Huskee splitter meets its match

[philoshop]

A 16 - 18" Norway maple of all things. Lots of crotches though. 1970's city-planted yard tree. Remember 'urban renewal/removal/remedial'? Why not pick an invasive species?
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I didn't let it stall the engine, but it was heading that way. The wedge was more cutting than splitting.
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Backed the ram free and shuffled it around a bit to finish it up.
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Kinda surprised with this after all the nasty black locust i've been splitting for the last 7 months. Then again, the tree has only been down a few days. Maybe I should have let it sit a bit first? Relatively heavy stuff at only 25% green mc. I'm thinkin' it'll burn.:msp_thumbup:

 

[kyle23]

Any wood that has lots of big crotches like that I usually just tend to throw them in the bushes or not even take them if I can pick and choose. That's my take on it anyway...

 

[philoshop]

I would agree, except that it I had to haul it out of the guy's yard anyway. The tree was mostly crotches!
I got it split and it'll burn, so everything's good. Nastiest looking stack that I have though.

 

[Fifelaker]

That is the best burning longest lasting wood there is.

 

[Ronaldo]

I have been trying to not put the extra stress of crotches like that on the splitter. I have a perfectly good chainsaw that will slice right through the nasties.

Ron

 

[haveawoody]

philoshop,

I bet your wedge is getting dull.
I had to stop and sharpen mine the other day while splitting up a bunch of rock elm.
Dull it chugged away and struggled, sharp it was quite happy to cut right through the knots and crotches like they didn't exist.

Don't under estimate the power of Norway maple, it can be very tough wood at the crotches.
Like Ash Norway is usually a pleasure to split but when the knots arrive they both become nasty to split.
In other words if you kicked Norway maple in the crotch it would do nothing LoL

Worth the effort though to split everything and noodle what cant be split, Norway is 25.2 mbtu so way way up on the list.

 

[jthornton]

I noodle big crotches... that sure sounded funny when I read it back.

JT

 

[Streblerm]

A 3 cord score of Norway maple is what prompted me to go buy a splitter in the first place. The straight pieces split pretty easy but the twisted and curly pieces are another story. The wood came from an area with very sandy soil. They seemed to dull a chain in 2-3 cuts. That made noodling a slow and painful process.

I bought the same splitter and it has served me well so far. That Norway maple was some of the toughest splitting/cutting wood I have ever encountered.

 

[philoshop]

I noodled most the tougher stuff, just wanted to how the splitter would handle it. I don't normally try to kill the machine like that.
I'll try touching up the wedge. Thanks guys

 

[haveawoody]

philoshop,

I try to avoid noodling when I can, sometimes nothing else will work on the real nasty ones.
I bet after a quick wedge sharpen those Norway maple crotches won't seem to bad to split at all, and if they are the sharp wedge will just cut them in two.

 

[haveawoody]

Streblerm,

Yeah I feel sorry for anyone splitting Norway by hand.
95% of the day would be like splitting nice straight grain Ash, then the 5% of the day from hell LOL
I understand why some guys with no splitter leave the nasty Norway bits and take the rest.

 

[sb47]

I used to hate crotches and such.
But I have found a way to get most of them split without much effort.
Much of it depends on the wood but there is a way.

For your regular Y’s and T shaped pieces you can use the natural weakness and do the first split strait down the Y from the top down.
Depending on the angle of a T shaped round I do one of two things. If its strait out I cut it flush with the side of the round and split like normal.
If it has a fairly good angle I split off the T like I do a Y shaped piece.

If it’s a large Y shape I still split down the Y. once you get it apart you can see the grain and work from there.
Once I split a large round and have to halves, I take one half and turn it 180 and split from the bottom up.

If you look at the end grain it will usually have a natural split already started. Put your wedge in that natural weak spot and it will split much easer.

There are some pieces I just don’t mess with, there just too dangerous to fool with.


Remember to be watchful for how much pressure that’s building up in the ram.
If my piece of wood doesn’t start cracking “even if just slowly” I’ll keep going.
But if it just kinda stops and starts building up pressure but doesn’t seem to want to start cracking. I immediately back off and discard. That’s a bomb waiting to go off.

The 3 and 4 way crotches I tend to noodal them down with the saw first.

Be carful but give it a try.

Now if you bring my splitter to a dead stop, throw a piece of live oak in there.
That’s wood is tuff!

 

[Dirtboy]

I have been trying to not put the extra stress of crotches like that on the splitter. I have a perfectly good chainsaw that will slice right through the nasties.

Ron

Roger that!

 

[cantoo]

sb47 is right, there is always an easy way to split a crotch. I always split the Y's the long way. I helped a buddy who was suing my splitter earlier this summer and he was trying to split the flay way on the Y's, I showed him doing it the long way and he couldn't believe how easy it was. He's been splitting for years and never thought to do it that way. I bought split wood from a local old guy a few years ago and noticed he did all the nasties that way, I tried it and was surprised. Just because you've been doing it for years doesn't mean you've been doing it right ( or the easy way) I very seldom bog down my Speeco now.

 

[angelo c]

sb47 is right, there is always an easy way to split a crotch. I always split the Y's the long way. I helped a buddy who was suing my splitter earlier this summer and he was trying to split the flay way on the Y's, I showed him doing it the long way and he couldn't believe how easy it was. He's been splitting for years and never thought to do it that way. I bought split wood from a local old guy a few years ago and noticed he did all the nasties that way, I tried it and was surprised. Just because you've been doing it for years doesn't mean you've been doing it right ( or the easy way) I very seldom bog down my Speeco now.

excellent advice. Let the wood talk to you. use the splitter like a Axe or Maul "philosophically" and the machine will work and work happily. use you head not your muscle and you can work longer and faster.

I use my Supersplit like that and that is the only way.

 

[loadthestove]

Any wood that has lots of big crotches like that I usually just tend to throw them in the bushes or not even take them if I can pick and choose. That's my take on it anyway...

I'm the same, Hate to put all that undue stress on my splitter.