OAK, easier to split green or seasoned ?

[preventec47]

I just brought home a couple truckloads of oak rounds up to 18 in in diameter. I do not have a functioning
splitter other than a maul, sledge and wedges and axe. On a green round about 15inches in in diameter, It took about eight good swings with an 8 pound maul to get it to split. ( three or four hits in the same groove ) I have been splitting wood for many decades and never came to any conclusions about this.
What are your opinions ? Since I am going to split at an old age manually, it is more important now.

 

[jolj]

I split mostly green, we hit the weather cracks & jackpot!
The biggest I have split was 48 inches, it was on the swamp road to the river & storm knocked it over on a pasture fence.
The land owner gave us 24 hours to harvest it & repair the fence. We worked from sun up till after dark moving the logs, 48" X 12", we rolled them up on the truck like tractor tires. It till a week to spilt all the wood, not counting the small limbs that where stacked up with out splitting.
But to answer your question, I would spilt it green, even if you needed a wedge.

 

[JAXJEREMY]

I'd agree with the above, generally green, but I think it also depends on the oak..some species is harder to split then others..Got some oak that came down in a storm a year or two ago, never saw anything like it, my wedge would barely even go into the round..Let it season and it split much easier..

 

[LondonNeil]

Every tree is different but I get a lot of English oak and find it's the most reliably easy splitting wood going. Green though... It's harder dry

 

[preventec47]

Well so far, one vote for green and one vote for seasoned.
Perhaps I could do a scientific test. I could take some long rounds
and cut them in half where each face would be indentical to the other.
I could split a few green ones now and record the effort ( how many swings )
and save the opposite face cut round a year and then cut them with same tool
and same body and see if they split easier or harder. I agree oak is one of the best
for splitting and that is why I decided to bring home some of the larger rounds
instead of just the smaller branch rounds ready for the fireplace.

 

[ElevatorGuy]

I’ve split a lot of green oak by hand, without knots it splits pretty easy. Idk about dry, my 30 ton doesn’t care either way.

 

[square1]

Green & preferably frozen

 

[buzz sawyer]

Sounds like you're starting in the center. Have you tried working from the outside inward? Often much easier to split this way.

 

[9050lx]

Turkey oak I can split one handed.Some hybrid live oak I gave up and noodled all of it.

 

[old guy]

At my old age I lay them on their side & rip em with a saw, much easyer.

 

[preventec47]

Sounds like you're starting in the center. Have you tried working from the outside inward? Often much easier to split this way.

You are absolutely correct ! I had forgotten about slicing off outer chunks first.
THANKS for bringing that up.

 

[Stihl User]

I just brought home a couple truckloads of oak rounds up to 18 in in diameter. I do not have a functioning
splitter other than a maul, sledge and wedges and axe. On a green round about 15inches in in diameter, It took about eight good swings with an 8 pound maul to get it to split. ( three or four hits in the same groove ) I have been splitting wood for many decades and never came to any conclusions about this.
What are your opinions ? Since I am going to split at an old age manually, it is more important now.

Red, Black and White are Good to Go Green

 

[windblown]

I split a fair bit of mostly Red Oak for the woodstove, 3+ cords most recently. My preferred method green and fresh! I like to use a splitting axe and spit it within hours of cutting the rounds. I can knock out more/faster with a spitting axe on freshly cut oak than I can knock out with a maul if the rounds sit for a couple of weeks, and forget about using a splitting axe at that point.

IMHO split it within a day or wait until it's dry (if it doesn't rot before that happens), or buy a gas powered splitter.

The round in the photo below is just a tad bigger than I like to split by hand but it's still doable with a splitting axe, no maul, no wedges needed - as long as it's freshly cut.

 

[Stihl User]

I split a fair bit of mostly Red Oak for the woodstove, 3+ cords most recently. My preferred method green and fresh! I like to use a splitting axe and spit it within hours of cutting the rounds. I can knock out more/faster with a spitting axe on freshly cut oak than I can knock out with a maul if the rounds sit for a couple of weeks, and forget about using a splitting axe at that point.

IMHO split it within a day or wait until it's dry (if it doesn't rot before that happens), or buy a gas powered splitter.

AGREE - as soon as it is cut = GO GREEN

 

[Okie]

Manually splitting :

You ever try couple of the big splitting wedges and a maul.
Had one of the big splitting wedges come flying out of frozen green oak once when I hit it with a big maul and the big heavy wedge glanced off my inside ankle bone. I went down like a wet wash rag. I was wearing thick leather top shoe with a thick sock. Would have been bad if ankle not protected somewhat by the high topped shoe. I still feel the pain when I think about such and even more so when I look at that wedge which I still have today. Was couple days before I went back to finish the job and that gave me ANOTHER GOOD EXCUSE to go buy a 37 ton wood splitter.

 

[dboyd351]

IMHO split it within a day or wait until it's dry (if it doesn't rot before that happens), or buy a gas powered splitter.

that is what I have found - either very green or very dry - not half dry

 

[Hermio]

I just brought home a couple truckloads of oak rounds up to 18 in in diameter. I do not have a functioning
splitter other than a maul, sledge and wedges and axe. On a green round about 15inches in in diameter, It took about eight good swings with an 8 pound maul to get it to split. ( three or four hits in the same groove ) I have been splitting wood for many decades and never came to any conclusions about this.
What are your opinions ? Since I am going to split at an old age manually, it is more important now.

Oak develops a lot of natural cracks as it dries. I would let it sit for a year. Then it becomes one of the easiest to split. For large rounds, split flakes from the outside in, rather than trying to split the whole thing in half.

 

[LuDookie]

Different oaks are completely different animals. Water oak splits easy green or seasoned. Maybe that’s why they love to fall.
Live oak is one of the hardest splitting woods there is. It’s almost impossible to split with an axe green or seasoned. I can split it pretty good if it’s 40 to 50 years seasoned with some good cracks forming.

 

[Zaedock]

F that. Green oak goes to the splitter. I'll use small pieces of ash to play axe man. My back thanks me every time.
I'll get my work out in the gym. Kudos to you dedicated maul guys.

 

[MFV]

Don’t know I split a lot of red oak live oak and post oak and I have the big wedges and a 16 lb sledgehammer it’s hard when it’s green and I think harder when it’s dry. Sometimes when I get a lot of it I rent a splitter from sunbelt it’s about 140$ for Saturday and Sunday and just knock it all out.