score?

[nola mike]

Heard the sound of chainsaws from my front porch today. Looked down the alley and saw a tree coming down. Asked if I could have it. I bucked some and the tree guys even loaded my truck with their bobcat. Sweet. I then asked what it was. "Elm". Crap. Since I got a 1/2 cord of wood 300 ft from my house, that's good still. but... How can I split this? Never tried, but it sounds like a groan. This will be all by hand, and for exercise as much as anything, but after my last impossible go round with gum, I'm hoping it won't be that bad...

 

[Raithi]

Get to splitting it right now. It will be easiest to split green, you wait around and its like trying to split concrete with your maul. Work it around the outsides instead of trying to split it down the middle. If you have some wedges they will come in handy. But splitting it as soon as you can is key.

 

[nola mike]

I'll split on Monday. But it CAN split, right? Not like that folking gum.

 

[Raithi]

It can split, it just normally has a weird sort of spiral interlocked grain so you have to chip away at it from the outside edge or beat it to death with wedges and a sledge. And the drier the wood gets the harder it becomes. I have a chainsaw mill and milled some dried down elm for decking planks one time. It was just as bad as trying to rip locust slabs.

 

[cahaak]

Spit it frozen, it will help a lot with the stringiness. There isn't much you can do about the interlocking wood grain.

 

[nola mike]

Doesn't often get cold enough/long enough to freeze anything too solid around here. No persistent sub-freezing temps for the next week at least...

 

[nola mike]

Well, that wasn't bad at all. Just finished splitting about 1/2 of my truckload. I mean, it wasn't like splitting poplar but it's been splitting no problem. Some of the splits are ugly and stringy, but that's about it. Not a ton worse than oak. Just using the Fiskars, no wedges or anything. Makes me wonder if this is in fact elm. I'll post a pic. Not a strong odor, but if you get in it it smells like horse/pig/etc stables, if that helps.

Ha, just saw my original post "it sounds like a groan". I didn't actually write that

 

[Wood Duck]

I have split some Elm that really wasn't all that bad. The bad pieces of an easy-splitting tree are similar to the typical piece of Elm, I'd say.

 

[JSeery]

Yeah, Elm can be all over the map. I've seen elm splits that were so bad and stringy, you couldn't stack them and it was a waste of time putting them in the stove. On the other hand, last year a tree service dropped a load of elm for me that split just fine (a little stringy, but no big deal). I think the different elm species behave differently, and just to make things more confusing they sometimes hybridize so it can be hard to say exactly what type of elm you've got. Anyway, it's good wood if it will split for you (and it sounds like you lucked out there.)

 

[nola mike]

I have split some Elm that really wasn't all that bad. The bad pieces of an easy-splitting tree are similar to the typical piece of Elm, I'd say.

That's a great description.