Comes with its own kindlingAttached is a pc of straight grain smooth white oak, next to a lovely piece of miserable splitting elm
American, Chinese, SiberianI've burned plenty. Good stuff. Not sure about the picture above. My Ch. Elm does not ever appear that stringy! Maybe what I have always called Ch. Elm really isn't? I am actually working through a very large specimen in the back yard right now. Definitely hydraulic splitter material to be efficient. Hands down.
Open grown white oak can be as bad or worse. Every round can have a branch, and every branch could need to be ripped apart.and anything else that gets all twisted up. Free is good