Black Cherry-Splitting is a PITA!

Curly grained Cherry is best burned whole. Your splitting resources are best spent elsewhere.

I had a big load of it last year, and it split easy as pie for me!

one handed even for small planks for kindling?

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/35235/P0/

Never had cherry hard to split. Send some pictures.

Stringy cherry? Never heard of it. Now elm... that's some stringy stuff. On a bet that I could hand split elm, I once drove two wedges right through a round without being able to get it apart. Lost that wager.

One of the few bad things about cherry as a woodworking wood is split propagation. If you start a split on accident, it will likely travel further than it appears to. Even cherry with a deep curl never poses a problem for me, save the few pieces with big knots.

I once had some cherry that was hard to split. Axe bounced right off it. Turned out it was waterlogged, punky wood that was frozen hard as a brick. Usually, frozen wood will split real nice, but if it's waterlogged you're in for a workout. Hope that's not the case with your's, since we all know what that would mean.

gzecc said:

Never had cherry hard to split. Send some pictures.

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i'm with gzecc - cherry around here is rare if bigger than 12" across and usually fairly easy to split.

richg said:

Gang,

Hope you are well. I received a dump truck load of black cherry, and have tried to split it with the Fiskars and Mega Mule Maul. What the hey, it's easier splitting red oak than to split this stuff. It's stringy, the maul bounces off, irregular splits etc., Any advice on how to deal with this? I can rent a gas splitter, but am actually having fun splitting by hand as exercise. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

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There is a Splitter vs Fiskar's post about how one can out gun each other (machine power vs the band wagoned man powered Fiskar's)
I've split plenty of cherry before with a 6lb and 8lb maul, it can be tougher than you think.
What sized rounds we talking here?

WoodButcher

WOODBUTCHER said:

richg said:

Gang,

Hope you are well. I received a dump truck load of black cherry, and have tried to split it with the Fiskars and Mega Mule Maul. What the hey, it's easier splitting red oak than to split this stuff. It's stringy, the maul bounces off, irregular splits etc., Any advice on how to deal with this? I can rent a gas splitter, but am actually having fun splitting by hand as exercise. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

Click to expand...

There is a Splitter vs Fiskar's post about how one can out gun each other (machine power vs the band wagoned man powered Fiskar's)
I've split plenty of cherry before with a 6lb and 8lb maul, it can be tougher than you think.
What sized rounds we talking here?

WoodButcher

Click to expand...

That would be fun. Have two, two man or three man teams, one team with a hydraulic splitter and the other team with that splitting axe of their choice. Have a good old fashioned Man Vs. Machine race reminiscent of John Henry. Have two equal stacks of wood, maybe 2 cords ... or 5 and have at it.


+1 on Cherry being easy splitting. I just split a bunch last weekend by hand as I couldn't get my splitter started. I got out the good ol' Chopper 1 and gave 'em what fer. I love that hydraulic splitter but if i have to split by hand I would pick black cherry.

I have always found cherry really easy to split. Like maple or walnut. Although any tree that has twisted grain to it, will be really hard to split. Maybe that is what your cherry has going on.

Most of the cherry I've gotten in S. Jersey has been a pain in the arse split also. Yet everything I read about splitting says cherry is easier then red oak. Go figure.

I agree with the guys who have said cherry usually isn't tough to split. Red Oak is among the easiest to split, if you get a straight grained piece, so comparing cherry to Red Oak is going to make cherry seem tough, but in the wide spectrum of wood, cherry is pretty average.

I agree that cherry can be very easy to split....I also agree that cherry can be difficult to split. Some trees have a straight grain and some are a bit twisted.

The nice straight pieces of cherry split easy.
Unfortunately, there aren't too many around here.
Must have the crookedest , twistiest cherry trees around.

The easiest splitting cherry I ever saw actually split itself.

I was out behind the field in back of my house. I saw a big cherry tree leaning out at about a 45º angle overhanging the gully that separated the field from the woods. I got as far as the pith and the next thing I know I'm standing about 20' back, not knowing how I got there and my saw idling in the tree trunk. The entire 60' or so of the tree split right down the middle in one thunderous crack. Half my splitting done for me, but it took hours in the laundry to get out the stain. I never really was any good at this tree harvesting thing.

Black and choke tend to be twisty like that. Even the straight pieces are stringy. The other cherrys are much easyer to split

I split a ton of cherry. Some easy, some not. When it is tough I start on the edges and then work in. That usually works, the monster maul rarely fails me.

The hardest piece of wood I ever split was a length of cherry with more trists than I can sat, When I put it in a 28 ton splitter the thing started bogging down and then a huge explosion when the wood finally broke! I stayed clear while splitting the rest of that length..

richg said:

Gang,

Hope you are well. I received a dump truck load of black cherry, and have tried to split it with the Fiskars and Mega Mule Maul. What the hey, it's easier splitting red oak than to split this stuff. It's stringy, the maul bounces off, irregular splits etc., Any advice on how to deal with this? I can rent a gas splitter, but am actually having fun splitting by hand as exercise. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

Click to expand...

I hand split an entire 7 cord Grapple Load of other hard wood types (non-cherry) with no problem until I got to a 24 inch diameter Cherry tree which did me in. I ended up using a 27 ton Troy Built Splitter and it worked great. That cherry was one of the tuffest woods I ever split. The only similarly difficult tree was a wind twisted birch. I can't imagine an entire load of cherry!

All of the Black Cherry I have in these here parts is not straight and real tough to split by hand

JoeyD said:

Most of the cherry I've gotten in S. Jersey has been a pain in the arse split also. Yet everything I read about splitting says cherry is easier then red oak. Go figure.

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Just split about a cord with a 5 ton splitter. I didn't measure the rounds from the base but it was a bigun. It was tough splitting because it was stringy. I was swinging the hatchet alot.

Is it as bad as spiraled birch? Get mad, hit it allot. When it finally cracks, give it your best shot.
This was frozen & it was still a good cardio workout.

no doubt, cherry sux

I like burning cherry, if I can't get it to split in the first few swings I break out the wedge. The black and choke cherry can be a pain but it seems to dry fast.

I got a load of cherry with two personalities. Cleaved some like butter, others the Fiskars bounced back at me.

Cherry is bad about cankers. I think this produces rock hard wood on the interior. However, if you can get those pieces dry and into the stove, it burns like a dream.