Cutting dead Elm.

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The elm i have is 10” diameter and still impossible to split with splitting maul almost
Fresh cut American elm is basically impossible to hand split. You can either noodle it (even the smaller pieces), split with a good splitter, or leave it out in the elements for two years. There is a point between after the bark falls off but before it starts to rot that the wood is still solid yet splits relatively easily.
 
All the young fenceline elms we cut 2 winters ago were diseased and full of woodpecker holes. Boxelder were not much better. Burning the last of this now.

I love when you can get into the 5-6" trees that are one cut, one piece of firewood. Seems I am always dealing with overgrown, dead trees.
 
I love when you can get into the 5-6" trees that are one cut, one piece of firewood. Seems I am always dealing with overgrown, dead trees.

My brother "logger" just picked up some farm land to log out the dead Ash and Elm and said " come get all the small stuff ".
Finally, won't have to split anything.
 
I have a huge dead elm that is next on my list of trees to cut. I am not looking forward to dealing with it. I like the small ones or red elm. The big ones are a pain to split and often are punky. Has anyone else noticed elm seems to create more smoke when burned than other species? And it doesn't smell the greatest
 
I have never made it a point to go out and look at the chimney after I load the furnace with Elm nor do I make it a point to go stand in the smoke to smell it.

As for splitting I have found that like most wood it splits farly easy by going around the out side edges.
But mostly I put them on the ugly pile to be power split later.


:D Al
 
This elm branch broke off and is now blocking one of my wood trails. Should be interesting getting this out and cut up.
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Back in the 1970s when I lived in NY a few miles from Canada, the country was loaded with dead elms killed off by the blight. It was the poor man's firewood, and I burned way more than I would have liked. Makes great cookstove wood, but a lot of it was punky, very much a second-choice fuel. We thought that was the end of the elms.

Today, plenty of elms in that country. Many of them still succumb to the blight, but many also grow sizable and healthy. Tallest timber in the woods--with a good eye, from a distance you can pick out the elm branches over-topping the canopy.
Where abouts i live in Gouverneur in St.Lawrence county
 
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