catalpa, but again, the furrows look too dark, and the wood is a little bit too reddish in color.  The bark also resembles walnut, but again, the wood is too reddish, and the sapwood is too narrow.  Cottonwood and basswood don't have wood that is that dark.  I'm going to have to agree with WDH-this won't be resolved without a close-up of smoothly cut end grain.

[LeeB]

I say chinaberry. Is it pinkish brown with the sap wood running from yellow next to the heart wood to white on the bark side?

[Husband]

I have no idea????? ???
But who cares.......it was wood! 8)

[Part_Timer]

I'll try and get a pic tonight of some end grain.  I'll also take a pic of the end of one of the cutoffs and some of the flat sawn lumber.  I'm going to go back down this week sometime and see if Forest (no kidding that is the guys name) left the top down by the river or if he burnt it already.  Maybe the top will be there with some leaves left and we can figure this out.

I know it's not walnut, and the bark is nothing like the catalpa that grows around here.  I have never seen butternut though, so maybe.   I don't think it is mullberry, the trunk was 24' and dead straight, I've not seen any that nice in this neck of the woods. I have never seen china berry before. The sawdust is misgiving, I had the micro kerf on and get lots of very fine sawdust and lots of long curls at the same time.

If the pics don't help then there is only one solution

I'll bring some to the hog roast for a whatsit.

[Part_Timer]

I think husband is closest.

[WDH]

Looks a lot like sassafras.  But it was, you would probably would have been able to smell that distinctive smell.

[Kelvin]

If you had said it smelled liked a hallmark shop when you cut it i'd say it was sassafras as well.  Color looks right, and grain.  Real soft and light.  I think that rules out any nut trees.

[Sawmill_Bill]

I will throw out the possibility of Kentucky Coffee tree.  I have sawn one that looks just like the grain and color in the picture.

[TexasTimbers]

Can't wait to hear more about a Kentucky Coffee Tree.

[Greenskeeper]

I think its Willow,we did some last week.I have no idea what to do with it, it sawed vary easy.

[Squirrell_Boy]

Need more pictures...need more pictures. It does not appear to be Kentucky Coffee Tree to me. It can be a brilliant orangish to red or very Cherry like in color. It's not really soft or light either. Very beauiful wood when you find a good tree.

[MikeH]

  Put down $5 for me on butternut!

[Aroostooksawyer]

I vote for Butternut.

[Part_Timer]

 


Here are a couple of the photos you asked for.  I'm going to my tree book to look up butter nut, but I think I'm going to go with Tom on this one. 

One thing I forgot.  Zac was there when I was sawing it and he said it smelled jut like oak  ???  I agree but I've never sawed any oak that soft. I'm sure that helps a bunch don'y it. ;)

[Furby]

Was the bark stringy?

[dad2nine]

That looks a lot like black willow to me, but what do I know?