I have an Elm and a Sour Gum in my yard that are going to have to come down eventually, and I'm trying to figure out what I have to look forward to. I've split sycamore before, and it was bad. How do Sour Gum and Elm compare to that?
Harder to hand split... Sycamore, Sour Gum, or Elm?
- Thread starter terpsucka
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tigeroak
Feeling the Heat
Never heard of sour gum , sweet gum yes. Unless you have a log splitter they are going to be a bear. When I get sweet gum or elm I noodle them all. Now I have heard that if you leave them in rounds and split in a year they are better to split. I want mine worked up asp and done.
Hickorynut
Feeling the Heat
I have split both elm and sweetgum all with a maul, sledge and wedges in my younger days. Both about equally hard to split but I like elm better. Splits more normally for better stacking as sweet gum tears and you come away with all types of split shapes. However, more recently and in the future, if I don't have a splitter to use both species will be noodled. Now that I have a 60cc saw noodling is quicker and easier. Noodling creates a lot of waste but with elm and sweetgum you are not dealing with the gold nuggets of firewood, so to speak....
midwestcoast
Minister of Fire
Never dealt with Sour Gum or any kind of Gum.
I'd put American Elm as generally harder to split than Sycamore. Sycamore seems to split pretty straight, but just needs more force than most woods (think 8lb maul instead of a Fiskars). If the Sycamore grew in the open it tends to have a lot of very twisty limbs which are tough & annoying.
The worst American Elm flat out refuses to split & just gets mashed into a stringy mess.
Red or Slippery Elm is not too bad at all except around knots.
I'd put American Elm as generally harder to split than Sycamore. Sycamore seems to split pretty straight, but just needs more force than most woods (think 8lb maul instead of a Fiskars). If the Sycamore grew in the open it tends to have a lot of very twisty limbs which are tough & annoying.
The worst American Elm flat out refuses to split & just gets mashed into a stringy mess.
Red or Slippery Elm is not too bad at all except around knots.
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