How would you deal with these beast rounds

[trailmaker]

That is some seriously ugly lookin' wood for splitting.
I suppose that is what dehydrated Elm would look like.

Screw the maul unless you're one of those exercise loonies, looking to gain an extra bit of Cardio between Triathalons, or know one looking for some interesting "Cross training".

Make some noodles to get them quartered so they can be wrangled onto the splitter without getting a Hernia.

Have you considered milling some of that wood?
I'll bet the figure is outstanding.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

I had my brother in law come over because he has done a lot of hand splitting. Turns out he's only done hand splitting, and quite a lot of it. I learned a lot from him, especially about sledge and wedge work. Nonetheless it took him 30 - 40 minutes to get through a medium size round so I think you're right that the only point to hand splitting this wood is to get some exercise. I will hand split some of this just because it's something I'd like to be proficient at, but most will be noodled and hydraulically split.

I looked into milling Shreve and Coast live oak but I was told it splits and checks pretty severely. There's also not any straight sections anywhere on the tree. One thing that might be interesting would be to mill curved beams to make a "cruck frame" timberframe shed.

I've heard these "cruck frame" structures are challenging however, even for experienced timberframers.

 

[firewood guy]

With the correct technique and tools, noodling is much faster than any other method (except explosives... LOL). We routinely reduce our big rounds with a 460 or 395 wearing a 24" and full skip. It goes FAST....

We are currently dealing with a 14k trailer load of 54" white oak....

I totally agree!I like RSLFK full skip on some horsepower and you can keep half the Hampster owners in America happy w/ all the bedding material!! Just for grins runnin' a 20" on a 066 to 'get 'er done'!:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Dalmatian90]

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Other then they need to work on how fast the saw is...