Take my man card

[turnkey4099]

Second day splitting that tough Black Locust. I was having to drive my wedge 3/4 to the hilt to split 10" cleargrain rounds. Decided to teach it a lesson and drug out the splitter but had to clean up the manual reject pile of uglies first.

Uglies done with only 4 chunks needing a bit of noodling:

Area cleaned up and ready to work on the rounds. I dunno how many of them I will run through teh splitter before reverting to manual splitting again. Definitely several that are crotchy/knotty.

Another case of a drawback to a "wedge on ram" abortion of a design. They can only be used from one side. Wedge on beam allows working from either side. In the current case I had to unhitch from the tractor and then manually drag the machine into place over rough and sloping ground. Did me in.

Harry K

 

[Deleted member 83629]

That is some funky wood you got stacked never seen that it my area. I know all about locust no need to you're man card but do remember to eat your Wheaties before trying to bust it apart.

 

[farmer steve]

You get to keep you man card . I've split plenty of black locust, it can be a bugger. dad & i split about 2000 11' b/l rails with sledge&wedges for Gettsyburg battlefield. i use the splitter now for b/l firewood.if you did most of that stack by hand, i think you get a star on your man card.FS.

 

[zogger]

Looking good man!

And this I dont understand. those steel wedges in the store..one size! WTH is up with that?? Plastic felling wedges you can get in a variety of sizes.

SOMEONE needs to step up to the opportunity plate and come out with a line of good quality steel wedges in different lengths and widths, etc. We all (mostly all...) have been there with the ridiculous wood that will bury a wedge..need a bigger and thicker one!

 

[Whitespider]

What? No snow... and some green(ish) lookin' grass besides.
Your man-card is safe... power splitters are man-tools... (grunt... grunt... double grunt).

 

[wndwlkr]

Looks like you done good to me. just do what ever it takes, I like that. Good Job !

 

[Tim Carroll]

Black Locust is some nasty stuff to work with, very tough bark that will rip up leather work gloves and tear skin. It can have some knarly grain to it too and can be hard to split but it is very good firewood. The only thing I don't like about it is that it drys slower than oak and leaves more ash (probably from the nasty bark). No need to turn in your man card, good job!

 

[Wazzu]

Nice wood pile, good pictures of the Palouse too.

 

[FLHX Storm]

Over the last week (weather prohibitive) I split up at least a cord of black locust BY HAND using the Fiskars x27. I did noodle one knotted crotch round though.

However, as White Spidey said, you get to keep the man card because you have MAN Toys! :msp_w00t:

 

[tld400]

I have split a ton of honey locust by hand with the x27 this year. I think it is pretty easy to split other that the wood I have is not nice and straight. I wondering if the black and honey are the same in reguards to splitting it. It looks like you have worked hard from the pics I saw so I think you get to keep your man card.

 

[howellhandmade]

Funny, black locust dries faster than oak for me. And splits pretty well, too. I've only done one honey locust, and it was harder to split than black locust. Much heavier wood, slower drying, and the bugs LOVE it. Much prefer black locust.

 

[Mac88]

It's hard work pushin' the starter button on that splitter on a cold day. :msp_biggrin:

Hang onto your card. You've earned it, regardless of your splitting method.

 

[turnkey4099]

In general, the B Locust out here is fairly easy to split. Once in a great while I run into some like I am currently fighting. Seems if I get one tree that is tough splitting, every tree from that site will also. Not sure where this came from, could be from "Randy's place" (see thread). in which case I have about 3 cord to get through.

My "to be split" stacks is my substitute for a gymn membership . My ability to swing a 10 lb splitting maul one handed while pounding on the 6lb maul is pretty well back to normal after all those months sitting on my fundament this winter.

Harry K

 

[Iska3]

We never see much Black Locust around our neck of the woods. I happen to get 4 cords of mixed log wood last week. The logger was doing wood in MI and happen to have some logs that he thinks was BL so he sent down one log to try. I always thought Elm was bad,these trees were cut three years ago so that Locust was nasty. I never saw anything like it. It was nasty to cut and splits like Iron Wood. I can split Oak all day and with the nasty stuff, the splitter might kick down to the second stage a few times. If not for the splitter, I would have dragged that Locust log down to the swamp and let it rott.

You earned your Man Card long ago...