Stringy wood sucks. Is hickory a stringy wood to split?

[f3cbboy]

i am glad i read this thread - i have a pile of this stuff that requires much work to split. My 8 lb maul bounces off but i get it started with a splitting axe and then use the wedges. is it worth leaving this stuff sit for another year in rounds that are bucked about 16" long and anywhere from 12 - 15 " in diameter?? Thanks

 

[savageactor7]

Loft try and not split down the middle...come in about 3-4" for the outside diameter and work it that way. It's not as neat looking but it works...btw that's the way we work elm by hand up here...that's stringy too.

 

[WOODBUTCHER]

i am glad i read this thread - i have a pile of this stuff that requires much work to split. My 8 lb maul bounces off but i get it started with a splitting axe and then use the wedges. is it worth leaving this stuff sit for another year in rounds that are bucked about 16" long and anywhere from 12 - 15 " in diameter?? Thanks

I'd try to split it while it's frozen, hickory is tuff stuff on a maul and your back.
When I split it green, I have to run the splitter ram all the way through on just about every chunk.
I wish it split like red oak.......

WB

 

[wahoowad]

2 years later and I am finally burning some of this stuff. It burns really, really good!

 

[rphurley]

Split lots of Hickory. I'm not sure what type but it seems stringy to me. Heavy as heck too, but worth every bit of sweat!

 

[wendell]

Big sigh.... Elm sucks...Hickory might as well be ash compared to elm.... White oak can be pretty stringy, so can sycamore, but elm is the king of stringy...Spike has is right...speed is not what it takes to split elm. I split a lot of it with a 6 lb maul and at this point I can swing that thing darned fast. Once the round cracks, it takes repeated blows to chop, or bludgen my way through the strings that are left. I've split hickory in my days, and it's nothing compared to elm

did I mention that I hate elm? (it does heat the house better than pine though)

I'm on my last 20 rounds of over 3+ cords of elm (beggars can't be choosers!) and anybody man enough to split it with a maul gets my respect. It's hard enough with a splitter, not to mention time consuming because you have to run the wedge all the way through every split to tear the fibers apart. I didn't realize how easy splitting could be until I got into a few pieces of soft maple. That stuff splits itself just looking at the wedge.

The only thing I have to help split elm is doing when the temperature is around 0.

 

[f3cbboy]

I’d try to split it while it’s frozen, hickory is tuff stuff on a maul and your back.
When I split it green, I have to run the splitter ram all the way through on just about every chunk.
I wish it split like red oak.......

WB

Thanks WB - i got this stuff last summer and it was a bear - i'll try to take care of it now while it is still frozen. I can't believe how much i have come to know about tree id in the last couple of months. thanks again