Ran the splitter today

[mywaynow]

Got the chance to start splitting some of the Red Oak and Maple I had hauled to the house today. If the Maple wasn't so nice smelling and clean burning, I wouild leave it alone. That stuff is a pain to split! Gotta run the complete cycle in order to yank apart the pieces. Now the Red Oak is a pure pleasure to split. I can run 24 inch pieces by cutting only 4 inches into it, and it is falling away on it's own. Cuts almost dimensionally perfect too. Split some Dogwood that blew over in a storm earlier this past fall. That splits ok, better than the Maple and not as good as the Red Oak.

Either way, making room for the big score I have been bucking down the road from my house.

 

[RNLA]

I shoveled 4 yards of dirt & root material into my chip truck and went out to dump it. Part of it was frozen in the box... Double hard to remove. I would have liked running the splitter more! :-S

 

[smokinj]

We are playing sand the board....Takes Both sides to Win! Come on over I have a couple seats left but HURRY there going fast!

 

[gyrfalcon]

Got the chance to start splitting some of the Red Oak and Maple I had hauled to the house today. If the Maple wasn't so nice smelling and clean burning, I wouild leave it alone. That stuff is a pain to split! Gotta run the complete cycle in order to yank apart the pieces. Now the Red Oak is a pure pleasure to split. I can run 24 inch pieces by cutting only 4 inches into it, and it is falling away on it's own. Cuts almost dimensionally perfect too. Split some Dogwood that blew over in a storm earlier this past fall. That splits ok, better than the Maple and not as good as the Red Oak.

Either way, making room for the big score I have been bucking down the road from my house.

Heh. You should try the elm I've been working on lately, or even just beech. Maple is a total breeze by comparison. But you're so right, red oak is an incredible pleasure to split.

 

[WoodpileOCD]

Only thing I've ever split that was easier than red oak was pine and cedar but it wasn't nearly as satisfying. Something about the way the heavy slab of oak falls apart that's just good for a mans soul.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Only thing I've ever split that was easier than red oak was pine and cedar but it wasn't nearly as satisfying. Something about the way the heavy slab of oak falls apart that's just good for a mans soul.

Something tells me you have never split much white ash!

 

[WoodpileOCD]

Only thing I've ever split that was easier than red oak was pine and cedar but it wasn't nearly as satisfying. Something about the way the heavy slab of oak falls apart that's just good for a mans soul.

Something tells me you have never split much white ash!

Probably never that I'm aware of. Is that how you get such big piles? Touch the lever and it just falls into 6 pieces and you throw it on the pile. :smirk:

 

[mywaynow]

Here is a pic of some of the awful pieces of Maple that I ended up with. The tree was a tangle of knots and birdnest grain. I could have split 5 Red Oak logs in the time it took to tackle this one Maple. The logs are so deformed I left them separate so they don't mess up the stacks. I intend on using them on top of the stacks where they don't effect other logs. Another great thing that happened with the Maple was that a large piece literally blew up when it split. Knocked me back about 4 feet and left me looking for all fingers and limbs being in tact. Pain in the donkey wood type.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Here is a pic of some of the awful pieces of Maple that I ended up with. The tree was a tangle of knots and birdnest grain. I could have split 5 Red Oak logs in the time it took to tackle this one Maple. The logs are so deformed I left them separate so they don't mess up the stacks. I intend on using them on top of the stacks where they don't effect other logs. Another great thing that happened with the Maple was that a large piece literally blew up when it split. Knocked me back about 4 feet and left me looking for all fingers and limbs being in tact. Pain in the donkey wood type.

Yikes! That's awful! Not at all typical of maple in my experience. What kind of maple, do you know? The rock maple (sugar maple) around here typically grows pretty straight and tall before it starts to branch, not the kind of twisted mess you were coping with there. The stuff is hard as nails but usually a nice straight grain that ultimately pops apart (sometimes with great force) either with a maul or a splitter.

