Remmy122 said:
I dont do it often, but I dont really understand the aversion of noodling from the "old school" crowd.
so what gives?
I don't either ???
I don't noodle often, when I do it's because I've already tried it the "old-school" way and it's going to take more work and time than I'm willing to devote.
Couple examples:
#1, fresh cut honey locust rounds that were too big to get into the truck. Wedges just bounced back out when I attempted to split them. I bore cut to get the wedges started. They still bounced out 90% of the time. Finally got one round split so I could get it in the truck. Took me a half hour to do so. Fresh cut honey locust doesn't split very easily IMHO. So I decided for the other 15 rounds I was going to try noodling them partially first. I noodles about 1/3 way through the round and they easily popped apart with the sledge and wedge that time.
So for the guys that "shake their heads" when talk of noodling comes up. Why no take 1 minute, 1 oz. of gas, and 1/2 oz of bar oil to shave 20 minutes of hard labor off your day? You'll be much more productive in the end.
#2 Splitting some nasty honey locust crotches and piece I would repeatedly stick all 5 wedges and end up being SOL on splitting the wood until I could get my wedges knocked back out and driven in on a new spot. Whereas, 3 minutes with the saw, 3 oz. of gas, and 1.5 oz of bar oil and the pain is over with.
Why waste a hour of your time trying to split a single piece of wood when a saw will do it much quicker?
You guys act like we're using the saw to cut the wood vs. splitting the wood just because it's fun. From my experience, most people aren't doing it for fun, it's because it's just too much work and time to do it the alternative way.
One final question for the guys that have an aversion to noodling. What do you do when you encounter a 36" round that has eaten 5 wedges? Do you go buy more wedges?, leave the round (and your wedges) and give up? Or do you just use the saw and cut it open?
What other option is there?
Btw, I'm not putting you down if you choose to do things the hard way, I just choose to work smart and efficiently, and when it comes to the choice of "spend an hour or more of painstaking work driving wedges" vs "spend 5 minutes running the saw" you can bet I'm not choosing the first option. Does that make me lazy? Not in my opinion. It makes me smart.