Stupid elm.....Never again

[blades]

Elm Good- lots better than box elder which is always twisted mess.Thin wedge on beam and just keep pushing the rounds past it, course I am not trying to make any production speed records either. Makita 6401/6421 good, but then I'm biased as I run all Dolmars. I have a 6400 dolmar plus the 6421 makita just wearing different length bars.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Wide short wedges ain't the answer. Tall wedges that split the whole round are. The fattest 8" tall wedge won't split a 24" elm round, it'll just open the bottom end and leave the top together, needing another split. A tall, skinny wedge will open it up in one hit, and use less force to do it. It doesn't need to be razor sharp either, my wedge has probably a 1/4" radius on the front, far from a sharp edge. A pusher that goes all the way to the wedge (if not slightly past, like mine) is a requirement as well.

As mentioned, wedge on beam is the way to go, H/V splitters are a bastard child compromise invented by people who think wrestling a round into one on the ground is easier than lifting it onto the beam. Those people also complain about their bad backs from working hunched over all the time.

Do I need to make another elm splitting video for the unwashed masses?

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Where are all the "Mighty Fiskers" guys at? I figured they'd be telling you how much faster it is to do by hand

Seriously though, full stroke wood can be a pain as Shagbark hickory is that way for us here as well. We burn it all so it just goes with the job sometimes. Never had the stalling aspect with elm but taller/sharp wedges are a definite plus.

 

[Marc]

Where are all the "Mighty Fiskers" guys at? I figured they'd be telling you how much faster it is to do by hand

Seriously though, full stroke wood can be a pain as Shagbark hickory is that way for us here as well. We burn it all so it just goes with the job sometimes. Never had the stalling aspect with elm but taller/sharp wedges are a definite plus.

I don't mind shagbark and apple to split as much as elm because I know both are really dense. Elm... not so much. Call me a wood snob if you want, but it's just a fact of life I have 140 acres of fencelines and woodlots full of mostly cherry, ash, red oak, and sugar maple. So easy to split for good wood, when I have to deal with elm, I will, but I won't enjoy it.

Of course, the last dead elm I took down was 24" dbh and I split all that by hand with a maul and wedges. Not that I'm bragging, or anything.

 

[owbguy]

I took this standing dead down last year.

Then, I waited a couple months before I used my combustion-driven six-way axe to split it.......

 

[MishMouse]

Since my 34 ton Swisher splitter's ram does not go far enough to split the log, I use a piece of scrap lumber to make up the difference. This allows the ram to fully go through the log.

 

[NDtreehugger]

Another think you could try with american elm,

I cut the twisted elm to 12" long, that makes for an easy split

 

[johncinco]

Elm schmelm, try splitting up a decent sized box elder some time. You'll be happy to have an elm back. I agreed to help a neighbor clean up after a storm went through last summer. Dang thing nearly wore me out trying to get it split up. The good thing, I cut off a bunch of pieces that looked really gnarly and sold them to wood turners, made a couple hundred bucks!

That is a pretty nice looking splitter with a 6 way, I am gonna have to go search and see if you have some more pics of it around and the stats.

Edit, found the splitter info. Looking forward to a write up on it. Also found where sister lakes is, Too far away from me to borrow that thing!

 

[ancy]

Where are all the "Mighty Fiskers" guys at? I figured they'd be telling you how much faster it is to do by hand

Seriously though, full stroke wood can be a pain as Shagbark hickory is that way for us here as well. We burn it all so it just goes with the job sometimes. Never had the stalling aspect with elm but taller/sharp wedges are a definite plus.

I split everything 12" and down with mine with no problems. So much quicker!

View attachment 258900View attachment 258901View attachment 258902

 

[mybowtie]

For those of ya that want me to ship it to ya....no prob..you pay the shipping:hmm3grin2orange:

I did the use the next round to finish the split. On the larger rounds I had to flip 'em over to finish the split. A taller wedge would be helpfull, but so wood a firewood processer!!! Cant use the 4-way, tried that twice, pounded the round off the wedge..twice:bang:

All i'm sayin is if that was maple, ash, cherry, even oak, I'd be able to use the 4-way, and save a lot of time....

So it's official.....I'm a firewood snob:rolleyes2:

 

[kd460]

I scrounged some American Elm last year. I pass on any Elm now. Worst splitting experience I have had the displeasure of.

Same here, relative had a monster elm taken down and saved the wood for me. It is the reason I now own a hydraulic splitter. KD

 

[Dalmatian90]

Adding that way of holding up big pieces off the ground with two little pieces to my mental toolbox

 

[Arbonaut]

Hehe. Don't tempt me further.


http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/192696.htm

buncha wood snobs.. :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Arbonaut]

I like a Spider wedge with a sharp edge for splitting elm.

Fixed her.

 

[Wood Doctor]

My Best Pic

Adding that way of holding up big pieces off the ground with two little pieces to my mental toolbox

As I look back, this is the best Pic of the bunch that I took. It says it all when dealing with big rounds. Two small logs to hold the big boy in place, stop half way down and tap in a small wedge, finish the cut and miss the ground.

So, one big log makes two rounds. Two rounds make four half moons. Four half moons make 8 blocks ready to split. Eight blocks make nearly a truckload. Add a few more to top the load.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

A few years ago, an arborist friend of mine called and said he had two "big" elm logs if I wanted them. I told him to bring them over. They turned out to be 40" in diameter and maybe ten feet long. No bark, so the tree must have been dead for a while. They must have been American Elm since Siberian rarely gets more than 24" around here.

I cut them to 16", noodled them once, and then wrestled the halves onto my 5 hp Sears (Didier) splitter. It split them just fine, and we had firewood for most of that winter.

I take all the elm I can get, since my main firewood is cottonwood. If it's well seasoned, it splits just fine with my little splitter.

I agree though, splitting green elm is a huge pain, unless it's frozen.

 

[Wood Doctor]

This Tree was Huge...

... so big that I only showed a trunk section that was right at the first branch up (about 25') when the tree was dropped. The base has to be 56" across. It's lying about 30' away from this log that I worked.

Trouble with monsters like this is that one man can hardly work on them by himself. Even if I somehow cut away one round, I'd never be able to roll it by myself. A friend suggested that I noodle cut it along its length first before making the first cross cut. That way you could remove chunks as you went along. Still seems like a huge effort without a skid loader.

 

[sb47]

I just took down an old box elder and had no trouble splitting it green.
Elm does tear a bit but splits ok once dry.
Pecan sometimes splits easy and sometimes not.
Maple splits very easy green or dry.
Green or dry Red oak almost jumps apart if you stare at it too hard.
Post oak splits almost as good as red oak.
Pine splits very easy.
Mesquite splits pretty easy as well.
Cotton wood will tear and give you fits if it green.
These are generally the only woods I run into.

 

[Blazin]

Elm.....send er here! Here's one of them there tall wedges on my "super split" Steve Wedge on the beam, no pulling, chopping, etc, just keep pushing them thru