Any tips on splitting hickory?

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Nick Mystic

Nick Mystic

Minister of Fire
Feb 12, 2013
1,141
Western North Carolina
With our burning season winding down in western NC I've started some logging to replenish my wood shed. About six months ago a storm brought down a fairly large hickory tree that is about 16" in diameter. I started working it up last week and I am having a lot of trouble splitting it. My 7 ton electric splitter can handle the rounds under 8" but not the bigger stuff. Yesterday I had my first big rounds to split and my Fiskurs splitting ax with a razor sharp blade just bounced off the split. I couldn't get my steel wedges to take hold using a sledge hammer. I finally had to resort to cutting slots about an inch deep in the ends of the round with my chainsaw to hold the wedge as I pounded it in. It took 25 or more good hits to bury the wedge and then I would attempt to pound a second wedge in next to the first one. Even with two wedges forcing the round open 3 inches the stringy wood held firm.

At that point I could get my splitter to work on the round, but had to finish off the split with a hatchet to cut through the stringy wood still holding the two pieces together. Does anyone have any tips besides suggesting getting hold of a 20 ton splitter?
 
That type of wood is the Big reason I bought a good hydro splitter
 
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i have not had much trouble with splitting in ohio. i try to stay with the tight bark varieties(pignut, mockernut, etc.) my fallback method for anything hard to split is to go around the circumference of the split, taking small slices as i go. if your rounds aren't too heavy you can do the same thing on your splitter. just roll to the next good angle for you next slice. this method has been discussed for years, works for me. good luck.
 
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Shag bark Hickory- been heating with it all winter- I have a large hydro splitter-,no problem at all. Yep real stringy like some Elms.
 
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I've tried nibbling around the circumference with the splitter and have had a little success with rounds up to 12 inches or so, but these big rounds that are 20" across and 20" long are just too big to balance on my electric splitter for the nibbling technique. I know a big gas powered splitter would likely work, but since I don't have one, or plan on buying one, I don't need any more suggestions regrading using one.
This morning I got into the main trunk and the diameter is over 20 inches. I'm going to have to split them in half out in the field since they are too big to move down the hillside and load into my trailer without splitting at least once in half.
 
Nick Mystic said:
I know a big gas powered splitter would likely work, but since I don't have one, or plan on buying one, I don't need any more suggestions regrading using one.
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So you want advice, but not advice that you disagree with? Take the big rounds on their side, noodle bar deep, and then hammer a wedge in there. That will pop them in half at least. From there you can do it again if the piece is still too large to pick up. Hickory is stringy, and if you don't have the right equipment to handle it, maybe it's best left where it lay.
 
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Yes, I may have to end up noodling them with the chainsaw. This morning I noodled a big crotch and it wasn't too bad with the new blade I had just put on my saw. My next plan of attack is to cut a notch in top of the round and pound in a wedge to start the split. Then come back with the chainsaw and slip it into the opening and noodle down from there.
 
I just split about a cord and half by hand all shagbark. Now with that said , set it aside for a year or 2 off the ground and let it dry as much as you can. What I split was almost dry and split like butter. Limbs 18-24 inch easy as ash and walnut. Now I haven't got to the trunk yet but every thing else split like butter. If you don't have the room to set aside then I would noodle it. I also split everything by hand so I try to do it the best way for me.
 
Also I forgot to add if it don't split easy flip it over and try the other side. This I have done and splits better. I split croch's this way upside down and just splits like butter most of the time. Then if it don't split saw time.
 
It sounds like you should just noodle the big rounds. Cut them in half and from there I think it will be possible to split them using the fiskars.
 
tigeroak said:
I just split about a cord and half by hand all shagbark. Now with that said , set it aside for a year or 2 off the ground and let it dry as much as you can. What I split was almost dry and split like butter. Limbs 18-24 inch easy as ash and walnut. Now I haven't got to the trunk yet but every thing else split like butter. If you don't have the room to set aside then I would noodle it. I also split everything by hand so I try to do it the best way for me.
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Ditto. I just had a standing dead shagbark fall and that thing split like cake.
 
A couple wedges 20 lb sledge, that should do it. The noodling with the chainsaw works to. I split by hand 8 lb maul 20 lb sledge with three to four wedges. With that you can split just about any wood.
 
I gave up trying to split certain types of wood by hand. I got a splitter 4 years ago and haven't missed sore hands and forearms one bit. Hickory especially green is very stringy, great wood so it's worth struggling with, but not by hand for me. You can try a Fiskars axe which I still use. Red oak splits nice with a Fiskars.
 
Fresh hickory really likes to hold itself together... I had a few logs I was struggling with a while back. I bucked up the rest of it to 16" rounds, then let them sit for a few months. When I went back to it, they split MUCH easier.

Some wood likes to split when it's green; some wood likes to split when it's dry... hickory is definitely the latter.
 
I couldn't find an easy answer when I was in the exact same situation. I think it was Bitternut, and the bark would not separate and the outside splits stuck together - every single time. I got so sick of separating each with a hatchet or saw.

They were good sized rounds (25-30"), so I cut a "+" groove and would use 3-4 wedges to split them in half and then quarters so I could pick them up. My 5-ton electric could generally handle a quarter, but I've had to pre-cut plenty of rounds to get them through that thing. Just the cost of doing business that way.

I'd have to agree that hickory would be MUCH easier to split dry. Some of those wet stringy bits will not let go.

Here's the rub. The hickory rounds I was working on looked like the were cut the day before. The landowner told me they were there for two years. They were super-heavy. But when a bunch of it finally dried, it was PUNKY!!! Augh!!

It you wait on this stuff, it cannot be in contact with mother earth. ;)
 
I split a bunch of new Shagbark hickory last June with my hydro splitter and it was kinda difficult even with that. Very stringy.

If you cant let it dry, I would say noodle, wedge in half, and pray your splitter can do the halves.
 
Agree with leonardo's post.
The hickory I've split recently (smallish rounds ~20" diam.), bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis) split very easily by hand when green. Perhaps that's
All things equal open-grown trees tend to be tougher to split (more wind action and more branches increasing strength and toughness of the wood).

Hickory sapwood is definitely susceptible to rot. The trunk actually had more rot as I bucked my way up toward the top, with diminishing returns splitting off sapwood to get a only a tiny core of heartwood. <>
 
heavy hammer said:
A couple wedges 20 lb sledge, that should do it. The noodling with the chainsaw works to. I split by hand 8 lb maul 20 lb sledge with three to four wedges. With that you can split just about any wood.
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That's because you bench press Volkswagens ;lol
 
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https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/big-hickory.152504/

I recently dealt with some big hickory also. I used a hydro splitter to finish it off, but in order to get it to manageable sizes I noodled about 2-3" deep, then I used wedges to split it.

I tried a sledge and wedges and they just bounced out.

If I were you I would use the saw/wedge method to get them smaller. I would stack them for a year or two, then split to stove size once dry.
 
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Thanks, I'm sure there are much easier ways then just swinging away till it splits but that is usually how I approach splitting logs. Letting it dry out a little will definitely help, I have never used a wood splitter. Just the way we have always done it. My father is turning sixty this year and refuses to use a splitter. He leaves the real big stuff for me but when push comes to shove the old man can still swing all day, he still is an animal!
 
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I had a problem with some hickory last year, I placed the rounds in a sunny spot for 2-3 weeks and they were easier to split.
 
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