Goodbye to the ugliest piece of wood on earth

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BillLion

BillLion

Minister of Fire
Sep 4, 2013
513
Greater Hartford, CT
I've been burning oak, maple and a little BL in these frigid temperatures but I have to throw this nasty piece of elm in now just to get rid of it;

y2uvepez.jpg


Yes, that's one nasty piece. (Evidence of why elm has a horrible splitting reputation).

Anyone have an uglier piece??!
 
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Looks like an alien. Burn it before it multiplies.
 
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I have pics of a split that looks more like it exploded. Not posting from my PC. The one you have is right up there, though.
Here it is
image.jpg
 
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What you going to burn it on the floor in front of the stove?
 
Jags said:
I have pics of a split that looks more like it exploded. Not posting from my PC. The one you have is right up there, though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I had tried splitting elm manually for the 1st time. After only a few rounds (and a lot of blood, sweat & tears) I had to borrow a friend's splitter.

cptoneleg said:
What you going to burn it on the floor in front of the stove?
Click to expand...

No, it's such a big, bizarre beast that I have it sitting in position waiting for the coal's to burn down low enough to fit it in.
 
BillLion said:
Yeah, I had tried splitting elm manually for the 1st time. After only a few rounds (and a lot of blood, sweat & tears) I had to borrow a friend's splitter.
Click to expand...
See pic above
 
This is the reason we wait until the tree is dead and bark off or mostly off before we cut. Doing it this way, it is rare to have one split hard and none ends up like yours. It will also burn much better. When you split green elm and get all those splinters, it acts more like kindling wood and will burn up fast.
 
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Backwoods Savage said:
This is the reason we wait until the tree is dead and bark off or mostly off before we cut. Doing it this way, it is rare to have one split hard and none ends up like yours. It will also burn much better. When you split green elm and get all those splinters, it acts more like kindling wood and will burn up fast.
Click to expand...

Lesson learned! I got two free loads of elm last year (1st year scrounging). I won't be too eager to take them next time! :)
 
I have some of those reserved for spring. Problem with putting that ugly in the stove is you will not be able to put much else in. If you have to time between cycles, go for it!
 
stejus said:
I have some of those reserved for spring. Problem with putting that ugly in the stove is you will not be able to put much else in. If you have to time between cycles, go for it!
Click to expand...

Yeah; I'm burning down my coals to a manageable size so this was a perfect time for this.

The monster has never looked better than right now:

zapetu4y.jpg
 
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When I get the occasional big ugly, I don't fool around with it. I end up ripping the chain saw through it and make it a bit more manageable. :)
 
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That was one ugly piece of wood :)
 
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That sure is one nasty piece of wood. I normally give up when I find one that just won't split and it goes in my summer campfire.
 
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Ditto, sure is ugly! I remember a college professor inviting us to come over to his house to help him split some firewood. At the time I had never burned wood except for looks. Even if he had said it was pieces of elm, it would not mean anything to me. I learned then that elm did not split like lodge pole pine. Later I learned it does pack alot of BTUs in a cord. Great picture.
 
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Yup, that's an ugly alright. I give you credit on that one. I would have thrown it in the fire pit!
 
Love it. That piece is a work of art.

I just split some green elm this weekend. What a PITA! Normally I cut dead elm and it does split nice. These elms were field edge trees that needed to go. Pieces that start to go like that got thrown in the pile to go in the outdoor furnace. I don't waste much time on the uglies. All the pieces smaller than 12" dia cut 24-30" long and went in the outdoor furnace pile unsplit. I thought the larger pieces (up to 24") would split ok as it was in the single digits Saturday, but strill pretty stringy. Even with a hyd splitter it takes some time to turn and resplit the same piece 2 or 3 times to get enough strings broke to pull apart.
 
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It all burns! I just finished splitting some elm. I keep a hatchet near by and when splitting vertically (of course) and it doesn't get though all the stringy crap I beat the hell out of it with the hatchet. More than one way to skin a cat!
 
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Be careful and don't keep your blocks of elm too long. I saved some from late one winter to late the next fall, even with them being top covered with metal they had started to decay pretty bad. Wished I had went ahead and split them way earlier.::-)
 
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