What Kind Of Wood Is This?
 

I have a bunch of wood in my garage that I got from my Dad's woodpile after he passed away. All I have to go on is the bark, not sure what I have here. I live in Ontario, Canada.

There is some pine in the wood but I think these 2 are hardwoods:

http://i46.tinypic.com/2eujuhf.jpg

closer shot of type 1:

http://i46.tinypic.com/b6yix5.jpg

and a side profile of type 1:

http://i49.tinypic.com/3340th0.jpg

closer shot of type 2:

http://i48.tinypic.com/348or45.jpg

and a side shot of type 2:

http://i50.tinypic.com/2rcmws9.jpg

I spoke to my brother-in-law who was around when Dad did the cutting and stacking of the wood and he thinks type 1 is ash and type 2 is apple. I just looked on google images and think he has it wrong.

What I am planning to do is burn whichever wood I am going to use in my fireplace then use the coals in my offset smoker. There is some mold and or mildew on some of this wood so I will not use it for smoking raw.

I know I do not want any conifer tree wood to use at all and do not think what I have is that at all - but I cannot be sure. The wood seems very dense and heavy.

Any help at all wood be appreciated.

Looking at the first pic,the one on the left is definitely ash.The one on the right looks like maple.

Type 2 to me looks like a type of hickory. Likely Shagbark Hickory, not to be confused with Shellbark Hickory. The bark and groves between the bark are way to deep and random to be Ash. Ash has a much tighter and uniform bark pattern.

Type 1 is tough but is defiantly a fruit wood. Might be apple or cherry. Maybe plum.

I'm going with ash on the left and maple on the right. Atleast, that's how the ash and maple looks here in Maine where I live.

Of course, with you living in ontario hickory isn't an option :doh:. So I suppose the second best answer would be Ash. If it is, its got a pretty wide bark pattern for Ash.

Different regions produce many differences in the same species of wood. Soil content, weather...all kinds of variations play a role.

Yes, I know. :biggrin1:

Still, most Ash I've seen around here has a much tighter bark pattern. Probably just the different species though, along with the variable you mentioned.

Being from the Northwest, the one on the right would be ash. We have cut over a thousand down in the last two years. It is ingrained in my head. We have a wholesale tree nursery. The one on the left is a mystery.

Take a gander at this link (I just googled images for canadian ash wood bark):

Let me Google that for you...

The Google Image search I did came back with the left being ash and the right being ash, aspen, poplar, or maple. Good luck!

Thanks for all the help guys. I am going to use the ash to create coals (I will do this in the fireplace) then transfer those outside to the off-set smoker and use a mix of hickory and cherry to smoke my food. Some of the wood does have mould or mildew on it but this will be burned away and the coals should have no remnants of that material on it. I have never done this before (I had previously only used lump or manufactured charcoal) so I am kinda pumped to try this out.

I agree with my fellow Mainah, ash and maple.
Active mold or mildew means that your wood is wet, what I see is spalt, which is caused by a fungus that grows in wood in wet conditions. I can see it especially in the maple, indicated by those dark stains in the growth rings. If the wood is dry the spalt should cause no problems unless you are allergic to it. I have used spalted apple wood to cook with, with no ill effects or bad or "off" tasting meat, YMMV. For a while there was a bit of chatter on the forums about cooking with spalted wood, it seems to have died down.
I have included a link on spalting and fungus that give a lot of good info on the subject-
http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/...k-about-health

your nose knows. Do a smoke smell test with small pieces and a soldering iron. Like in cold smoking cheese. Then make your decision.

The one on the right looks like SOFT maple, not to be confused with HARD maple. Hard is much better for smoking.

If I had to hazard a guess I would say that the maple is red maple as opposed to sugar maple, which most call "hard" maple. I use red maple most often in my stick burning CharGriller and it works quite well, "soft" or not.