Out of curiosity

[half]

splitting wood

in my experience some wood splits better wet than dry and visey versa. I always split blue gum green, when it is dry it is a pain. You may find some of your wood is the same, depending on breed it could split better wet or dry. So you have to factor that in to the discussion

 

[woodchuck357]

I noodle almost nothing. It's ax, maul, and wedges. The splitter has set

at my son's house, unused for three years.

Yesterday I split up some maple rounds that had multiple limb roots in them. Used maul for most and had to use a wedge toward the last of each round, but there WILL be noodles made to separate a few pieces.

I regulary split with ax and maul wood that most hydo splitters have trouble with. Stubborness and necessity contributed to me learning to split with an ax long time back. The wrist flick and tangent splitting were things I learned early, splitting in stacked tires is something recently learned that makes rounds come apart better.

Making heating wood is only part the reason I split by hand, gym type exercise is a bore but splitting is an exercise I can get into. I wear 5 lb wrist weights and 10 lb ankle weights most of the time I am splitting at home. Trying to keep the flabbies at bay and the pump functioning.:msp_thumbup:

 

[zogger]

at my son's house, unused for three years.

Yesterday I split up some maple rounds that had multiple limb roots in them. Used maul for most and had to use a wedge toward the last of each round, but there WILL be noodles made to separate a few pieces.

I regulary split with ax and maul wood that most hydo splitters have trouble with. Stubborness and necessity contributed to me learning to split with an ax long time back. The wrist flick and tangent splitting were things I learned early, splitting in stacked tires is something recently learned that makes rounds come apart better.

Making heating wood is only part the reason I split by hand, gym type exercise is a bore but splitting is an exercise I can get into. I wear 5 lb wrist weights and 10 lb ankle weights most of the time I am splitting at home. Trying to keep the flabbies at bay and the pump functioning.:msp_thumbup:

Yep, sport! All of it is fun, it is like several sports combined, the woodathalon!

 

[Blazin]

I've seen pics of yer mug, You're way too ugly to pass for a lady.:hmm3grin2orange:

Never said I wanted to try, I'll take the help though.....And I cook too

 

[stihl sawing]

Never said I wanted to try, I'll take the help though.....And I cook too

Well if it wasn't so far to nuu yawk i would come help.:msp_wink: But wait.. I can't bring no knife or gun and can't bring no sodas...eh nah, i'll cook here and drink a big gulp with it.lol :msp_razz:

 

[GeeVee]

Down here?

Swamp Chestnut Oak, Live Oak, Pignut Hickory unless its very green or quite dry. Hickory left in the log for a year? Good luck. I couldn't get my Fiskars to make a mark, let alone stick, in ANY round I cut last weekend.

FLH? If you come down for bike week, I'll stick a pair of 20" x 8' of trunk wood on your trailer for you next to your machina.

 

[whitepine2]

Hornbeam also called snag unsplitable it grows twisted and most times it just shreds. I always leave some alongside the road for crooks they only take it once,never come for seconds.

Whitepine2

 

[zogger]

Hornbeam also called snag unsplitable it grows twisted and most times it just shreds. I always leave some alongside the road for crooks they only take it once,never come for seconds.

Whitepine2

Man, I forgot about hornbeam! ya, I tangled with some of that in the olden days as well.

Here is wikipedia on hornbeam and old traditional usage, another name is ironwood

Hornbeam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[redheadwoodshed]

Swwet gum and piss elm. The hydraulic will split em but the maul will only bounce.

I never heard but a few people use piss elm, except they say it piss elum. Haha. I'm with you, piss elum and sweet gum. And bitternut hickory can be rather tough at times.

 

[NJ_Toolnut]

I agree, Red Elm is usually no problem splitting... most of it is pretty straight grained and "pops" open much like Red Oak. Admittedly, the splitting gets a bit tougher when it gets dry and hard... ya' need just a bit more force to get the split started, but it still tends to "pop". Now, American Elm is another story... that stuff can cause an 8# maul to bounce like it was made of rubber, even when swung by the largest behemoth of a man. American Elm will also "prove" a hydraulic splitter... forcing the machine to "work" during the full length of the split (and still leave the two pieces attached solidly enough you can not pull them apart).

One time, and one time only, in my young, dumb and bullet proof past, I split a large American Elm using wedges, sledge and maul... just one time, never again... I made myself a promise to never do it again... and I never have. It is the soul reason I have a hydraulic splitter, without it I would ignore American Elm like I ignore the people who hug trees.

Where do you find it??? Well, at one time, before Dutch Elm Disease, the American Elm grew near everywhere from the Atlantic to the Rockies... but now, east of the Mississippi, they're near extinct, and the further east you go the rarer they are. West of the Mississippi there are still some hold-outs; I have a couple (live) in my woodlot I couldn't put my arms around if they were twice as long as they are now... but DED has been making another run at them the last couple years, I do believe I will see the end of the (wild, non-hybridized) American Elm in my lifetime.

Yep! Grew up in NE lower MI where American elm was once one of the dominant bottomland hardwood trees. Dutch elm disease wiped out every single one of 'em in the late 1960s while I was in high school, including ten between 36-48" in diameter at the stump on our place. Watching them die was heartbreaking--they were gorgeous trees. My dad and I cut 'em and bucked 'em with an axe and two man crosscut saw, split 'em with ten pound maul and wedges, and burned 'em in the woodstoves in the garage and house. I grew up splitting the damned stuff.

