Mystery tree / wood... Deciduous.. but smells of pine.

[mantispid]

I have a few trees on my property with rather rough bark, look kind of like locust superficially, but when cut the bark has a reddish color... and the wood isn't yellow like locust, but looks more like maple. It also smells of pine, which I find rather curious. It isn't an evergreen. The density of the seasoned wood is slightly lighter than locust, too.

Now when you try to burn it, it almost seems like it sucks in heat to burn rather than give it off. It seems to generate very little BTU energy.

Any ideas?

[SlopYourDripper]

Sassafras?
http://farmerrachel.hubpages.com/hub/Five-Types-of-Hardwood-for-Firewood
Scroll down a bit - pics and a description that matches yours.

[Ittiz]

How big are they? Sounds like Sassafras to me. It's a lovely tree, whose roots were traditionally used to make root beer. The new shoots are also yummy to nibble in the summer, they have a sweet lime like flavor with none of the tartness. If you have more around examine their leaves in the summer, which are a highly distinctive trilobate and bilobate mitten shape:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassafras

[Michael Greer]

Post a couple of pictures if you can. If it's Sassafras, it has other uses.

[mantispid]

Post a couple of pictures if you can. If it's Sassafras, it has other uses.

Definitely not sassafras. I use that stuff to *start* fires even when fully green. It is like it has fuel oil soaked into the wood. This stuff hates to burn.

This wood smells clearly of pine. Sassafras has its very unique scent, and I've used the roots of the young trees to make sarsaparilla.

[Michael Greer]

Could you be talking about tamarack or Larch? It looks like a dead spruce tree in the off-season, and gets new needles every year. I can't think of anything else that might smell like pine.

[Michael Greer]

OK, one other thought. Take a look at Kentucky Coffeetree on Wikipedia.