help: how to identify cherry, apple, pear wood

R

rg02

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found an add on the local craigs list for free wood for smoking. i have no idea how to identify wood types, i have always bought them from the local firewood store already cut in chunks. picked up quite a few limbs of what the people said should be cherry, apple, peach, or pear. i have no idea what i got and if it is safe to smoke. does anyone have a website they know of that has pictures to identify different types of smoking wood?:confused: i will try and post some pics of what i got when i get home from work later today........

any help is greatly appreciated!:hail:
 
I had a similar situation recently...found it on CL, said it was cherry wood (downed in storm). Loaded up the back of my car with a bunch of nice sized pieces on the way in to work that night. I checked on the listing the next day to see if I could grab some more, but the listing had been changed to say it was a mix of cherry and box elder. Now I'm not sure what I've got, and if it'll be ok to use.
 
Cherry bark looks like pine bark a bit. The real give away for cherry is the color of the heart wood. It should be a salmon pink color.
 
Black cherry bark-

wildcherryccarter2.jpg


black cherry wood-

wildcherryccarter4.jpg


Does any of yours look like it?
 
This is what I got:
D9C7649C-90C7-4497-9ECF-11CD58B92857-556-0000004E55FA92F7.jpg


EAE7A497-CE05-4EBE-AE32-4540DD61EFE6-556-0000004E4DA5D8D3.jpg


BA387C38-7A5A-46D2-A21E-FBD7B508013F-556-0000004E53D1BA74.jpg


Crappy pics --- hope someone can identify what i got! :)

I can get more pics if needed
 
Safe to say that you didn't get any black cherry. It all looks like fruit wood IMHO, the two larger pieces to the front of the pile look to be cherry of some sort. Burn some, "if it smells good, it is good" is a good rule of thumb.
 
Sweet! Gonna give it a whirl tomorrow on some wings and maybe a chuckie
 
Another vote for apple there. When in doubt, make a fresh cut and use your nose; cherry has a distinct almond/cherry scent, hickory and oak have a nutty smell, apple is a little trickier, but the bark helps identify it. Usually young apple is reddish brown (like the photos) and ages to gray, lots of knots and if they are from an orchard, scars from trimming.
 
Hard to tell what it was . I don't have a keen sense of smell lol. I'm thinking it was apple, hard to say though----- I posted a post on my first chuckie and have pics of product there--- before I let it rest it turned a little mahogany so maybe it was cherry?
 
Black cherry also has a very dark bark when young. The wood in the photos is some variety of Prunus, but not Prunus nigra (black cherry). There are several Prunus varieties. Apricot, cherry, etc. A quick Google search will hit the nail for you.
 
I looked at prunus rosaceae aka purple leaf plumb ----- seems smaller twigs look red.... Thoughts?
 
Think I was smokin something thinking it was plumb. Checked out google some more and it looks like apple!
 
rg02 said:
So prunus is cherry?
Click to expand...

Prunus is the genus that the various cherry trees belong to, Malus is the genus that apple trees belong to. They, and the other fruit trees fall under the family of trees called Rosaceae(roses are in this family,too). This link is to a site that I find helpful, it will take you to the "hardwood" section of the site and there is a search function.

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/biglist_frame.cfm

After looking again at your pics I think that you do have cherry. The horizontal "dashes", called lenticels are very indicative of cherry and the reddish color of the bark is also an indicator of cherry. To the best of my knowledge apple bark does not have lenticels.
I also think you may have at least two sticks of apple, the one closest the cooler and the one farthest away from it.
 
Apple has a very thin, tight bark. Def not cherry looking at the cut piece. Probably apple. Best wood out there!
 
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