Did I mess up?

That much work for an 8" round????
Might be the right time to invest in a hydraulic splitter.

8" rounds should burn fine. They're already dry. Put 'em in the stack and move on.

Oldman47 said:

I tried for the first time yesterday to split some 3 year old rounds of black ash and even a 20 inch long 8 inch round laughed at my X27. I just read through this thread https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/split-now-or-in-spring.136250/ and it sounds like people process wood soon after it is cut. I am starting to think that by letting my ash dry I have just made more work for myself. When I did manage to get a split off with some wedges it is testing at 16 to 20% moisture. BTW I had to drive the wedges separately to keep from getting them stuck. In an 8 inch round it was drive a wedge out of sight along an edge then use a second wedge from the side of the round to finish the split and free both wedges. No way it should be this hard.

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Yes you did. IMHO dry ash is a birch to split.

Bob

Most hard woods split better green.

yard ash for some reason will be a little twisted and hard to split if left very long. The one we had in our yard was a complete bear to split be hand, SO the big rounds I noodled what would not split after a wack or two.

I've found Ash crotches and knots to be pretty nasty. I don't mess with them splitting by hand.

Yard trees can be tough. Even species that are normally easy. I split mostly yard trees & it's luck of the draw. This winter I've done a Silver Maple that was terrible & 2 Black Locust that were easy splitting.
I've never left rounds sit too long before splitting, but from what others here say, generally splitting immediately is good. A few exceptions exist. Many swear that Elm splits much better after sitting n drying for a couple years. I'll never find out as I don't have room to leave much sitting around...

Couple items.

If you are running, or planning to run more than about 4-5 cords per year or so you might as well invest in a hydraulic. I use an electro-hydraulic here, 7-10 cords per year is about all I want to process with the electric splitter, but for $300 purchase and maybe $5 in electricity per cord split it is hard to beat.

There are some folks on here splitting 10 cords annually with a maul. My shoulders aren't up for that. I got enough money for a splitter and better sense than to go looking for early shoulder surgery. Your call.

Second, if you get cold enough weather green wood splits real nice at -20dF and practically splits itself at -40dF. I doubt you see much -40dF in Illinois, and the bad news is to get wood to practically split itself at -40dF you got to be out in the weather to do it. I wait until it warms up to -20dF myself. Remember water expands when it freezes. If your green rounds have much water in them all those ice crystals pressing out will help the round come apart once the maul gets a crack started. I dunno why it seems to work better at even colder temps, but it does.

If you got a big chunk of downed trees from clearing your construction lot, like 12-15+ cords worth, you might look at buying a gas powered splitter. Either new so you can have a warranty and take the depreciation hit when you sell, or used so you can sell for near purchase price but you pay maintenance along the way.

Gas powered splitters do have a faster ram speed, but the rate limiting step is how fast you can get the next piece on deck before you get the ram moving again, not the speed of the ram. When you are talking about ten plus cords the faster ram will have enough opportunities to save you one second over and over and over to maybe be worth the expense.

If I had more than three years worth of wood laying around I would split stove size for three years worth. The rest I would just split once and stack it like any other firewood off the ground and covered on top. Four years from now you can bring a wheel barrow load of those half rounds into the garage, knock them down to stove size in the comfort of your garage with an electric splitter and load them straight into the stove.

M2c

Well, what I have tried to demonstrate to my boys about using a maul is the point is not how hard you swing it but how fast the head is moving when it meets the wood.

If you are a golfer think of a pitch versus a chip shot. Use your shoulders and elbows of course, but at the last instant use your wrists too. For the real grunters you can get your abdominal muscles involved.

Remember energy is mass x velocity squared, so getting the maul head moving faster is exponentially more important than swinging a heavier maul.

Also, get an anvil round under your target, don't try to split a round that is resting directly on the ground. Dunno how dirt at -40dF can be so darn spongy, but it makes a difference and the height is more convenient too.

If I didnt own a hydraulic splitter I probably wouldn't burn wood.

I split 5 cords by hand this year before I invested in a splitter and broke 4 handles in the process (FIBERGLASS!) I LOVE splitting wood, and am young and stupid enough to do it (31.)

I realized that for the amount of wood I need a year, splitting by hand simply isn't feasible. Toss in wood like box elder, and it's not even possible. I burn on average about 10-12 cords a year.

Do yourself a favor and get a gas splitter. I got my splitter at Menards on Black Friday for $799. It's $1500 everywhere else. I processed the same amount of wood in 3 days running the splitter than I did in a month by hand. I kid you not.

Oldman47 said:

I intend to cruise my woods soon to see what I have dead and down.

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Standing dead is the prize. Down trees tend to be very wet or rotted, but worth checking, especially white oak, locust and ash. Cherry if it is off the ground a little.

j7art2 said:

I split 5 cords by hand this year before I invested in a splitter and broke 4 handles in the process (FIBERGLASS!)

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Sounds like you are pretty hard on equipment. I've split 20 cords with my current fiberglass handle. I have broken a few wood handles over the years, but I had help with those (little brother).

Plow Boy said:

If I didnt own a hydraulic splitter I probably wouldn't burn wood.

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Plow Boy, you are right on the money. I own 2 mauls, 3 wedges, 2 axes, and a small hatchet. The hatchet is the only one of them I've touched in 5 years since I bought the splitter.

ewlsey said:

Sounds like you are pretty hard on equipment. I've split 20 cords with my current fiberglass handle. I have broken a few wood handles over the years, but I had help with those (little brother).

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All I can say is avoid the "True Temper" brand crap from Lowes. They have free lifetime replacements. 1 original tool and 3 replacements before demanding a refund. They were losing money, I was wasting time. I got a Fiskars and have never been happier.

j7art2 said:

All I can say is avoid the "True Temper" brand crap from Lowes. They have free lifetime replacements. 1 original tool and 3 replacements before demanding a refund. They were losing money, I was wasting time. I got a Fiskars and have never been happier.

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I've got a fiskar ax and hachet. The only one i use is the hachet, for stringy wood after splitting.

I have a splitter now, but every now and again I see a chunk of wood on the pile thinking 'what the hell was I thinking throwing that thing on there? That's way too big.' and I pull it off and split it by hand. I won't run the splitter unless I have a face or more to split. I enjoy chopping wood, but got the splitter primarily as a time saver and back saver. It gets old when you're doing it 3 hours a day for a month straight.