This pretty tree gets my attention every spring because of its beautiful blossoms. Outside of that, I hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about it before this year. Every year it blossoms first. The apple tree blossoms are not out yet and neither are the wild black cherry or the pin cherries. I didn't recall seeing any fruit on it so I figured it must be similar to the cherries in some way. My wild guess was Serviceberry and it turned out to be correct but I did have to look it up to be certain. Not seeing the fruit has more to do with the local bird population than their similarity to the cherries though. I may be able to get a little bit of the wood for hair sticks but it will be very limited.
While puzzling about one of the few trees in our woods that I hadn't positively identified yet, I wondered about the hardness and strength of the various woods I am working with. Some of them are a little out of the ordinary and the resulting information was a bit of an eye-opener in some cases.
Here is a list of the hardness values on the Janka hardness scale (Only the hardwood trees available in my neck of the woods are listed):
Black Willow 430 lbf
Speckled Alder Unknown but similar to the Black Willow
Red Osier Dogwood Also unknown but again similar to the Black Willow
Gray Birch 790 lbf
American Elm 830 lbf
White Birch 910 lbf
Red Maple 950 lbf
Black Cherry 950 lbf
Mountain Ash 1210 lbf
White Ash 1290 lbf
Apple 1730 lbf
Serviceberry 1800 lbf
lbf is short for pounds of force. The higher the Janka hardness test number the harder the wood is. After carving seasoned Applewood, I wasn't surprised at its high score. I didn't expect it to be even harder than Rock Maple which comes in at 1450 lbf. There are two species of poplar growing in the woods here but I haven't checked them out very closely. They don't have good strength and they aren't very good firewood. I'll check them out more closely sometime in the future.
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