This one might not get split

Took down a mountain ash (Rowan) that has been slowly dying over the past few years. One half of it fell over this fall so it was time to finish the job.

Not a whole lot of wood in the tree, maybe 2/3 of a face cord. Lots of small stuff, but it'll be good for starting fires and quick shoulder burns in a couple years.

I'm going to give what was the base of the tree a few whacks with the maul and see what I can get from it. The rest will most likely end up in the bonfire pile. It's a tangled, nasty mess.

A lot of the pin oak I processed this year was like that.just over a cord of uglies came out of that tree.

ummmmm...yeah....a mess of a knotty mess.

That's nothing the saw wont take care of in 45 seconds or less.Not worth fighting it with maul or sledge/wedges.

Actually that looks like the raw material for another natural edge bowl or sculpture to me....

I've got a splitter for that! Or yeah you could easily noodle it.
Good weather here in West Michigan to work outside this weekend.

I'm with Thistle.....noodle that bugger. Make some chunks out of it, put in in the 'uglies' pile, or stack it with the rest of the cordwood. I will say one thing I have found over the years, those knarly pieces like that last longer in the stove. They are denser than the rest of the wood. I NEVER throw away my uglies. They get stacked in between the rows of splits......

You cant see it in that pic, but its pretty rotten on the bottom. I don't think it would make a very good sculpture or bowl due to its condition, but the color and grain is kinda cool looking. It is pretty darn dense. The saw was working pretty hard to get through the 2/3 that wasn't rotten. The rest of the tree cut up easy. I had it all done in a bit over an hour.

I always forget about noodling. I usually leave the really gnarly stuff in the woods as I split almost all my wood by hand (except for a moment of weakness last fall when I rented a splitter). Most of what i get around here lately is maple and ash, and neither of those are hard to split with the maul. It isn't often I drop a tree on my own property a hundred feet from the woodpile.

I got out and split a lil wood today... Great minds think alike.

As for that crotch.., Hydraulics or Noodle.