Need Mystery Wood Identification

[BobD]

Hornbeam would make sense because another term for hornbeam is ironwood (because of it's weight and density).

Bob

[Forester21]

Ash leaves come in what looks like 5 leaves to a stem rather than individual leaves, and like mentioned has a helicopter type fruit.
Beach bark is very smooth, grey colored.
My first thought was choke cherry - but not quite. That bark would be a reddish brown color (at least the ones in my yard).
Could be ironwood like Bob D suggests - don't remember what the fruit of the ironwood looks like.

[William Young]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

I am familiar with both beech and ironwood from when I lived out east in another life and it is not either one of those. I would recognize the bark of both of those immediately.

I have had a lot of suggestions on my own site as well and the closest I have seen yet seems to be Red alder . There is also a mountain alder but it is a smaller bushilike tree whereas the red alder is the tall one as shown here.

Tree Book - Learning to Recognize Trees of British Columbia

The jury is still out on it though and we will have a better idea of what it is after I take some pictures when I go back this afternoon to cut it up.
Was in town all morning so will go with chainsaw this afternoon to where the fallen tree is if I can handle the heat in the heatwave we are experiencing .
Pictures to follow later in the day.
W.Y.

[Pajaro]

this is harder than tying to identify the mystery meat at the school lunch serving line.

William have you seen any books on Texas tree identification?

[William Young]

this is harder than tying to identify the mystery meat at the school lunch serving line.

Ya . . it's pretty hard to identify road kill after it is skinned and boiled or fried.

W.Y.

[minowevie]

being in calif usa. I know this wont be the one. but it looks kinda like flowering pear hear. just thougt I would throw that in, HaHa. your friend Evie

[William Young]

OK, I got over there after lunch and with second look discovered the diameter was not as big as I thought it might be. This time I measured and it is only 9" across at the bottom.
I am not sure if the fairly smooth bark would lend itself to some small natural edge bowls or not . I prefer a coarse bark for that. I might chainsaw a few along the pith and try it anyway. The rest will probably be firewood.
It is not as heavy as I expected either so the owner may have been comparing the weight to the evergreen trees that grow around here which are quite a bit lighter.

Here it is where the wind blew it over.



Here is the tall clump of trees that it came from



Here is all the wood salvaged from it one hour later and unloaded off the truck onto my lawn.



Closeups of the bark.
Some of the bottom pieces were starting to get hollow in the middle
Now I will salvage what I can for turning and split and pile the rest for firewood. The price was right as in Free.





I am still leaning toward Red Alder but still not certain.

W.Y.

[minowevie]

that grows like a birch or aspen huh. but the leaves are differant. mm waiting for the results. your friend Evie

[William Young]

I just had to try it so I split a log in half. Didn't have much shop time because we had visitors most of the afternoon but I still got some fun shop time before 5.00 PM.
These two little roughed out bowls are only 5" and 6" in diameter and came out of one half of one of those 16" length firewood logs so I can get four bowls per log. . .
The coloring contrast and pattern between the sap wood and the heart wood is awesome and a nice red color which leads me to believe that it really is red alder but I am not saying that it is for sure just in case someone can prove otherwise.
It only takes about five minutes to hog out small bowls like that on my lathe with green wood using my shop made Oland tool producing piles of long curly shavings. . Small NE bowls sell very well at craft sales. Actually better than the bigger ones. What this wood lacks in decorative bark appearance I think makes up for it with the nice coloring and grain pattern in the wood.
These two are rough turned and are now soaking in alcohol for 24 hours . Then with the brown paper wrap procedure they will be dry and ready for finish turning in about two weeks . In the meantime I will make a bunch more of them and even try a few regular shaped bowls along with the natural edge ones but the N E ones sell the best. . It is coloring in wood like this that attracts people at the craft sales .
W.Y.





That was a good afternoon . Got some nice free wood and tried it out for turning and found that the pieces suitable for turning will produce some extra cash and the rest will help heat my house this coming winter.
I will definitely take my neighbor a bowl made from this wood when they are finished.
W.Y.

[lucky788scroller]

After the post with the little berries, I was almost positive it was choke cherry, but the firewood pile doesnt resemble choke cherry at all.The roughed out turnings look nice though. Just take the roadkill and put it to good use, thats what turnings all about!!!!