Since then, I've split a lot of different northeastern hardwood species with a sledge and wedges, but none have consistently been as difficult to split as American elm. We used to wait for the rounds to freeze up hard--they split easier then. Try splitting a cross grained, twisted and burly sugar maple round and you will get some idea of what splitting American Elm was like. It had good BTU content, too.

 

[lone wolf]

Yep! Grew up in NE lower MI where American elm was once one of the dominant bottomland hardwood trees. Dutch elm disease wiped out every single one of 'em in the late 1960s while I was in high school, including ten between 36-48" in diameter at the stump on our place. Watching them die was heartbreaking--they were gorgeous trees. My dad and I cut 'em and bucked 'em with an axe and two man crosscut saw, split 'em with ten pound maul and wedges, and burned 'em in the woodstoves in the garage and house. I grew up splitting the damned stuff.

Since then, I've split a lot of different northeastern hardwood species with a sledge and wedges, but none have consistently been as difficult to split as American elm. We used to wait for the rounds to freeze up hard--they split easier then. Try splitting a cross grained, twisted and burly sugar maple round and you will get some idea of what splitting American Elm was like. It had good BTU content, too.

How is you back now?:msp_scared:

 

[NJ_Toolnut]

How is you back now?:msp_scared:

Ha! It sucks, but mainly from age-related arthritis and an old motorcycle injury rather than from abuse (I think). It still works OK, but it aches a lot in the AM before I get the stiffness worked out. I eat a lot of ibuprofen. I'm finally thinking about building a splitter.

 

[lone wolf]

Ha! It sucks, but mainly from age-related arthritis and an old motorcycle injury rather than from abuse (I think). It still works OK, but it aches a lot in the AM before I get the stiffness worked out. I eat a lot of ibuprofen. I'm finally thinking about building a splitter.

Yup motorcycle wrecks and picking up logs ruin you! Add a lyme infection from a tick and it starts to show! Funny how a tick is worse than the first two! Anybody have a lot of knee pain and stiff neck and don't know why? Watch those little bastards.

 

[NJ_Toolnut]

Yup motorcycle wrecks and picking up logs ruin you! Add a lyme infection from a tick and it starts to show! Funny how a tick is worse ten the first two!

Yep, Lyme is something to be taken very seriously. I always check myself after being in deer tick areas (almost everywhere outdoors in NJ) I caught it once, noticed the rash and went through a month of oxytetracycline treatment. I hope never to repeat the experience, but those deer ticks can be very small and hard to see. Hot, soapy showers after potential exposure have worked for me. Left untreated, it can certainly ruin you.

 

[lone wolf]

Yep, Lyme is something to be taken very seriously. I always check myself after being in deer tick areas (almost everywhere outdoors in NJ) I caught it once, noticed the rash and went through a month of oxytetracycline treatment. I hope never to repeat the experience, but those deer ticks can be very small and hard to see. Hot, soapy showers after potential exposure have worked for me. Left untreated, it can certainly ruin you.

And did you know they carry more than Lyme a couple other co- infections! http://www.lymedisease.org/lyme101/coinfections/coinfection.html Have you had any symptoms since?

 

[NJ_Toolnut]

And did you know they carry more than Lyme a couple other co- infections! Have you had any symptoms since?

Yes, I know deer ticks (as well as several other tick species) are vectors for quite a few other parasites, but I never experienced any symptoms (other than the initial Lyme rash) from the bite I received.

 

[FLHX Storm]

Thinks it's more of respecting a lady firewooder that can probably out work most of us..:msp_thumbsup:

I have my doubts that I could outwork any of y'all. I'm thinking it's about a 4 to one or 5 to one ratio. Y'all split 4 or 5 cord to my one! :msp_scared: But that's okay.

I do have an appreciation for respectful men, and most if not all y'all have been gentlemen even when I make some unintentional slip ups. N there have been a few badddd ones. :msp_smile:

 

[lone wolf]

I have my doubts that I could outwork any of y'all. I'm thinking it's about a 4 to one or 5 to one ratio. Y'all split 4 or 5 cord to my one! :msp_scared: But that's okay.

I do have an appreciation for respectful men, and most if not all y'all have been gentlemen even when I make some unintentional slip ups. N there have been a few badddd ones. :msp_smile:

Do you split by hand only or do you have a splitter?

 

[FLHX Storm]

I had to take a few days away from this place for a few personal things. But the worst was today. :msp_scared: I did my taxes! Even paid what I owed. I swear it was worse than felling a huge tree in the wind and having it fall someplace you didn't want it to go. But it's done n I'm sure the pain in the wallet will subside eventually. :msp_unsure: On the bright side, I do believe there is enough left over for me to purchase a new n bigger wood stove that has a bigger window! :msp_w00t:

 

[FLHX Storm]

Any big base cut is always hard to split. Then you have knots those are tough! Is the Op looking for harder wood to split or staying away from it I wonder? :msp_confused: I just through it in the chipper if it is that difficult.

Actually I'm looking for the hardest of woods so that I can round up at least a cord or so of that to keep me in shape for the rest of the year. Heck, I have a boulder sticking out of the hillside in back of the house that I want gone and I'm already planning to split it up with an axe. Not that it will work, but I have to at least try it after I remove the dirt n stuff from on top and around it. :hmm3grin2orange: I don't expect the axe to survive. (True Temper 4# splitting axe)