Hand Splitting.....Easier when green or seasoned ?

Over my years of hand splitting, I have always had an easier time splitting freshly cut rounds vs. seasoned rounds. It never mattered what type of wood I was splitting. My old maul and even my new x27 work much better in green then in seasoned.

But when I search online, all I read is it is easier to split after drying wood for awhile. They say the moisture in the wood makes it harder to split.

Anyone want to give me their opinion?

Thanks

I have found it easier to split green wood than dry for hardwood and the opposite for soft. I split oak and eucalyptus mainly and it is a bear when it dries out. I split 1/2 cord of pine for starting fires and find it easier to split dry. I have dropped a maul into green pine and found it more like hitting a sponge complete with a splash of water. Same log in a few months will split clean.

Jeremy102579 said:

Over my years of hand splitting, I have always had an easier time splitting freshly cut rounds vs. seasoned rounds. It never mattered what type of wood I was splitting. My old maul and even my new x27 work much better in green then in seasoned.

But when I search online, all I read is it is easier to split after drying wood for awhile. They say the moisture in the wood makes it harder to split.

Anyone want to give me their opinion?

Thanks

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It depends on the species, but most split easier when they are green. For some it makes little difference either way.

Some of the conifers split easier seasoned. I don't split much of those, so I'll leave those to someone else to discuss.

Oak splits much easier green, bone dry barkless oak can be a chore but green it's one of the easiest.

Sourwood is tough to split dry.

Sycamore is easier dry.

One of the problems with opinions on whether certain wood is easy to split or not is that many people form an opinion based on just one tree or situation. All types of trees can vary in difficulty based on the growing conditions, grain, size of the tree, time of year the tree is cut ,etc. People use all kinds of different methods and tools to split as well, so there are also several variables in the equation besides the wood itself.

I've hit some tulip poplar with a maul when it was green and have it act like a sponge. It absorbed the blow the maul stuck and water squeezed out. After a few months it would fly apart at the mere thought of a maul.

My vote for easier hand splitting is frozen. I have had many knotted up crotches that would eat a wedge on a warm day seem to turn into straight grain ash after being froze for a week.

I think it is easier to split red oak when it is green. Bur oak seems to split easier when it is drier. Hickory also seems to split better drier. Cherry seems to split better dry.

What the other guys said, depends on species. Some of the harder to split stuff I get like sweetgum, splits much easier once dry checked and bark faling off. Red oak, anytime really, same with ash, green, dry or in between. Tulip poplar and pine I like real dry first, I get that same "rubber wood" effect if I try them green. Cherry is easy green, hackberry just slightly checked. Hickory I want real dry. Beech I want dry enough the bark is loose. Maple is easy anytime, it doesn't seem to matter a lot. All the elm I have is small so I don't need to split it much, same with the dogwood, cut to size, use it that way.

4seasons said:

I've hit some tulip poplar with a maul when it was green and have it act like a sponge. It absorbed the blow the maul stuck and water squeezed out. After a few months it would fly apart at the mere thought of a maul.

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zogger said:

Tulip poplar and pine I like real dry first, I get that same "rubber wood" effect if I try them green.

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I've had the same thing happen on real big poplar rounds - about 24" and up. The outer edge can be slabbed off easily, but the middle is like cork and you'll sink. I slab, then do the middle or hit only on the outside til it cracks well to do it across.

Agreed, it depends on the type of wood.

Tulip poplar is a bear to split off the stump. I had a large tulip poplar felled in the yard when I lived in Va. Had to leave the rounds lay to dry. It has a high moisture content and will soak up your maul or wedge when it's green. Let it dry a few months and it parts easily.

Fresh cut red oak is a breeze to split with a maul. If it's been setting awhile, it's like trying to split concrete.

I notice it's easier to split wet when useing a wood splitter. Elm is impossible when wet in the summer. If it's 0* it splits cause the wood can't absorb the shock. I can split elm when it's cold.

I think it's just as others have stated-too many variables to say for sure. I'm using my new x27 on some ~24" cherry rounds (16"-18" length), and they are a lot tougher than the last time I split cherry about 5 years ago. In this case, the current cherry is from a residential tree (with 4 trunks from the ground up) vs the forest cut cherry from years ago. Trees in dense forest situation can grow with very minimal branching through their lives and thus have straighter grains, less crotches, and hidden old healed over crotches like many suburban trees.

For me the best time to split the wood is when I have the time to do it-:smile2:

Frozen wood splits the best by hand I have some that bolcks that I saved just for for a 10 degree day. Beech needs to be split as soon at the tree hit the ground.. that stuff is a son of a beech if dry, frozen or not.

Never found any wood that spit easy. Sure some wood is less hard to split than others. If I had to nail down an cough up an 'easy' answer ...or else. I's have to go with frozen wood.

There have been some really good info here. I've been splitting wood for a long time. I find that soil type matters some as been stated be variables. For instance the white oak here is harder than the white oak in S.E. Ohio. I find the relatively green oak I split here is easier to split after a few days drying. I rarely cut green oak but the dead standing oak I usually cut splits pretty easy with my old 7# Stanley. I can tell you though the saame wood I split yesterday afternoon will split easier this afternoon because its cold out there today and the wood more than likely froze last night.

I’ve never been able to catch-on to the hand splitting thing… every time I try it, I just hurt my hand (and the resulting cast makes doing anything else a pain for 5-6 weeks). So I’ve given up on hand splitting and use an axe, maul, wedge or power log splitter now-a-days.

Sorry, I just had'ta...

cheeves said:

There have been some really good info here. I've been splitting wood for a long time. I find that soil type matters some as been stated be variables. For instance the white oak here is harder than the white oak in S.E. Ohio. I find the relatively green oak I split here is easier to split after a few days drying. I rarely cut green oak but the dead standing oak I usually cut splits pretty easy with my old 7# Stanley. I can tell you though the saame wood I split yesterday afternoon will split easier this afternoon because its cold out there today and the wood more than likely froze last night.

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Super frozen wood is nice to split (plus very warming when you need to go outside and do some work), just a lot of areas, like where I am now, it really doesn't cross that threshold for getting that cold. If I had to guess....hmm..I think 10F or lower would be that threshold. Just a little below freezing doesn't seem to be enough to make a real big difference (I've tried it in the teens here..meh, about as cold as it gets except once a decade), but 10F or below you can really see it (going by old memory now).

definately green. 61 years old. try to make things as easy as possible when using a maul. i only split hardwood. if it doesn't pop in two hits it gets noodled or thrown in the odds and ends pile.

like they been sayin'...it depends...around here most stuff splits best green, or when it's FULLY seasoned (except hedge)

my problem is I usually end up splitting when it's all only lightly seasoned...PITA.

learning some creative saw techniques to aid in crack propagation

(slightly relavent story time)

when I was a kid, dad and I were splitting an old dead pine, and ran across roughly 30 - 8" dia rounds that had naturally cracked into equal thirds. all you had to do was hit em' with the back of the maul and they fell apart. it's a wonder they stayed together long enough to be felled, bucked and hauled.

After a few beers it's much easier to split your hand.
I vote wet over dry for a good split hand
And near frozen seems to make fueling much easier.
If frozen you can split your hand in the fueling process