Splitting pine..never again

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Mustang71

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I've been cutting a lot of ash and splitting a lot of ash but I have these 2 dead pretty big pine of some sort trees in my front yard. The wife wants them gone so I took the smaller one down yesterday and limbed it and cut it up. I went to split it today and what a pain in the a$$. It's all twisted with knots every where and the sap is ridiculous. I have maybe a half a face cord split in the time I could have split a full cord of ash. I'm sending the larger tree into the woods and never looking back. I hate to waste wood but what a nightmare.
 
I've been cutting a lot of ash and splitting a lot of ash but I have these 2 dead pretty big pine of some sort trees in my front yard. The wife wants them gone so I took the smaller one down yesterday and limbed it and cut it up. I went to split it today and what a pain in the a$$. It's all twisted with knots every where and the sap is ridiculous. I have maybe a half a face cord split in the time I could have split a full cord of ash. I'm sending the larger tree into the woods and never looking back. I hate to waste wood but what a nightmare.
Mine goes in the Chipper.
 
Mine goes in the Chipper.
I've burned a good amount of pine in pallet form and have had people give me split stuff. Even the occasional chunk I have to split but when I have to run the same piece through the splitter 5 times to get it some sort of split its not worth it. Do 28 inch rounds fit in a chipper? Lol
 
I've burned a good amount of pine in pallet form and have had people give me split stuff. Even the occasional chunk I have to split but when I have to run the same piece through the splitter 5 times to get it some sort of split its not worth it. Do 28 inch rounds fit in a chipper? Lol
They do if I roll them in sideways cut into 12 inch cookies.
 
I threw all the limbs in my 6x8 trailer staked about 8 feet tall. We had a nice fire last night for about an hour. Fast burning stuff which is one reason I hate to leave a 80 foot tall dead pine in the woods but I don't have a chipper and that's a lot of work for some fire pit wood.
 
A couple things about Pine and conifers, the species matters, and how many other trees are around it. Some species have wild and dense branch patterns, that lead to a lot of knots.

Also, a Lone Tree, will get sunlight all around, and Top to bottom, and will have Limbs practically to the ground, again more knots.

A tree growing in the middle of the forest will shed lower limbs, as they receive less sunlight, leading to fewer and smaller knots as the tree grows.

When a tree is cut can have a lot to do with the Sap/pitch in it. I have definitely noticed the difference between trees cut earlier in the spring, after a Wet winter, compared to trees cut late in a Dry summer

Lodgepole Pine, tends to be a very dry wood in general, but then they do typically grow in drier regions.

There isn’t much Lodgepole, where we usually cut, but I Like it when I can get it, it usually splits easily, although will sometimes have a slight spiral to the grain, and doesn’t always split Straight, but it sure does smell nice burning in an open fire

Doug
 
A couple things about Pine and conifers, the species matters, and how many other trees are around it. Some species have wild and dense branch patterns, that lead to a lot of knots.

Also, a Lone Tree, will get sunlight all around, and Top to bottom, and will have Limbs practically to the ground, again more knots.

A tree growing in the middle of the forest will shed lower limbs, as they receive less sunlight, leading to fewer and smaller knots as the tree grows.

When a tree is cut can have a lot to do with the Sap/pitch in it. I have definitely noticed the difference between trees cut earlier in the spring, after a Wet winter, compared to trees cut late in a Dry summer

Lodgepole Pine, tends to be a very dry wood in general, but then they do typically grow in drier regions.

There isn’t much Lodgepole, where we usually cut, but I Like it when I can get it, it usually splits easily, although will sometimes have a slight spiral to the grain, and doesn’t always split Straight, but it sure does smell nice burning in an open fire

Doug
These are in my front yard. They had branches from the ground up. The bottom ones were 3 to 4 inches in diameter and the shorter tree was about 50 feet tall and 24 inches in diameter. The other one is much bigger. They are knotty and slowly died but I can imagine they are pretty old. The smaller stuff near the top is pretty straight and the knots are small and it splits fine. I hate to waste wood but splitting in 85 degrees and lots of humidity to get a small pile after an hour in a half sucks.

If I cut it into rounds and let it dry before I split it does that help? I'm thinking not but idk.
 
Mustang 71, IIRC, You mainly Hand split, so probably isn’t going to help you much, some splits harder dry, with a mechanical splitter, dry would cut down on the pitch a bit.

For pine, a middle of the Forest Lodgepole is one of the Best Bets, but it doesn’t sound like that is what you have. If you’re used to Hardwoods, you may not feel it is worth the effort.

Where I live and cut, “Hardwood” is either Too Faaaaaaar from the trailer, Downhill from the Trailer, or all too often ,BOTH. I have seen more Unicorns on my Wood sheds, than Oak in them, Hickory, or Osage Orange?? Just Rumors and Hearsey. Around here Douglas Fir is King for Lumber and Firewood, but I usually get mostly White Fir, D Fir and Alder. With Tamarack being a nice bonus, and a little Ponderosa on the Eastern side of our cutting range.

We are only allowed to cut blow down, in the Mt Hood National Forest, and the rare Oak or Maple, if you’re not standing there with a running saw in hand, when it hits the ground, all that you will ever see of it will be Limbs, Leaves and sawdust on the ground, and what is left of the stump, it is a rare hardwood that falls and is on the ground long enough to rot around here.

