Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Help with identifying wood species

I’m focusing on this pic the OP posted

Tight, clear grain.

Compared to both white and red oak beams of similar age and size, it is lighter.
Lighter would apply to both physical weight and wood density

Man that is some pretty stuff. That’s POST blight lumber. Fairly heavy stuff in comparison to softer woods.
I think the OP mentioned the beam he had didn’t feel to dense. And from the sawed picture, I am gonna go with a softer, moisture-bug resistant wood like a cedar or Cyprus too.

Looks a whole lot like Beech to me based on that photo.

That’s the pic that I made my final guesstimation with.

That reflective ‘sheen’ midways down on the right sells me in for or cypress



But...just my opinion and what my eyes are seeing.
Ask 20 people get 20 different answers

Nothing against it, just trying to do ones best via a picture. If I could hold it and gouge a fingernail into, any of us could make a more educated stab at it.

I’m still thinking longleaf pine. It was almost like oak. They made lots of large beams out of it. It covered most of the southern states. Logged out by the 1920’s.

In 1900, Southern Yellow Pine was what concrete blocks are today.
Twenty years ago they tore down an old cotton mill in Macon Georgia. The thing was timber framed with giant 16x16 yellow pine timbers.
They set up a sawmill in the corner of the plant, and they would cut you whatever kind of plank you wanted. Heart pine.
This mill had been built in 1880.
My buddy and I went over, he got some 2x4s and some 1x12s to build some stairs with.

I counted the growth rings in one of those beams, and it went back at least 220 years. These giant trees were growing a century before the American Revolution.

Maps are not wrong. But... A lot of chestnut came down the Ohio made carrying people and belongings to get to Missouri on the way west.

Same piece of cut-off... two sections fast sanded to 180
Pictures pretty much suck but they are the best I can do for now

The fact that it was a load carrying beam, and the flat sanding, vs. Developing ridges in the slow growth sections suggest to me that it is not pine or cedar.

If a lot of trees are growing in an are where the barn stood I've gut my doubts about imported or shipped wood. Maybe for a wealthy persons home but not likely a barn as long as trees were close by.

In the hand hewn, mortise & tenon days, logs usually came from no further away that you'd want to drag one with a team of horses. Other than Chestnut, which is gone, look around the area where the barn stood & see what trees stand now.

These are the recommendations of some of the local historians when questions arise as to the construction of original log homes that dot the area.

Southern Yellow Pine is very good for beams. Look up the charts, it is as strong as oak in the beam configuration.

Kind of looks like cotton wood to me. Long leaf pine is rather heavy. Sycamore is also heavy. Poplar and cotton wood is a lot lighter in weight. I never used cypress so can't comment on that, but lack of bug holes could be a clue.

Cottonwood would not be good for a beam.

You sure know a lot about wood. Do you happen to have any extra stocks laying around?

Thanks for taking the time to sand those pieces. Definitely not oak or chestnut. Grain is very plain and uniform.

It might just be southern yellow pine: Southern yellow pine (SYP) consists of four major species: loblolly, slash, longleaf and shortleaf. ... This fast-growing species produces some of the strongest wood in North America. Structural uses, such as roof trusses and decking, are the more common uses for this wood.

Lets say it is yellow pine. Easy to google what is similar.

Its not Pine or youd smell it,,same as Oak,, its not osage orange,persimmon or wild cherry or pecan, Cypress is not common in the area OP says it comes from, chinqupine or post oak usually has a twisted grain Not Hickory either,, chestnut ,Ash,elder is best bet

I’m curious to know what it is!!

Can you dig a fingernail into it and gouge it pretty easy?