will i be able to split a monster doug fir with the fiskars?

[iron]

i scored some doug fir this morning - at least the pieces i could move. there are still some 4' diameter pieces on site that there's no chance of moving. is it possible to split this sized round with a tiny fiskars? or, will i be crying mercy like i am right now with my pine?

 

[TheAardvark]

Its always good to have a wedge and sledge hammer around.

 

[HybridFyre]

Its always good to have a wedge and sledge hammer around.

This. You will definitely want wedges.


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[Kevin*]

Definitely use a sledge on the wedge, being lazy and using the backside of the fiskars can cost you big if you over strike.
A "friend" of mine did that....

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[begreen]

No. A few whacks and you will realize the futility of this. For our 4 ft rounds it took a maul and several wedges. In some cases I had to sink a couple wedges on one side, then flip it and wedge from the other side in the same location. This was when the wood was green. I gave up and waited several months until it stated naturally checking. Then, wedges on the cracks were much more effective.

 

[warno]

PITA I know, but is noodling an option for you? At least to quarter the pieces.

 

[Kevin*]

I always noodle the hard stuff.

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[rwilly]

Sledge/wedge would be nice, but all ya have to do is chip away at the perimeter.
Circle around the piece like a cinnamon roll.
I recently spilt up a big tree just like that. The pieces with knots I used the sledge/wedge.

Also, when ya chip away at the big stuff, you can get some nice flat pieces that make excellent end stacks.
Real easy to stack.

 

[begreen]

When inquiring about how to deal with our big slices folks suggested this. Our large rounds laughed at the chip around the perimeter option when fresh cut. Once we got chunks to the splitter set vertical we did get many nice 4x6 flat pieces. We took out a large hemlock too. Chipping around the perimeter worked better for that tree.

 

[Jeffm1]

i scored some doug fir this morning - at least the pieces i could move. there are still some 4' diameter pieces on site that there's no chance of moving. is it possible to split this sized round with a tiny fiskars? or, will i be crying mercy like i am right now with my pine?

It will depend on how dry (seasoned) it is. If it's green, you will have a battle on your hands. I split 3' ponderosa pine rounds that have been dead for over a year and my fiskars makes easy work of it. The green stuff however, is just too much work to split while still green. I imagine the Doug fir won't be much different. The drier it is, the easier it splits.

 

[Highbeam]

Don't waste your time or your energy. Grab your saw and safely, easily, noodle those down. I just noodled a cord of doug fir last night. It's so easy and fun that I noodle anything that would take more than three maul swings.

Four footers I would noodle into quarters, you can easily lift them quartered. With two men, you can lift an amazingly large round into your truck.

Seriously, noodling is easy and fun. You only need a bar longer than your round is tall so 16", 18" is fine. If you look closely you can see that all of these were noodled.

 

[volunbeer]

You use a skip chain to noodle? If my chain is too sharp I get gigantic noodles and they clog up my Husqvarna 450. I just ordered a skip chain and will try that next time I noodle, but I was curious. I have to go really slow with little down pressure on the big rounds or it clogs.

 

[StihlKicking]

Only one way to find out! But if the fiskars fails as others have stated have a saw, sledge, and wedge on hand. I like to noodle about 1/2 to 3/4 way through the log then it will split with a wedge like a charm.


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[iron]

looks like i will need to pass on the remaining wood as my saw is not starting and i'm not smart enough to fix it. oh well. thanks for the responses all!

 

[Highbeam]

You use a skip chain to noodle? If my chain is too sharp I get gigantic noodles and they clog up my Husqvarna 450. I just ordered a skip chain and will try that next time I noodle, but I was curious. I have to go really slow with little down pressure on the big rounds or it clogs.

You bet. I like skip chains, less sharpening and less bogging in the cut. Plus I drop the rakers a bit to get extra big bites. Never really noticed a drop in cut speed with skip chains but I'm not a professional anyways and a little extra time isn't a big deal. Noodling big rounds or small rounds makes no difference, the saw only sees a 16" wide cut. Clogging the saw is saw dependent. Some designs clear the noodles pretty well and some clog up right away. My current dolmar has these huge dawgs that leave room to allow the noodles to drop. I've also found that if the noodles get too long you can shorten them up by adjusting the tilt of the bar to be less parallel to the grain.

We all like pics. Here is a 40"+ round of doug fir that had to be cut into 6 chunks for lifting.

 

[volunbeer]

Nice looking round there and thanks for the reply. I am looking forward to trying this chain out. Thankfully I think I am closing in on 10 cords now CSS and the stove is still not installed (coming in September unless we finish the den renovation earlier). From this point forward I can stack the big rounds I collect for next year and split them when it is real cold in the winter (per advice on this site). It usually gets down to zero and single digits for a week or two here and folks have said they split with ease at those temperatures.

I still have about 10 huge ponderosa rounds left and I am going to try and noodle them with the skip chain to try it out. One thing I have found that might help if someone else is bogging down doing the noodle thing is only go halfway or 2/3's of the way through. With the exception of the knotty rounds, anything I have noodled half way splits much easier with two or three hits on the wedge. 2/3's of the way and the Ponderosa mostly splits with the big maul. Thankfully I am taking down much smaller firs than yours right now and some bull pines. Think the biggest is probably about 22" at the stump and most are around 14" or so. I have another cord cut and ready to split stacked right now on my temporary racks. The stuff I cut just a month ago is drying much faster than I expected with the dry heat and wind here. I also still have 4 larger dead firs standing. Two of them still have some needles and the other two have probably been standing dead for 2 years. One of them is probably 30" at the trunk and it's thick all the way up. I may leave them standing until the winter before I collect them and stack the logs with tractor or skidsteer for next spring. Thinking I might do that with some of the smaller live firs I am going to take down also.

I have gotten into a stand of dead very dry hardwood shrubby trees in the area that I need to clear. It is so dry that the wood is split on the seams, but still really hard. Can't figure out what it is, but pretty sure it was an old fruit tree of some kind. Biggest pieces are only about 10 inches wide and 15-20' tall, but betting it will burn really well. There must be 10 branches like that out of the trunk so maybe another 1/4 cord of that left. I had originally thought it was too rotten to mess with, but even the small branches are still intact.

 

[AmbDrvr253]

Noodling is cool! The noodles make great tinder as well. I bag some up for that reason. Sure makes life easier than "trying" to lift something that big. Or wedging and sledging forever!

 

[AmbDrvr253]

Definitely use a sledge on the wedge, being lazy and using the backside of the fiskars can cost you big if you over strike.
A "friend" of mine did that....

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Definitely do not do this with ur fiskars. It is a softer metal than the wedges, generally, and will scar/deform the end. Ask me. I can send pictures if ya want! I do LOVE my fiskars tho

 

[bfitz3]

Noodling is cool! The noodles make great tinder as well. I bag some up for that reason. Sure makes life easier than "trying" to lift something that big. Or wedging and sledging forever!

Noodles as tinder? I always pictured noodle chips as being the same as regular chips. Am I missing something?

 

[BigFir]

Noodles as tinder? I always pictured noodle chips as being the same as regular chips. Am I missing something?

Noodles can be shaped like, well....noodles. This 40" fir was standing dead and easily splitable with the Fiskers x27