Wood Identification

[Hell Fire Grill]

Since we have a list of woods that are good and bad for smoking here at The Smoke Ring I thought it wood be a good idea to be able to Identify the woods and other plants as well. I have taken pics of the woods in and around my smoking wood shed that are common here in the North West and tryed to make a few notes also. There are a lot of woods that I dont have like Hickory and mesquite etc. that I hope you folks will add in your posts. I will add more pics after the leaves come out. Most of my info is from observation if I am missing any that is important to the ID of any of them please give me a haller.

This is my personal favorite and my neighbors always come over to see whats cooking when I cook with it.

Creasote log growing in a galvy bucket.


Fir is a good one.....to avoid.


Mountain Maple is a semi-hard wood that often grows in clumps from sucker roots each stem is up to about 8"thick and 60' +/- tall.


Big Leaf Maple The bark has many thin layers underneith and sometimes comes off while spliting. It has big burls with many small very sharp thorns, under the bark, that have drawn blood on me more than a few times usually on the finger tips or under the nails.



Vine Maple This is a large one here it usually grows crooked and leans over the underbrush.


Cherry has very thin very tough bark that needs to be scored before attempting to split unless you like hard work and replacing axe handles. The bark will peel right off when scored or rotton.Cherry has a nice sweet cherry smell before and during burning.



Black Walnut Please correct me if I'm Incorrect on this one. I found it about 5 years ago and have never used it.


White Oak This is seasoned wood. Some species have brown hart wood when its green that turns white when its seasoned.



Sitka Alder grows in clumps through sucker roots and turns red shortly after being cut. 6-8" thick and about 60' tall.This Alder is green.


Red Alder turns red when cut. Is very good for cooking although it burns fast and hot with little ash. Usualy never more than18-20" thick, 80' tall and rarely more than 35-40 years old. It likes to grow with its trunk bent towards buildings so can get more light does a fair amount of wind damage and likes to damage water lines and septic systems. Is prone to bug infestaion and gets punky / rotton in less than 1 year of being exposed to the rain after harvest, although its still good for the fireplace. This Alder is seasoned.



Ash Seasoned wood and the bark is a little dirty.



Peach The bark is about half the thickness of cherry and smells very simular.



Apple The bark on apple wood is often riddled with bug holes. This is a very hard and heavy wood with a great fruity smell that isent usually as strong smelling as cherry.


This is dry apple on top and green apple on the bottom.


Filbert/Hazelnut this species grows in clumps like a shrub and dont usualy get to be more than about 4-5" thick and maybe 20' tall with multiple stems that lean out in every direction to shade the underbrush. It adds a nice nutty earthy flavor to things.

[Smoke on the Horizon]

That is a great and hope it continues to grow with pictures and descriptions.

Thanks for taking time to put it togeather for us.
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[T00lman]

thank you very helpful
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[istock74]

Cool post. Thanks for taking the time to put that together!
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[Canadian Bacon]

Very cool post,all my woods buried under a tarp in a snow bank,I have to wait till spring to post some pics
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[k.a.m.]

First off your pics are very good American West, mine are not that good i hope they are good enough to see.

first is southern oak we had a limb that came down and split it up, it cooks about like white oak bark is a bit darker and the grain is allot tighter





next is mesquite that we cut on our deer lease a few years ago, i like to grill with it and will on occasion add it to a brisket smoke, thick bark red wood in the middle





next is my favorite pecan, bark about the same as oak silver in color not as tight grained as oak beautiful flavor





feel free to add any info ya ll want, these are the three woods i cook with around my place i am just not that great at describing stuff.

[k.a.m.]

I am sorry if i increased the size of your thread American West, I downsized all of those pics to MSG board size i don't know why there so big? if you like i will try to make them smaller.