When is wood easiest to split?

[mayhem]

I've heard lots of poeple claim it easier to pslit wood when its freshly cut, some say its easiest when its frozen, some say both. My personal experience tells me that fresh cut is the worst time to split wood, second only to when its fresh cut and frozen.

Interested in people's actual experience here, not what you heard from someone else.

This is hand splitting only, it seems clear that if you're applying 20+ tons of force at the end of a hydraulic ram, that you're going to get through that round no matter the temperature or moisture content.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I split mostly red/white oak. Always easier fresh. Frozen/warm- I dunno.

 

[homebrewz]

I think it depends on the wood. I split a lot of ash, and earlier in the fall I split some pignut hickory which was tall and straight with few branches.. both split beautifully green. I don't know about the hickory, but the ash splits nice dry too. I wouldn't want to split elm green.. it seems to split much easier when its dry. Can't comment on frozen vs. warm though I work up less of a sweat doing this in the winter!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Around this place, the wood splits easiest on my hydraulic splitter. Time of year matters not.

 

[firefighterjake]

Around this place, the wood splits easiest on my hydraulic splitter. Time of year matters not.

+1 . . .

 

[Battenkiller]

Around this place, the wood splits easiest on my hydraulic splitter. Time of year matters not.

+2

With an axe or maul, frozen wood splits best in my experience. The fibers don't shmush together under impact, so more of the energy of the swing goes into popping them apart. Fresh cut rounds of white ash are easy enough to do with just a heavy axe if they are frozen hard enough. I never tangle with elm anymore, so I can't say if this holds true for gnarly wood.

 

[Kenster]

I like to split it (by hand) as soon as possible after bucking it. Virtually everything I do is Pin oak, Water Oak, and Pignut Hickory. The hickory is almost petrified if I let it sit a year before splitting. I've got some now that was bucked at least two years ago that neither an 8 lb maul or a Fiskars SS will even dent.

I cut mostly standing dead. Water Oak that has been dead long enough to have lost its bark splits like a dream. Very straight grained. The only fresh, green wood I ever cut is storm downed or damaged.
Just did a nice size Pin Oak a couple of weeks ago. Bucked it short for N/W burning.

Splitting frozen wood is not much of an issue here in Texas. Even when we have a freeze the short duration won't affect the wood much.

 

[quads]

Makes no difference to me warm or frozen, I make firewood all year, but I always split it as I'm cutting it. If it's easier to split it after it has seasoned in a round, I will never know....

 

[joshlaugh]

I split the wood soon after cutting it down. Avoids a backlog of rounds in the driveway that way. I have always been successful with the wood being freshly cut regardless of warm/frozen

 

[pen]

With beech, if tried splitting it when green and it was so stubborn I couldn't even get my wedges to stick into it. After cutting it in lenghts and letting it sit for just a few weeks, the process was much easier (by no means painless, but at least doable).

I've never noticed a difference in the winter versus the summer. Personally, I prefer splitting in cool weather so that I don't work up that much of a sweat.

I vote for "it depends" overall. Try to split it, if it's too hard, let it sit and try it some other time.

pen

 

[mainstation]

Frozen definitely.

 

[Bricks]

For me the easiest has always been fresh or frozen....when some one else does it.

 

[NH_Wood]

Makes no difference to me warm or frozen, I make firewood all year, but I always split it as I'm cutting it. If it's easier to split it after it has seasoned in a round, I will never know....

+1 on splitting when bucked. I've been splitting all of my wood in the woods as the tree is bucked. I like hauling home splits, with only stacking left to do. I try to do this as much as possible. Cheers!

 

[Willman]

I got a load of ash that was horrible to split green. After a year in the round it split much easier.
Will

 

[Gary_602z]

Gotta agree with Dennis on this one! I think a maul is where my wife goes shopping! :lol:

Gary

 

[chad101]

Frozen w/o a doubt. Plus you don't have to deal w/ any pests (i.e. mosquitoes, wasps, etc) or high humidity (depending on your location).

I do most of my cutting in the winter to.

 

[jensent]

Fresh cut and frozen. Need to be able to smell the two stroke. The longer you wait the harder it gets. Im told the ice crystals in the wood act as lubricant. Dont know about that, but definitely easier fresh cut and frozen. Tree service just dropped a tandem load of red oak. The rounds are 30 to 36 dia. cut to 16 inches tall. What a treat. They split like butter. No sweating at 12 degrees either.
Tom

 

[hareball]

"Spent the summertime cutting up logs for the winter" David Allen Coe

I wonder if he waited for winter to split??

