Wood ID / processing questions

[chaoticbob]

Hi. A couple of newbie questions...
I buy unprocessed firewood from a farm which has a huge pile of tree fellings in their yard. Sometimes there are quite substantial logs of stuff which seem (to my naive eye) too good to burn. The latest is this:

Questions are:
(a) can anyone identify the species from the pic? It seems to be a very dense, hard and close-grained wood.
(b) How does one process the stuff to make planks? It'll have been sitting on the (uncovered) woodpile for 18-24 months according to the farmer. Should I rip into planks, seal the ends and leave it inside for a while? Or something else? I have quite a bit of the stuff, enough for a small project if I can process it properly.
Robin.

 

[Beau]

For an accurate ID a better picture of the grain would help.

 

[Fitzroy]

If no one here can if it, go post it on arbtalk.co.uk, very knowledgable folks about all things tree.

Edit: Had an epifany. Based on wood colour and bark I'd say sycamore.

 

[duncanh]

What diameter is it? Sycamore generally doesn't get scales and tends to have smooth bark until it gets to a fairly large diameter - generally greater than 30cm.
Some better photos would be good, particularly of the larger pieces

 

[Beau]

If no one here can if it, go post it on arbtalk.co.uk, very knowledgable folks about all things tree.

Edit: Had an epifany. Based on wood colour and bark I'd say sycamore.

And you know on there the first reply will be from Steve asking for a close up of the end grain haha

 

[Cinimod]

I think a main branch from either Plane or Horse Chesnut....................dom

 

[hammer n nails]

Looks like horse chestnut to me!