Hello, I have a question for you guys that have been splitting for years. Between seasoned and green wood, is one consistently easier to split than the other? Especially ELM!!
green or seasoned?
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I cut up an dead standing Elm this past Spring and split the rounds this past Fall. The 26 ton splitter was really working to get thru the 18 inch stringy rounds. I remember seeing water boiling up on the round when the wedge applied force to it. I wouldn't have dreamt splitting it by hand. If the rounds are truly seasoned for a couple years it would be a little better, but in my opinion elm is always going to be a tougher species to split especially if hand splitting.
I have been splitting up 10 - 20" rounds of it with a monster maul and a fiskars( and a wedge with an 8# sledge). MISERABLE. I have several big rounds of it left, i thought about letting it sit for a while.
Good idea. I"ll probabally just pick at it here and there since I already split most of what I had.(my fiskars needs a challenge sometimes). I still wonder in general if wood that has dried out some splits easier. So far I have only really split green wood.
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Yes, elm will split easier after it is seasoned. The problem is getting it seasoned without splitting it. It drys out slow... The best way I have found to split elm (by hand) is to wait until all bark has fallen off the tree and then cut it the following year. Most of the top half of the tree will be ready to burn that year. The bottom or butt will usually still have some sap in it but waiting to cut like this will allow you to split the wood much easier and you can split it right after cutting. You will find that most of it will not be as stringy as it is when cut green. For many years I split elm by hand this way.
Thanks for the info. That sounds like the way to go. The elm I have now was chunked up and left on the ground by a utility co..I figured their had to be an easier way. I'm going to let what I have sit a while.
Gooserider
Mod Emeritus
It won't dry if you leave it on the ground... You need to get some kind of stack going - I use old pallets and stack the rounds on top until I get around to splitting them.
Gooserider
Gooserider
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
Elm . . . no question . . . definitely splits better if well seasoned. Like Dennis I prefer the elm to be standing dead with no bark as it will split much better by hand and in fact if it is dead enough will actually split rather easily . . . but if elm is unseasoned . . . oh boy . . . going with a hydraulic splitter is the only way I would be wanting to split that wood . . . very, very stingy.
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
jersey boy said:
When seasoned it burns fine . . . thanks to a lot of standing dead elm it pretty much got me through last winter with no problems . . . although it wasn't as seasoned as I thought it was even with it being standing dead.
The elm I've burned this year is great . . . it's not like oak or hickory, but it burns well with a moderate to high-BTU level . . . the key being it really needs to season before using.
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