Wood Identificaiton Help and Pictures from this Morning

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TomR

TomR

New Member
Nov 12, 2011
56
Central CT
Can anyone tell me what type of wood this is? I'm still very new at this...but this is extremely difficult to split..as in I can't split it by hand. I probably gave the first piece a good 30 hits before it split. Also, it seems extremely wet - I can see water oozing out when I cut into it. The inside is dark in color like a deep brown. I don't have a log splitter so any advice on how to get this to split easier would be greatly appreciated.

It was amazing how much I got in the 4runner.

Note - I believe the other wood in the pile is Birch and that's just fine to split. It's the other stuff that is difficult.

Thanks
 

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1st picture is Walnut.
 
+1 Walnut. Dont know why its so hard to split. Always very easy to split, unless you were splitting a knotty piece. What were you using to split it?? Sharpen your ax and give a few other pieces of try,,,should be much easier for ya. Walnut is a medium btu wood.
 
I'm a new guy to the forum. Been on the outside looking in for several months.
Looking at the last picture, sure looks like black walnut.
 
Thanks guys. Much appreciated. I am going to keep trying to split it - I'm using a Maul...I could try an axe. I have also thought about cutting them a little shorter and then trying to split it. This is a lot of fun.
 
I agree it is Black Walnut. Any tree can be tough to split if the tree had a lot of big branches, knots, Ys, etc. Cutting shorter should help. Normally walnut isn't hard to split, you just got a crooked one.
 
Looks like black walnut to me. Must be splitting some knotty stuff if it's hard. Dead giveaway of walnut is the smell. Should be pretty strong.
 
I agree, walnut, and yeah the other wood looks like birch.
 
Yup. Walnut and birch.

And a hearth.com welcome to the forum goes out to both TomR The Beagler
 
Are you using this kind of a maul? Wedge mauls stink.
 

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No I was using a regular Maul. I got to a few pieces that were a little smaller and had no problems so it must have just been the first few that were really difficult.
 
Ok, I have a hard time believing it's walnut if it took 30 hits to split it.

I realize that different trees grow different sometimes some are harder or easier to split, but I just can't see a walnut (the easiest wood to split) could be that hard to split just by natural variations.

Just for example, I can lay walnut down on the ground and lightly swing my SS with one hand and the rounds just pop apart... it practically splits itself.

Could it be possible that this is some type of lesser known ornamental tree?
 
Did you try hitting it from the other side. Quite often, even with a hydraulic splitter, a log splits markedly better from the other side.
 
I have tried hitting it from all directions. I had better success cutting the logs down to less than 12 inches but even at that they aren't easy to split. The skinny branches (less than 2 inches in diameter) do split after a few hits. I don't know if this makes a difference or not but the wood was extremely wet. I hit it and the area around the blade and on the blade is clearly covered in water.
 
TomR said:
I have tried hitting it from all directions. I had better success cutting the logs down to less than 12 inches but even at that they aren't easy to split. The skinny branches (less than 2 inches in diameter) do split after a few hits. I don't know if this makes a difference or not but the wood was extremely wet. I hit it and the area around the blade and on the blade is clearly covered in water.
Click to expand...
Can you get us a close up picture of the bark? That will likely help more...
 
I know a lot said walnut, but with the look and the inability to split easy...might it be Siberian Elm? It looks similar to stuff I've had and reminds me of the tough time splitting.
 
I will try to get a close up picture this weekend. Where does Siberian Elm grow? I did have another experienced wood guy look at it who said it was Walnut. His opinion was that it needed to dry out and then it would be easier to split.
 
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