Shag Bark Hickory Is Tuff Stuff!

[flashhole]

I don't know how anyone can split shag bark hickory with an axe. I've been using my tractor mount hydraulic splitter powered by my 30HP Kubota. The wood (storm felled trees) was cut into short lengths early last year. My hydraulic splitter splits it just fine but this wood is sinewy, stringy and tough. No wonder they use it for axe handles. Oak, maple and cherry are nothing compared to this stuff.

Is there anything tougher to split?

 

[redoakneck]

twisted elm!!!

 

[blades]

Twisted & Knotted ELM would be a close runner.

 

[DIESELBOB]

Tough to split but it is my favorite heating wood. Burns hot and leaves a great bed of hot coals.

 

[ShaneLogs]

I don't know how anyone can split shag bark hickory with an axe. I've been using my tractor mount hydraulic splitter powered by my 30HP Kubota. The wood (storm felled trees) was cut into short lengths early last year. My hydraulic splitter splits it just fine but this wood is sinewy, stringy and tough. No wonder they use it for axe handles. Oak, maple and cherry are nothing compared to this stuff.

Is there anything tougher to split?

You are right! That stuff is really tough stuff to split! I tried it with a axe and I couldn't split it so I just stacked it and burned it in the winter.

 

[jrider]

Give sweet gum a try and then tell me how easy hickory is to split.

 

[flashhole]

Of my 32 acres here in upstate NY about 10 acres is thick woods, mostly hickory but there is a fair amount of oak, ash and maple in the mix. Even the standing dead wood (wood peckers are hell on these trees) is tough to split. I like the way it burns and I'm not complaining that I have an abundance of free wood to harvest but it is tough to split.

The other straight grain stuff that I run through my splitter will "pop" apart as soon as the wedge on the splitter widens to the thick part but the hickory requires the wedge be driven all the way through.

 

[Wood Doctor]

twisted elm!!!

Nothing is tougher to split that elm with a twisted (spiral) grain. 8" logs of this stuff will stall out a 22-ton hydraulic splitter and make Super Split look like a toy. Hickory is a piece of cake for a 22-ton splitter.

 

[CTYank]

An axe is definitely NOT the tool for splitting shagbark. A maul is- preferably one with an acute edge and no bumps on the faces. 5-6 lb seems to be about the "sweet-spot" for me. It's been a while, but I don't recollect any huge problems with shagbark.

There are some oaks, like maybe swamp chestnut, that have really counter-twisted grain, that almost require noodling or hydraulics. Never had the pleasure of red gum.

 

[KiwiBro]

"pleasure"? You just may be as twisted as a plug-hole (grain spirals around like water down a plug hole) gum tree. otstir: Those things are Evil personified and don't come close to making enough money to pay for repairs to splitters and/or clueless workers (me being one of said workers, with 7 and 3/4 fingers to prove it). Only good thing about them is they are easy to spot and therefore avoid unless chasing them around a paddock with a suitably large chainsaw that likes the exercise.

 

[rob066]

Yellow Birch can be a little testy itself at times.

 

[zogger]

Elm and sweetgum are harder to split than shagbark. Dead giant dutch elm was the worst I ever tried to split with an axe or maul.

I did up several cords of (large and old tree) shagbark last year with my fiskars SS. It helps a LOT (I ain't exaggerating either) if you get the bark off first. Also slows down or eliminates those bugs that get into hickory (added bonus). Once the cut rounds are dry enough for the bark to loosen, it is not bad to get it off, then it splits OK. Not perfect like ash or anything like that, but doable. I was first splitting it bark -on, that sucked, shaved the bark off, just got much easier.

I learned that thing with the bark years ago, so whenever I try something new to me, if it sucks, I wait until dry, get the bark off, try it again. Stuff like the hickory or sycamore or beech or sweetgum, etc, easier with the bark off.

Hand splitting..man..we've discussed this a lot here. "Shot placement" is critical. A quarter or eighth of an inch difference on where your edge lands can make all the difference in the world between split and stuck in wood. Can't explain it any better than that, read the wood, it's all different, then aim small, hit small.

Bwa! Still waiting for one of you guys to do the match trick!

 

[dingeryote]

The only thing worse is a wind row elm that has had the branches trimmed away for harvester clearance for the last 50 years.

They don't split. They unscrew or compess into a 50lb ball of twisted fibers.LOL!!

Hickory can be a pain, but I don't complain about it if there are Elm rounds in the stack within earshot...it's bad JuJu.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[Fred Wright]

Give sweet gum a try and then tell me how easy hickory is to split.

Got that right. If there's any wood tougher to split than sweet gum, I ain't seen it. I take one down every season, mix it in with the good stuff.

Gum is twisty; interlocking grain with a high resin content. The strands resemble hard nylon plastic. Even a smallish round will fight this 16-t hydro all the way to the end, where the wedge actually cuts the remaining grains in two.

Friends, I've split knarly, twisted hickory and silver maple. It's bull work but they'll split, at least. With gum, you can bury a wedge in a round and burn the wood to get your wedge back.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Got that right. If there's any wood tougher to split than sweet gum, I ain't seen it. I take one down every season, mix it in with the good stuff.

Gum is twisty; interlocking grain with a high resin content. The strands resemble hard nylon plastic. Even a smallish round will fight this 16-t hydro all the way to the end, where the wedge actually cuts the remaining grains in two.

Friends, I've split knarly, twisted hickory and silver maple. It's bull work but they'll split, at least. With gum, you can bury a wedge in a round and burn the wood to get your wedge back.

Sweet Gum sounds just like the spiral grain elm hybrid I've been talking about, at least in toughness. We save it for huge bonfires whenever enocountered. The sad part is that you have no idea when you cut it that it is the spiral grain variety. The bark and leaves are virtually identical to American elm that splits nicely when dried in the round for 6 months. Even the density of the logs are the same. I think Dingeryote calls it wind row elm. That's a kind name for it. :censored:

 

[fields_mj]

Depending on the size of the rounds, I've always found that an axe did a much better job of splitting shagbark than a maul did. Knots are another story. I don't even bother trying to split them by hand. I just noodle them and move on.

 

[TreePointer]

Yellow Birch can be a little testy itself at times.

:agree2:

I've run into some yellow birch that made me wish for twisted elm.

 

[haveawoody]

For me American elm is always the nastiest to split.
On rounds bigger than 12" i just noodle to save time.

Shagbark is tough stuff but no real problem on a splitter other that the crotches.
Black locust can be a painful thing to split, some trees no problem and some it's noodle time.

The #1 worst thing to split is green rock elm, left to dry in rounds for 6 months or more or found as standing dead it's much like splitting Shagbark, but green it's a thing for dynamite to split LOL

 

[flashhole]

Well I'm on my third cord and about half way through the cut pieces I have to split. Now I start on the big stuff. I will post a pic or two when I finish it, most likely sometime next week.

 

[haveawoody]

flashhole,

When heating season rolls around you will ne nice and toasty warm.
Shagbark is great firewood and well worth the splitting.