Worst wood to split

Elm is a sonofaB. Silver and norway maple are also tough when green I have found, aside from smelling like a "bucket of bluegill", as I heard someone say a whilst back. Madrone doesn't look fun either, but I'm told it burns like hell and smells like heaven. I do love beating the piss out of big locust rounds. For some reason, I like the look, the weight, and yes, the smell. I love to burn it when I'm mad at the neighbors. I had a hell of a time with an Ailanthus once, but when I lit it on fire I learned why people don't often burn it. Smelled like a set of unseasoned BF Goodrich.

I am in the process of cutting up a large, 30 some inch American elm. And yes it was alive. It is going to totally suck splitting it, but my uncle wanted it down due to a new hoop-house going up. How long to dry elm in the round?

Depending on the size of the round, 3-5 decades. I have seen water squish out around my maul blade after a 24" Am.elm round sat for almost 2 years, off the ground. Has to be split, elm bark will hold water in the heartwood for years, even the sapwood. Otherwise you'll send smoke signals they can see from the space station. I have approx 6-8" diameter splits that have seasoned for a minimum of 3 years (I have some 10+ yr old I came across at a friend's ranch that was standing dead since 'Dubya was in office), and they burn like crazy, beautiful ocher yellow flames, little smoke. Patience, and you will be richly rewarded. It's one of my all-time favorites when bone dry, stays coaled forever in the Fisher.

Dry elm is a thing of beauty to burn. Tons of heat, some pretty but non threatening sparks, coals for days. Splitting it is a nightmare without hydraulics, though. Even with hydraulics, it'll try to slide around the splitter rather than breaking apart. Bring a sharp hatchet for the strings that hold your pieces together.

Whatever elm this is has been the hardest for me.

Sweet gum or elm has to be worst I've ever split.

BamaScroungr said:

The worst for me so far is Shagbark. But I did learn on these forums that it's much easier to split when the wood is frozen. So I tried mauling the stuff on the coldest day of the year, and it worked! But I'm wondering if freezing temperatures would even help with this twisted and knotty dogwood I just acquired. Heard it's great firewood, but so far I've only managed to knock chunks and chips out of it.

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I haven't split many types of wood but man Shagbark Hickory was nasty even with a splitter. It was stringy and some pieces just came out so mottled they couldn't even be stacked.

Jags said:

American Elm. Sometimes the word "split" is not properly applied...

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That looks like the Shagbark hickory i just split

bunfoolio said:

Thus far the worst wood that I have split has been Yellow Birch. Its just so stringy and does not matter if I use a splitter or an axe. I am at a point where I just might leave decent size logs and cut white pine instead. Anyone have any advice? I know its decent BTU's but it is making me go crazy.

As a reference I have cut in the past without much issue

Red Oak
White Birch
Cedar
Black Lucust
Cherry
White pine
Poplar
Hemlock
Ash
Maple

What is the most difficult wood that you have had to split?

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ELM.

Elm The reason I bought a splitter

bunfoolio said:

Thus far the worst wood that I have split has been Yellow Birch. Its just so stringy and does not matter if I use a splitter or an axe. I am at a point where I just might leave decent size logs and cut white pine instead. Anyone have any advice? I know its decent BTU's but it is making me go crazy.

As a reference I have cut in the past without much issue

Red Oak
White Birch
Cedar
Black Lucust
Cherry
White pine
Poplar
Hemlock
Ash
Maple

What is the most difficult wood that you have had to split?

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Elm, agreed.

I have never messed with elm, shagbark is no picnic but burns great. However i had a 36" sycamore given to me last year freshly cut in log form ..what a pita even the straight grain part was super stringy. Had to noodle everything over 24" or it would stop my tw2hd splitter. On a positive note it dried really fast once split and stacked in the sun. Maybe like six months

Jags said:

American Elm. Sometimes the word "split" is not properly applied...

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Thanks for this pic! I've been browsing through the threads trying to identify this amazingly stringy wood I have. I have a piece that looks exactly like this. So, now I know.
I work with a public works department in Maine and I get all my firewood from our roadside cutting activities here. I know where I got this and I have a lot of it. At the time, I assumed it was ash, but, after whacking a few of the logs with my maul, I knew I had something else. Splitting the remainder of the logs with a hydraulic now and this stuff is just awful. Even this 27 Ton splitter has a time with some of it.

dry locust rounds

Elm, by far. I had a dead standing elm that was about 20 inches in diameter which split easily by hand. A few weeks back I got about a cord of fresh cut elm for free already cut to size. That was a nightmare. All of it went through the splitter. Even the small 6 inch rounds that usually take one hit were almost impossible to split by hand. The splitter struggled with it but the majority of it is split now.

Biggest pita I ever had was sweet gum. Takes forever to split by hand, like its woven together. Avoid it unless you have hydraulics.

Gum.

Also, some forms of pine are just as stringy as gum.

Jags said:

American Elm. Sometimes the word "split" is not properly applied...

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This has to be one of the funniest things I've seen on here.

Someone gave me a couple of these logs. I just rolled them into the fire pit. Didn't even bother.

My vote goes to Yellow Birch. I hate it Back in NY where I used to live, we did not have any Yellow Birch so I would say Shag bark Hickory! After splitting about three cords of Yellow Birch over the last few days I can honestly say that I hate it! My favorite hands down to split has always been Ash. I have always enjoyed the smell of wild cherry more than anything else while splitting.

The worst wood to split is the second to last round in the pile you have been working on all day in the summer heat...

HisTreeNut said:

The worst wood to split is the second to last round in the pile you have been working on all day in the summer heat...

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Man it's funny you say that. Finished up today splitting some rounds of sugar maple and there was one piece left about 30" in diameter. It had a wicked crotch and I battled it for a good ten minutes. Just so happened to be the last piece and it was the toughest one to split, even using hydraulics.

I have had some tough poplar and ash. Not what I expected, but the hardest so far. I have a sharp wedge on my 15 ton splitter, similar to an axe head.
I can cut most rounds in half, including oak, but some rounds are just plain tough. I have been able to split everything I put on the splitter.
Elm can be very stringy. I had a piece a while ago that turned into a poof ball of wood fibers as soon as the wedge touched it. It made a very good fire starter.
My dad has a blunt wedge on his splitter and has trouble with quite a few rounds compared to mine. This makes me think wedge shape has a lot to do with how well a splitter does.

BamaScroungr said:

knotty dogwood I just acquired. Heard it's great firewood, but so far I've only managed to knock chunks and chips out of it.

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Dogwood is pretty tough to split by hand, even straight pieces. Smaller rounds, like 4", I've left un-split and let 'em sit for several years to dry.

Just my two cents... leave it in the round for a summer and then split it.... I find that helps with stringy wood but I really dont have to much exp with those woods....

My "hell to split" wood is Gum... I leave that in rounds on pallets for about 4-6 months then hit it with the maul.

Around here I get pine by the truck load, tulip poplar, cherry, pine, beach, pine, pin oak (Tuff to find though), once in a blue moon red oak, pine, gum gum and more gum...... pine.... this year I did score about 1 cord of standing dead persimmon... that according to my MM just might..... I hope be ready for January..... but just barely..... (Crossing fingers because I heard that stuff burns hot!)