What am I looking at here?

[Scott Luallin]

Grabbed 3 BIG chunks of this from the wood pile at the recycle center. I am no arborist, so unless I know the actual source of the wood, can see the leaves, or it is REALLY obvious sometimes I can't tell.

Anyhow, phone app says cherry. We don't have a ton of cherry around here (or if we do it gets grabbed up quick from my source) but wanted some opinions.

thanks all!

--Scott

 

[Brian Gustin]

Easy way to tell, cut a slice off one end and give it a sniff test - cherry's pretty distinctive sweet cherry odor when freshly cut, but judging from the tannin stain and the bark, it could well be cherry, it appears

 

[Scott Luallin]

Thanks! I will have to enlist my wife for that test. I cannot smell! (haven't smelled a thing my entire life)

--Scott

 

[William Rogers]

You can also sand a piece of end grain and take a 10X photo with your phone and compare on the Wood Database.

 

[Lou Jacobs]

From the small horizontal lines on the bark it does look like a cherry to me. Maybe not black cherry (Prunus serotina), but maybe an ornamental cherry of some variety. The piece behind it in the top photo looks like it could be elm to me, but that’s just a guess. Ask your wife if it smells like piss!

 

[Richard Coers]

It’s quickly becoming firewood with no end treatment and all those cracks forming.

 

[Scott Luallin]

Yep! Took these pics when I got home after I salvaged these. Anchorseal since applied Cracks don't look like they are too deep so hopefully will be worth turning.

 

[Tim Connell]

Could also be honey locust. To check, use a black (UV) light and check for fluorescence. Honey and black locust will both show a bright yellow to yellow green.

Additionally, while your wife is sniffing, honey locust to me smells like warm spices, kind of like mulling spices.

 

[John K Jordan]

I strongly agree - look at the end grain.
Follow the instructions in section 7 here:

Wood Identification Guide | The Wood Database

www.wood-database.com

I wouldn't sand, since that can fill open pores and hide small pores, rays, and parenchyma, the wood database article tells about this. All that is needed is clean end grain and a small magnifier lens.

You can use a sharp knife to prepare the end grain but I find a single-edge razor blade better, as recommended in R. Bruce Hoadley's book "Identifying Wood". I buy them in packages of 100!

Only a small sample of end grain is needed, enough to examine two or three rings. I usually cut a piece just big enough to hold.

If the choice is between the guesses cherry and locust, for example, examining the endgrain would make that easy - cherry is distinctively diffuse porous while locust (honey or black) is ring porous. The black locust has pores chock full of easy-to-see tyloses, honey locust doesn't. Both fluoresce green under UV light and cherry doesn't. (I use 365nm UV flashlights.)

The bark looks far more like cherry than locust, but bark can be highly variable on different trees, different parts of the same tree, how it grew, if it was damaged at some point.

Or just cut it up, see how much good wood remains, and turn it! Call it "tree wood"

JKJ

 

[Cary Hulse]

Looks like sweet cherry (Prunus avium) to me.
And I agree, it will smell like cherry when it's cut if it is green.