Wood ID help

[blackhawk]

I slabbed this log for a customer on Saturday. I have never seen anything like it. It is very light on the outside and nearly back in the center. I cut these at Claytor Lake, VA which is about 30 miles due north of Mt. Airy, NC as the crow flies. I didn't get a good pic of the bark, but the slab in the bottom left of the picture under the cherry slab is from the same tree and you can see the bark. The bark was lightish gray, not smooth but not rough either. Anyone know what kind of tree this was from?

 

[creasman]

Hard to be sure from the picture, but it looks like persimmon. Persimmon is in the same family as ebony and is (I think) the only such species native to North America.

 

[Graywolf]

Persimmon | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwood)
im not sure what you have exactly. Your first description I was leaning toward persimmon, but I can’t be one hundred percent. Check out the link.

 

[LocoWoodWork]

I just got three persimmon logs from a neighbor. The bark looks very similar to your image. Butt end looks yellowish but lacks the dark center. These appear to be very hard.

 

[Steve Martin]

I agree that it is probably persimmon. The kind of soil and its chemical make-up, direction tree faced as it grew and other physical circumstances might affect the darkness of the heart wood and how expansive it is.

 

[ncfromnc]

Disagree with persimmon. The bark is not rough enough. The bark is consistant with poplar and the black stain is consistant with poplar. Where persimmon does get some black 'heartwood' i have never seen it to this extent...usually very small black patches.
Liriodendron tulipifera fits best. Is the wood hard? or softer like poplar?

 

[blackhawk]

I was sawing like a mad man to try and get the job done, so I didn't pay much attention to the hardness. The slab chain cut through it pretty easily so I don't think it was extremely hard. Pictures of persimmon lumber seem darker than the sapwood of this log. I think the bark is closer to poplar as Neil mentions but I'm still not sure on poplar though. In my area, I have seen poplar with some black streaks but it has always been mixed with yellow and greens. This log had zero of the yellow and green colors. It was nearly snow white outside of the black center.

The lady that I cut these for is going to take me a better picture of the bark, so I'll post that in the next day or two.

 

[blackhawk]

Here are a couple more pics.

 

[creasman]

I'm switching my vote to Maple that has taken on some rot/discoloration. Does not look like Poplar nor Persimmon from these pics.