Splitting Dry Elm for Firewood, Advice?

[CNYCountry]

OK, we cut two dead elm trees out back, first because they looked like crap, and second because I thought they would make great firewood. Both were 20-22" at the base. I got them down, bucked and limbed but when I went to split them I found out just exactly why people say elm is a bear to split.

I have tried an 8# go-devil and a 12# monster maul and cannot touch them. I got one of the smaller pieces, about 8", to split a kinling sized piece off the side after pounding on it for a few minutes. I am not a small guy.

I gave up in disgust for now, I am not working that hard on something that seems almost impossible.

I'd really like to get these split, there's NO rot and the wood is SO nice and dry, very hard and dense. And heating oil is stupid expensive already. There are a couple of elm logs down from the previous owner of the house and they look good as well. Now I know why he didn't use them.

My father suggested waiting for them to freeze good and hard and trying the monster maul then. I'm not sure I want to wait that long but will if others say it's a good idea.

Another idea is to rent a splitter, I'd rather avoid the cost for just a few trees but I will do it if this is the way to go. It's not that expensive.

Is using wedges worth the effort?

I have heard of people ripping large pieces (15-20") like this with the saw, but it always seemed like a bad idea for some reason. I'm sure my 361 would make short work of it if it was safe. Is this OK to do or am I not seeing the safety issue that the back of my mind is telling me is there?

Thanks for the great advice on this forum. Thanks to you folks I know I made the right choice with the saw purchase. It made short work of these yesterday.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Rent the splitter.

Elm is close to impossible to split with wedges and a maul. Ripping takes a long time.

 

[Treeman14]

Yup, what he said. Rent the splitter.

 

[treeseer]

Ripping is not a safety issue if done right but it's a huge time issue. 20" is not that big a tree; have you tried ripping a ways then sledge and wedge? At least on the scaffolds?

But Tom and Brett are right; mechanical is the way to go on the trunk. I split a bit of winged elm here but over 12" is tough and twisty.

 

[begleytree]

And doesn't burn that great either. Good to mix it with slabs or better wood, but you'd freeze to death trying to heat with just elm.
I dump it.
-Ralph

 

[geofore]

splitting elm

Rather than ripping it, set the elm on end and cut into the edge of the top at a 45*angle about 6 inches or the depth of the thickness of your saws bar. This will give you a spot to set your wedge in to get the wedge started without the tip of the wedge touching wood. The sides of the wedge do the work forcing the wood apart before the tip of the wedge starts to touch wood. less chance of bouncing the wedge out. This cuts through x number of rings of growth weakening the piece making it easier to split. If you have very large diameter pieces, it takes three wedges to do this trick. First wedge is used to split (start a crack) top to bottom but not across the entire diameter. Second wedge is set in about 4"-6" from the edge to split again top to bottom. Third wedge is set 6" from first wedge and hammered in to split out a piece 4x4x6. Now you can finish splitting around the outside with two wedges by setting the first wedge 6" from the edge of the first removed and getting the wood to split, then the second wedge in 4"-6" in from the edge to push the piece off the round and continue to work pieces off around the outside edge of the large diameter piece. (No need to split large diameter pieces all the way across) This will leave you with a smaller diameter piece to split after you have gone all the way around once or twice. The cut made with the saw makes the splitting easier and you have less chance of the wedge jumping out of the wood than if you tried to start the wedge without the cut. So cheat and cut in, 45*angle first then drop the wedge in the cut and the sides of the wedge will start to work right away. Hope that made sense.

 

[Stumper]

I think George is making it a bit more complicated than needed but he is on course-Elm is much easier to knock slabs off of the circumference than it is to quarter up by splitting across the diameter. The best thing to do with elm is either split it green-a couple of weeks from live tree to split wood or else wait at least three years. When the lignin between cell walls begins to break down a little it gets easier. Elm is absolutely awful to split in the period between say-6 months after death and 2 plus years. (But a powerful hydraulic splitter can crush it apart-a weak sister Homeowner style splitter tends to just get stuck.)

 

[Al Smith]

The options,wedges,splitter,or a stove with a real large door. Every wood has a specific good use for it.Elm was used for wagon tongues because it was nearly impossible to break it,and the fact that it resists splitting.How well you know.It is rare any more for an elm to get any larger than about 20 inchs before they die.In the early 60's when the blight was in full swing,it was not uncommon to see 4 ft diameter trees,dead.I think,with luck that perhaps a few trees will in time develope an immunity to this blight,but I imagine it will take several hundred years for this to occur naturally and it's highly unlikely for me to bear witness to the event.

 

[CNYCountry]

Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to write advice!

I'll give the notch and wedge thing a try to start, working around the outside, but I'm suspecting what I have here is what Stumper is describing, it's very dry, but the lignin "glue" has not started breaking down yet. It's unbelievably hard, the smaller pieces make a high "clink" when thrown together, like kids' ABC blocks. Even so my MS361 with the full chisel chain went through it without much fuss. I have split other elm that had already been down from the prior people and it split hard but was doable, probably had started to break down a little.

Failing that I will just rent the darn splitter. I can make good use of it. Maybe that's an investment for next year to just buy a good one and be done with it.

We have plenty of other great stuff here on the lot to mix in with the elm when burning, blowdown cherry and maple and possibly some ash (could I get that lucky) in addition to the crap hemlock and spruce that's just taking up space.

Yes, these were 20-22 inches, right about at the max before the disease takes them, and showed surprisingly large growth rings up until the last few years. They had been standing long enough to dry to the point the bark just falls off but not to the point there was any start of breakdown inside the wood itself.

My father told me that at the time the disease hit, he was working for the town and had to remove one of the largest elm trees documented, right here in central NY. They had to call up the power company because the town did not have a big enough saw, and when finally broken down the wood was 6 dump truck loads. I think he said it was something like 6' across above the root flare.