Little Oak

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Shipper50

Shipper50

Minister of Fire
Nov 10, 2007
604
Indiana
My neighbor who had his land logged 2 years ago this coming Jan. had this piece laying in the back 40 and we found it today and I cut it in 3 pieces. It was at least 35 inches across as my Dolmar with a 20 inch bar wouldn't cut it from one side. We tried to split with my chopper axe and my generic Fiskars and we got some small pieces off the side, but the mauls just bounced when he hit the middle.

So the piece will lay there till this winter and I will try and bust it then. It should be ready to burn by 2015 the way everyone talks about oak on here. ;-P

Shipper
 

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It was left there for good reason. Its the begining of a wye, very hard to split. Get it off the ground if you intend on using it.
 
gzecc said:
It was left there for good reason. Its the begining of a wye, very hard to split. Get it off the ground if you intend on using it.
Click to expand...
Did you mean an EYE? I will get it off the ground when I can get it busted up. My buddy and I figure each split weighs around 250 and its way back in the woods where one has to ride a 4wheeler to get to it.

Shipper
 
Shipper50 said:
gzecc said:
It was left there for good reason. Its the begining of a wye, very hard to split. Get it off the ground if you intend on using it.
Click to expand...
Did you mean an EYE? I will get it off the ground when I can get it busted up. My buddy and I figure each split weighs around 250 and its way back in the woods where one has to ride a 4wheeler to get to it.

Shipper
Click to expand...

Y is where two branches formed (Y in the road)
 
I cut an oak stump similar in size that was about 3 and 1/2 feet tall at my mother inlaws house last weekend. It was left there for the same reason, they cut it off at the y and probably didn't feel like cutting through the bottom of the stump and then trying to split through the y. Once I cut the stump off I quartered it with the saw and it wasn't too bad to split with the Fiskars after that.
 
I haven't used my wedges and sledge in a long time, but might have to break them out to get it to splitting size.

Anyone know what kind of oak it is? I will take more pictures when I get it split up more, maybe tomorrow.

Shipper
 
Shipper50 said:
I haven't used my wedges and sledge in a long time, but might have to break them out to get it to splitting size.

Anyone know what kind of oak it is? I will take more pictures when I get it split up more, maybe tomorrow.

Shipper
Click to expand...
Looks like white oak, but thats a stretch.
 
I think its white oak also. I tried to put a wedge in it and it just laughed at me. I had to cut it all in the pics below with my saw and then the last 2 inches I popped it with a wedge.

This wood has been laying for almost 2 years and its like it was just cut yesterday. I went through 1 1/2 tanks of gas with my Dolmar 5100 just to get what is in the wagon. I have about this much more to cut later. Going to run it through my splitter after a break.

Should be some good heat for the 2012-13 season if I am still here. :)

Shipper
 

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I try to split those Ys through the center of both branches. There are two circular patterns in the wood, and you take a line through both, so you're splitting both branches at once. It still will be tough, but at least you're not trying to rip apart the wood, you're splitting it. Good luck. I imagine really hard wood like that has more heat in it than average pieces.
 
A chainsaw is the best medicine for hard to split pieces like that. I used to look at it as a challenge when I was a young man. But at 74 I just pick up a saw and whittle it down to size. Some times I cut them in to 2 or 3 pieces before running them through a splitter, makes them lighter.. They just about take more energy than they are worth to split them by hand.
 
English ship builders purposely used those Y's for critical parts of a ships framing.
 
I got the rest of of it today, used my 5100 yesterday and took a long time. Took the 7900 with a 20 inch bar and was done with the rest in half the time or less.

I did find it somewhat easy to split where the 2 trunks? come together. A couple of the pieces were a bit heavy, but they are in the wagon and ready for the splitter. I found a wind blown blackcherry about 15 inches across that needed to be dropped and I put it on the ground and bucked it up. So I have Cherry Oak, get it? %-P

Shipper
 

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