I like winter splitting. Did half a cord of red oak today with the maul and fiskars and love to hear that crack and see the splits fly. For once moisture in the wood works in favor!

 

[RoseRedHoofbeats]

It depends on the species of wood, how old it is, how long it was standing dead or sat in the round, if it was cut in the spring or the fall... lots of variables. If something's really hard to cut new, wait six months and try it again (unless you're really pressed for wood.

~Rose

 

[mayhem]

Very interesting resluts so far.

In my experience fresh cut or frozen are the absolute worst time to try to split...combine the two and you've got an afternoon ahead of some really hard swinging.

I cut a big pile of red oak this summer and hauled it all home. Didn't make the time to try to split it when it was warm, but just this weekend I hauled out one of the smaller rounds (about 10-12" diameter and 18" long), put it on the chopping block and gave it a good hard swing with the 8lb maul...sucker made a mark and not much else happened. It took me 5 solid hits in the same spot to even get a chunk to break off on the edge, about 1" in from the inside of the bark ring.

Also this summer I helped my brother drop and buck a maple in his backyard...not sure of the precise species other than its NOT sugar maple because he taps all his sugars. He kept the branches and smaller stuff and I go everything that was too big for him to want to process. The butt of the trunk was about 18-20" in diameter and I cut it aout 16" long or so...it was heavy so I figured I'd split it in place with the maul and take home splits. I wailed on that sucker for about 10 minutes and all I managed to do was mar the surface with every impact. Took out my trusty wood grenade and the 12lb sledge...tapped it in till it stood on its own, then hit it a bit harder to give the barbs some bite, squared off and gave my next swing every bit of strength I had...hit the grenade square dead center and all that happened was the darn thing popped out of the round and went about 3 feet straight up in the air...basically every bit of energy I hit it with was bounced right back into the wedge and it had noplace to go but up. Darnedest thing I ever saw.

I can't figure out why so many of you guys find it easier to split green and/or frozen. When its green I would think all the moisture is still holding the fibers together, nothing has shrunk or checked in the grains and the thing is as solid as it ever will be...when frozen, any moisture insude turns into a solid block of ice, which just makes everything harder...at least that how I see it...I'm sure something else is happening in there as well.

 

[krex1010]

When it's not elm

 

[billb3]

I've cut and split red and white oak right after a hurricane and also in the Winter.
I split the oak with wedges and really had no more or less trouble frozen or fresh.
Maybe a tiny bit easier frozen.

Maple and pine I let sit and do when it's cold. Most of the maple here is swamp maple.
The pine is absolutely easier to split frozen. Any other time of the year I have better things to do than bounce a maul or wedges off of pine, and I won't split white pine green and the bark full of pitch. Especially the younger parts of pine with the green bark.
Only other wood we have a lot of here is cherry and it seems to split a little easier frozen, too.

 

[OhioBurner©]

I've never heard anyone say cutting fresh was easier but I've been around mostly stubborn old school type folks that wont hear it if you tell them different.

Its been a while since I did much splitting by hand prior to this year, so just going with what I did this year, which was 90% cherry, it definatly split easier with my 8# maul once dried. I could barely split any of it by hand fresh when it was over say 16" diameter. But after a couple months and the ends started drying and cracking I could split alot of em by hitting the natural cracks that appeared. Fresh, I had several pieces with nice 1/4-1/2" deep maul marks all over them, maybe some over a dozen hits since I was determined. Did nothing but mash in a little indent. After drying, much easier. I have not tried frozen yet but plan too shortly! Want to be a full year ahead for next year...

 

[Redskins82]

I noticed something this week. I collected some oak rounds that were cut last spring and some were cut a little over a year ago. Three weeks ago I still couldn't split them with my ax. Last week it got down to about 15 degrees two nights in a row and this week I was able to split them fairly easily. They weren't frozen when I split them but it seems like them being thoroughly frozen over a week ago made them much easier to split this week.

 

[bogydave]

Since I joined this site, I cut & split as a process.
Meaning: I cut the rounds to length, load in the trailer , offload & split and stack. Then get another load & repeat.
The sooner it is split & stacked, the sooner/faster it will begin seasoning & be ready to burn.
Birch is a must to split sooner rather than later, it starts to rot even when left in rounds.

Past experience in Alaska, Birch splits about the same , green or dry, a little better frozen.
Spruce, green is better, green frozen (0° F or colder for a few days) is best, dry is a real PITA.

I now have a hydraulic splitter so I don't wait for below zero temps on the spruce,
I split when I get a load of wood, anytime of the year. (as I did before the splitter, & learned the above)