Can anyone identify this wood?

[longbarrel50]

I'm taking down an old barn on my property. It is in poor shape and the roof collapsed. It was built circa 1890. I live in western New York and we used to have quite a bit of American Chestnut trees. We still have a few in the area that have survived, some from regeneration from the roots, others that just were resistant to the blight.
Anyway, I pulled a piece of wood from one of the beams and planed it. I was sure it would be oak, but now I am not. The end grain does not resemble any oak that I know of. Can anyone identify it? I would salvage what I can if could be Chestnut. Otherwise, most of it will be burned.
Thanks for your help. I also posted this in the hand tool forum
Chris

[wing nut]

doug fir

[JGrout]

SWAG Ash

or hickory

[Phil S.]

Always seems like a long shot, IDing wood from photos, unless it is glaringly obvious, and usually it isn't. Here's a couple of links that might help to sort out if it is chestnut though-

http://web.utk.edu/~mtaylo29/pages/Ident...estnut.htm

http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-iden...-chestnut/

Good luck!

[Steve N]

Can't really see the bark well enough, but this is a pic of riving strips off an Ash log.




Ash properties


Ohhhh based on what I see I say Ash, probably White.


Just to throw in most barns were built close to a convenient area and the closest wood that was destined to be cleared was used for the construction. Hopefully one of them would be a wood that could tolerate ground penetration simply from a rot standpoint. Beams, and structure, as well as siding would be whatever was left. It was rare you found a "Chestnut barn" unless all the trees there were Chestnut. Dragging logs is heavy work, and most of those guys were simple farmers, not timber framers. They just wanted something up to put tools, and animals, and harvested crops into

[Bill Holt]

Pine / Fur ... I bought some reclaimed lumber from a New England factory built in 1886. Spent last week milling it to size and it looks exactly like your pictures. They sold it as "old growth pine". It smells like pine and mills like pine.

[Gary G™]

Would help to also see face grain but the end grain looks like pine or fir.

[longbarrel50]

The picture is of a piece of a main beam. There is no bark on it. It is just dust and dirt.
This piece came from a rotted beam and is quite dry.
I do not see any pores or fleck in the end grain. I'll get another piece and see if I can get a better photo of the face grain. It doesn't look like pine or fir to me, but I'm not that knowledgeable in identifying wood. The rings sure are tight in this piece.
We do have a lot of ash in the area now, well that a may not be true as the emerald ash borer is killing many trees. I'm not sure what the major species was in 1890. I do agree they would have used what was on hand. These are all hand hewn beams.
These beams are over 20' long and 8 to 10" square. You don't see that today very often.

Thanks for every ones input.

Chris

[TomFromStLouis]

As mentioned above, this can be a bit of a guessing game. You could help us by telling us how it works. Ash is heavy like oak and certainly harder than most pines and firs. Those softwoods will have a greater contrast in hardness between the annual early wood and late wood. And pine and fir are more scented, even after years. So take a plane or chisel or gouge to your sample and tell us about the experience.

Either way, I would try to hoard some larger clean chunks. Big old thick dry wood is useful stuff.

[Gary G™]

Ash is open grained similar to oak, pine and fir are not.