 

[mywaynow]

Don't know the species. I can tell you that this tree was very old, and the base was in excess of 48 inches. The piece I struggled with was merely a quarter of a cross section. There are 6 or so, full cross sections still there. I could not even move them an inch. If they were not such a ton of work, I would grab them. Love burning the Maple, but this tree ain't worth the effort. Anyone is Bucks County Pa could likely scrounge this stuff, but it will take a team to load it.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Only thing I've ever split that was easier than red oak was pine and cedar but it wasn't nearly as satisfying. Something about the way the heavy slab of oak falls apart that's just good for a mans soul.

Something tells me you have never split much white ash!

Probably never that I'm aware of. Is that how you get such big piles? Touch the lever and it just falls into 6 pieces and you throw it on the pile. :smirk:

That could describe it! lol Sometimes I just let the ornery one stand there and stare at the stuff and it all falls apart.

All joking aside, it does split very easy. One year after an accident I split a whole bunch of it by hand! I actually sat on one log while I used a sledge and wedge. I could only tap the sledge lightly else the pain was too bad. It took longer to do this way but I got it done! That was just a short time before we graduated to hydraulics.

 

[Jags]

Pain in the donkey wood type.

If you think that maple was a tough nut to crack,
Allow me to introduce you to Elm:

 

[lukem]

I split about 3 cord of elm last spring...by hand. Never had any that persistent though. I didn't keep close track, but I had probably 20 hours in it.

Last fall I split about 6 cord of red/white oak, again by hand, and had about 15 hours in it. I think that tells the story.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Allow me to introduce you to Elm:

That is a whole lot of ram to not split the round.

 

[Jags]

Allow me to introduce you to Elm:

That is a whole lot of ram to not split the round.

I have some pics that I have posted before that shows the wedge completely buried with a stringy, hairy mess that was once a log.

 

[ChrisNJ]

Only thing I've ever split that was easier than red oak was pine and cedar but it wasn't nearly as satisfying. Something about the way the heavy slab of oak falls apart that's just good for a mans soul.

I had about 2 cords of fresh cut red oak rounds delivered last week and the guys thought I was nuts for wanting it to split by hand, well if I had an 80yo grandmother she could split this stuff it falls apart so easily, hell a lot of the time I am using only one hand with the maul.

 

[mywaynow]

You have to wear your steel tip boots if splitting Red Oak on a horizontal splitter. The pieces fall off quicker than you can grab them!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

You have to wear your steel tip boots if splitting Red Oak on a horizontal splitter. The pieces fall off quicker than you can grab them!

Just one more reason to never split horizontally. Stand that splitter up and split wood the way it was meant to be split; vertically!

 

[WoodpileOCD]

You have to wear your steel tip boots if splitting Red Oak on a horizontal splitter. The pieces fall off quicker than you can grab them!

Just one more reason to never split horizontally. Stand that splitter up and split wood the way it was meant to be split; vertically!

Dang mywaynow, you walked right into that one. Didn't we ALL see that one coming. :coolgrin: Just throw him a softball next time why don't ya. :lol:

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Ya, I keep on hammering. :lol:

 

[Jags]

Little known fact:

As a young lad, Dennis spent a summer with a small, ground dwelling family of Orangutans. Their low posture and inherent nature to plop down on their hiney has been etched into his being and behavior, ever since.
.
.
.
:lol: :lol: :coolsmile:

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Hummmm. Is that why when I was a young lad my mother always told me to not be monkeying around on dates? Then when I was on the date, my girl kept telling me to quit monkeying around. Here I thought it was a different monkey...

 

[Jags]

Hummmm. Is that why when I was a young lad my mother always told me to not be monkeying around on dates? Then when I was on the date, my girl kept telling me to quit monkeying around. Here I thought it was a different monkey...

Could be, my friend. Could be. ;-)

 

[firefighterjake]

I like monkeys . . . and chimps . . . and Dennis.