Best and Worst Wood to Split

[TimJ]

Oak can be on the worst list, red or white, because the bottom line is oaks are big trees which produce big rounds which produce hard work for the man and not the splitter

 

[Mitch Newton]

Bitternut hickory and burr oak have been the most fun. Could split them into perfect chair legs if desired, and shave with the corners. Stringy hackberry=Yech!

Ditto on the stringy Hackberry

 

[USMC80]

Splitting oak by hand is very satisfying.

The easiest I ever split was Sassafrass and the scent of it was great too. It split so easy that I used an axe instead of a maul.

Im not sure what the worst was, but it was very stringy and even the few strings that you can usually pull apart by hand had to be hit with the maul. I finally gave up and attacked that round with a chainsaw. The rest of that I split with a machine.

ill second the sassafrass

 

[teutonicking]

I'm sure this has been discussed on here before, but I'll be damned if I can find it.

Just curious what everyone thinks are the best and worst kinds of wood to split. And I mean by hand for all you hyrdaulics freaks out there.

I've got a pile of oak [not sure what kind] from a side-of-road scrounge back in the spring that I need to split - maybe a 1/3 of a cord - and I'm wondering how bad it's going to be. Most of it has been sitting in 4- to 6-foot length for the last 3-4 months.

Red Oak = best
Gum = worst

 

[Gark]

The types I thought to be easiest splitting (ash and red oak) can even be tough splitting sometimes. The worst had wavy and twisted grain that grew in the open wind. The straightest grain best splitting ones came from dense woods (protected from wind).
The worst: American elm.

 

[Applesister]

The worse for me was a Rock elm. It had the worse case of interlocking grain I have ever seen. Had to use an axe on every split after the hydraulic splitter had bottomed out and the splits were still stuck together.
The easiest to split is aspen, what it lacks in BTUs it makes up for in ease of splitting.
But my favorite hands down for processing is Black birch. Love the smell.