splitting yellow pine rounds

[s219]

I have some 18-20" diameter yellow pine rounds I cut from a tree that fell over about a month ago. I noodled a bunch of the rounds, but found that the wet sappy wood was too hard on the saws when noodling (the same saws can noodle hardwood no issue). So I held off dealing with the rest of the rounds until yesterday.

I was using my Fiskars X27 on some poplar, walnut, hickory, and oak, and it did fine (that is one impressive tool). I cranked out about a 1/4 cord very quickly and got it stacked. Worked on some gum, and that was more of a challenge, but doable with patience. But then I got to the pine, and it was again a pain in the butt. The first round had some real sappy wood, and just wanted to break into chunks rather than split. I never did get the second round to split -- it just foamed white milky liquid out, and was like wet cork, absorbing and healing all the axe marks.

So what's the deal with splitting yellow pine? Do I just need to give the rounds some time to dry before tackling them? I assumed this would be easy wood, but it's turning out to be the most challenging so far. At this rate, I may just cut it into cookies, as a crosscut seems to be the only way to deal with it quickly right now. It will be for firepit wood to keep me warm when working outdoors, so whether it's in splits or cookies doesn't matter too much.

 

[Nosmo]

What Should I Do ?

You might leave it to season out and try to noodle or split it next year. Or go ahead and cookie it out now if you want to burn it outside in the firepit. That one certainly sounds like a wet one just full of sap.

Nosmo

 

[kyle1!]

Pine can be stringy and difficult to split especially if full of knots. It will split better when it gets below freezing. If you want to start spliting now then work your way around the round don't try to go through the center or sledge/wedge.

Brian

 

[Coldfront]

I gave up splitting big pine by hand, you need a hydraulic splitter.

 

[cwalker]

Im not shure what yellow pine is, but around here we have jackpine aka lodgepole pine. It splits as nice as anything. Hand split a huge pine 37" with little more effort then i would have liked, but still do-able. Fiskars for the win.

. The first round had some real sappy wood, and just wanted to break into chunks rather than split. I never did get the second round to split -- it just foamed white milky liquid out, and was like wet cork, absorbing and healing all the axe marks.

That just sounds like really wet wood to me, give it some time and it'll split just fine. Nothing I hate mroe then dropping a tree that appears do be dead and dry, only to find out shes wetter then a soaked sponge.

Did that the other day with a big DougFir, Looked dead but one branch near the bottom had a handfull of semi green needles left. If you touched the needles at all they fell of, dryed out. Thought ok, fall the tree cut a round off the bottom and if it splits then the rest of the tree must be dry. Proceeded as described bottom split fine, bucked the rest into rounds, went to split the secound round and I had a drop of water hit me face. I was a little more then upset, good tree prolly 2 cords.

 

[s219]

I ended up cutting it into cookies about 4 inches thick, and then whacked those with the Fiskars to break them in half. Each piece eyeballs to about the same volume as my normal spit wood size.

I can see why it was tough to split whole -- the rounds were all loaded with big knots going in every direction. I bet there were at least 5-6 knots in each round, based on what I saw from the cookies.

 

[zogger]

be patient, let it dry

Unless you absolutely need it split right now, as long as it is cut to length, that's cool, it'll be seasoning. Let it dry a little and it will start to show cracks and the bark start to get loose. Ready for splitting then. Work from the outside in. Keep that final nice heartpine chunk out separate, or learn to spot them in your pile. Dang fabulous wood that piece, save them for max heat when ya need it from that species. That chunk in the middle is hard like a regular hardwood, and got loads more burnable sap in it. It's like harvesting fuel oil in solid form.

Any of the soaking wet species will split better once they are cut to size and allowed to dry out some. willow, poplar, pines, etc. Been my experience anyway.