04CD0D56-746F-4795-BEB6-A128C2F459E9.jpeg

Doug
 
Mustang 71, IIRC, You mainly Hand split, so probably isn’t going to help you much, some splits harder dry, with a mechanical splitter, dry would cut down on the pitch a bit.

For pine, a middle of the Forest Lodgepole is one of the Best Bets, but it doesn’t sound like that is what you have. If you’re used to Hardwoods, you may not feel it is worth the effort.

Where I live and cut, “Hardwood” is either Too Faaaaaaar from the trailer, Downhill from the Trailer, or all too often ,BOTH. I have seen more Unicorns on my Wood sheds, than Oak in them, Hickory, or Osage Orange?? Just Rumors and Hearsey. Around here Douglas Fir is King for Lumber and Firewood, but I usually get mostly White Fir, D Fir and Alder. With Tamarack being a nice bonus, and a little Ponderosa on the Eastern side of our cutting range.

We are only allowed to cut blow down, in the Mt Hood National Forest, and the rare Oak or Maple, if you’re not standing there with a running saw in hand, when it hits the ground, all that you will ever see of it will be Limbs, Leaves and sawdust on the ground, and what is left of the stump, it is a rare hardwood that falls and is on the ground long enough to rot around here.

View attachment 920383

Doug

I was a hand splitter until I had 200 ash trees die and I got an old 50s splitter for my 3 point hitch. I still hand split ash. I had about 10 years of ash die and then I had to cut most of it and stack logs every where so these Pine don't mean much as for fire wood but at the same time I live on 5 acres that needs to supply my wood until I can't cut anymore so I hate to scrap it. A couple years ago when it was me an x27 a 10lb sledge and a couple wedges I would have really struggled with this pine. But back then I didn't have dead ash every where I would have split and stacked any wood I could get. I burned a lot more wood this year and used a lot less propane with a surplus of wood cut.
 
Love splitting white pine. We use it as boiler fuel. It burns hot and leaves nothing but power. Perfect for a central boiler. We usually cut it 4’ and push it through a 4-way big splitter. Stack it, let it dry. You get about 10 cords up the whole place smells just like a pine forest. Pine pitch is a bit of a pain but you get used to it. Once dry, the beetles really begin to gnaw on the wood. On a good day you can really hear them chewing. Red pine is also great but it is heavier and bugger tough to split.
 
Well I cut the other larger tree and had an audience. My neighbors decided to watch. I put it where I wanted but the "clear" spot in the woods was still too wooded so it was half stuck in my yard. After I cut a few feet off it was still stuck. I grabbed the old silverado and pulled it down and now I have a large pine in my yard just like I didn't want. I have no choice but to limb and cut it to get it out of the yard.

The reason I cut these and didn't let them blow over was to save all the trees that are healthy around them and the trees I have planted. Ever since the ash borer I have lost way to many trees so I try to save the living ones.
 
Love splitting white pine. We use it as boiler fuel. It burns hot and leaves nothing but power. Perfect for a central boiler. We usually cut it 4’ and push it through a 4-way big splitter. Stack it, let it dry. You get about 10 cords up the whole place smells just like a pine forest. Pine pitch is a bit of a pain but you get used to it. Once dry, the beetles really begin to gnaw on the wood. On a good day you can really hear them chewing. Red pine is also great but it is heavier and bugger tough to split.
Thats y I like to add in stuff like pine. The ash tree leaves a good amount of coals but add in some pine or something soft like popular or maple and it burns complete. I can coast all day on coals and a log here or there but at some point it's all coals. A nice stack of dry pine would do the trick to make heat out of those coals but this stuff sucks to split.
 
You learn a few different techniques for dealing with different wood, but some are just harder!

You could buck the pine into shorter lengths which split easier. 'double' the work but easier overall if it's really awkward as is.
 
I'm not a wood snob and burn anything. Pine imo is best left in rounds for a couple months then split. I normally try to give it away as camp fire wood, but when shoulder season comes around it goes in with the poplar and gets burned. Doesn't matter how stringy it is or twisted up it is. All burns the same. It's also nice for a fast fire to take the chill off a damp night. I wouldn't be wasting it.
 
It would be u retesting to know what species of pine this is… Around here, I’ve seen some red pine out in the open with low limbs but white or Jack pine usually loose the lower branches. Now a big ole white spruce out in the open can be a limby knotty mess to deal with! 50% of the wood we deal with here is softwood (jack pine preferable) but it’s only set aside for firewood if it’s dead standing so no pitch to really worry about.
 
It would be u retesting to know what species of pine this is… Around here, I’ve seen some red pine out in the open with low limbs but white or Jack pine usually loose the lower branches. Now a big ole white spruce out in the open can be a limby knotty mess to deal with! 50% of the wood we deal with here is softwood (jack pine preferable) but it’s only set aside for firewood if it’s dead standing so no pitch to really worry about.

Maybe this will help? Western NY area along Lake Ontario.
 
Looks like some type of spruce. Those branches act like bolts going through the wood and as you know make it a bugger to split. My wanna try making some of those campfire wood candles out of them if you can get them good and dry. If you don't mind noodling that would work too.
 

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