I bit into a cottonwoodyesterday. I've had it cut to length at least three years, probably about five. But it was about 40 inches in diameter. The wedge on that splitter just went squish even on the first bite. That big of diameter you dont have too many choices to piece off the side and get something flat going. I got lucky and was able to finally chunk out the outer, drier stuff. But the inner 20 inches of diameter was just impossible. I made ten or so attempts to get another split out, but that stringy crap just wouldn't let go of one another. Now I have a giant wad of scrap. Kind of a bummer. I've got quite a few of those and I'm not going to complete the mission this month.
So far the elm, though stringy at times, all came apart.
So I'll step on board with the talk about unethical dealers claiming "seasoned" wood having been just split that year. But next november I'm going to check out what I did this year.
The trouble with most of the northern & high elevation hardwoods. If not CSS soon after death, it decays fast.
Not that cottonwood & aspen are hard woods, but are on the hardwood list.
Birch the same, gotta be Cut & Split , or it will be punky in 2 years.
+1 on the wood seller's claim of "seasoned", few say dry & ready to burn
I think to most of them, seasoned means "split yesterday"