Driftwood aquarium safe?

Say a person collects some driftwood from a local beach (legally). After cleaning and soaking the piece, how would you determine whether it is safe to put in an aquarium or not? I understand that conifers/pines are a no no and can usually be identified by the scent. What are other species that should be avoided? And how can they be identified?

Hiya jrmakawoody! So nice to see another fellow Bremerton fish enthusiast!
usually, any kind of softwood driftwood is a no-go for aquariums. You can tell if it's softwood by digging your nail into the wood, if there's an indentation, then it's not good.

That's the only thing I can think of right now, but it's not a 100% way of determining if it's safe or not, just a good general rule of thumb.

I would stick with Malaysian wood, or Mopani wood that can be bought at petstores, I've had really good experiences with those types, they're heavy, so they sink to the bottom of the tank, and they leech tannins (which, I do like in my water. Others might think differently about tea colored water). Unfortunately, they can be pretty pricey... but totally worth it

Where in Bremerton have you gotten drift wood? I've tried looking around myself, and I've had no luck whatsoever finding anything that may be useful for aquarium usage...

I've collected driftwood before for aquarium use with no problem. What I did was boil the small pieces for 30 minutes, and the big pieces I baked @250 degrees for 2 hours while occasionally ladling water over the pieces to help get some steam action going. After that I put them into a large rubbermaid bin and fill it with water and a dose of prime and let it set for about 2 months.

I've heard soaking a log for 3-5 days and periodically pouring boiling water over it is a good way to sterilize. DO NOT bleach or soak in bleach, as the wood will absorb the bleach and leech it into your tank.

And as Poke mentioned, the thumbnail trick is a good way to test the wood for hardness. Any sappy wood like pine, maple, etc. is also bad for the tank, because of the sap.