Did I mess up?

[Oldman47]

I tried for the first time yesterday to split some 3 year old rounds of black ash and even a 20 inch long 8 inch round laughed at my X27. I just read through this thread https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/split-now-or-in-spring.136250/ and it sounds like people process wood soon after it is cut. I am starting to think that by letting my ash dry I have just made more work for myself. When I did manage to get a split off with some wedges it is testing at 16 to 20% moisture. BTW I had to drive the wedges separately to keep from getting them stuck. In an 8 inch round it was drive a wedge out of sight along an edge then use a second wedge from the side of the round to finish the split and free both wedges. No way it should be this hard.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

That much work for an 8" round????
Might be the right time to invest in a hydraulic splitter.

 

[ewlsey]

8" rounds should burn fine. They're already dry. Put 'em in the stack and move on.

 

[English BoB]

I tried for the first time yesterday to split some 3 year old rounds of black ash and even a 20 inch long 8 inch round laughed at my X27. I just read through this thread https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/split-now-or-in-spring.136250/ and it sounds like people process wood soon after it is cut. I am starting to think that by letting my ash dry I have just made more work for myself. When I did manage to get a split off with some wedges it is testing at 16 to 20% moisture. BTW I had to drive the wedges separately to keep from getting them stuck. In an 8 inch round it was drive a wedge out of sight along an edge then use a second wedge from the side of the round to finish the split and free both wedges. No way it should be this hard.

Yes you did. IMHO dry ash is a birch to split.

Bob

 

[Oldman47]

Are there any guides about when to split what kinds of wood? On my property I have mostly oak, hickory and black walnut along with smaller amounts of black cherry, hedge and sycamore. There is even a very small amount of sassafras.The ash was a tree I had planted in my yard about 30 years earlier and had taken down as a hazard to the house itself.

 

[ewlsey]

Most hard woods split better green.

 

[Oldman47]

Thanks for that ewlsey. That just leaves a very few softwoods like a couple of eastern red cedars that I have spotted. Right now none of them are dead or down so they are not really on my list.

 

[tigeroak]

yard ash for some reason will be a little twisted and hard to split if left very long. The one we had in our yard was a complete bear to split be hand, SO the big rounds I noodled what would not split after a wack or two.

 

[ewlsey]

I've found Ash crotches and knots to be pretty nasty. I don't mess with them splitting by hand.

 

[Oldman47]

I know exactly what you mean tigeroak. The few splits I have so far have a very wavy grain to them. It is as if the tiny branches that would self prune in a forest are hanging on long enough to cause the grain not to be straight.

 

[midwestcoast]

Yard trees can be tough. Even species that are normally easy. I split mostly yard trees & it's luck of the draw. This winter I've done a Silver Maple that was terrible & 2 Black Locust that were easy splitting.
I've never left rounds sit too long before splitting, but from what others here say, generally splitting immediately is good. A few exceptions exist. Many swear that Elm splits much better after sitting n drying for a couple years. I'll never find out as I don't have room to leave much sitting around...

 

[Poindexter]

Couple items.

If you are running, or planning to run more than about 4-5 cords per year or so you might as well invest in a hydraulic. I use an electro-hydraulic here, 7-10 cords per year is about all I want to process with the electric splitter, but for $300 purchase and maybe $5 in electricity per cord split it is hard to beat.

There are some folks on here splitting 10 cords annually with a maul. My shoulders aren't up for that. I got enough money for a splitter and better sense than to go looking for early shoulder surgery. Your call.

Second, if you get cold enough weather green wood splits real nice at -20dF and practically splits itself at -40dF. I doubt you see much -40dF in Illinois, and the bad news is to get wood to practically split itself at -40dF you got to be out in the weather to do it. I wait until it warms up to -20dF myself. Remember water expands when it freezes. If your green rounds have much water in them all those ice crystals pressing out will help the round come apart once the maul gets a crack started. I dunno why it seems to work better at even colder temps, but it does.

If you got a big chunk of downed trees from clearing your construction lot, like 12-15+ cords worth, you might look at buying a gas powered splitter. Either new so you can have a warranty and take the depreciation hit when you sell, or used so you can sell for near purchase price but you pay maintenance along the way.

Gas powered splitters do have a faster ram speed, but the rate limiting step is how fast you can get the next piece on deck before you get the ram moving again, not the speed of the ram. When you are talking about ten plus cords the faster ram will have enough opportunities to save you one second over and over and over to maybe be worth the expense.

If I had more than three years worth of wood laying around I would split stove size for three years worth. The rest I would just split once and stack it like any other firewood off the ground and covered on top. Four years from now you can bring a wheel barrow load of those half rounds into the garage, knock them down to stove size in the comfort of your garage with an electric splitter and load them straight into the stove.

M2c

 

[Oldman47]

Thanks for that Poindexter. I seldom ever see sub zero temperatures so that part is a non -starter for me. I do own some forested land but hope to split before dragging it from the forest to avoid too much handling, at least it strikes me that way with the other responses I have received. I did not clear any land for my home because I used an old farm field as my building site. As intriguing as an electric splitter is, if I process before returning with my wood I will need a gas powered splitter unless I decide to use manual splitting. My first ever manual split was on a frozen round and it fought back but I wrestled it to the ground with my Fiskars splitter. It is why I had trouble believing it could be that hard after watching so many videos of folks splitting with almost no effort.
Since I expect to use my wood mostly as an emergency measure I doubt I will burn more than 1 or 2 cords a year so high production splitting is not needed. At 10 or 12 cords a year I would not even think about splitting by hand. .
My logon is a statement about me, an old man born in 1947 so I am now 67 years old. I do like the idea of doing a preliminary split and just leaving the rest of the work until I can load into an electric splitter in the garage. My stove manual tells me ideal length is 12 inches with a maximum of 16 inches so my splits will end up pretty darned short compared to most. When my present load of wood was cut I had no stove but expected to want one some day so I told the guy who took out my tree to target 18 to 20 inches, and he did. My mistake.
I intend to cruise my woods soon to see what I have dead and down. I will buck all of that to no more than 12 inches long to match my stove's needs and process as soon as I can. Thanks for all of your hints about possibilities. Most make good sense to me but I will need to adapt them to my situation.

 

[Poindexter]

Well, what I have tried to demonstrate to my boys about using a maul is the point is not how hard you swing it but how fast the head is moving when it meets the wood.

If you are a golfer think of a pitch versus a chip shot. Use your shoulders and elbows of course, but at the last instant use your wrists too. For the real grunters you can get your abdominal muscles involved.

Remember energy is mass x velocity squared, so getting the maul head moving faster is exponentially more important than swinging a heavier maul.

Also, get an anvil round under your target, don't try to split a round that is resting directly on the ground. Dunno how dirt at -40dF can be so darn spongy, but it makes a difference and the height is more convenient too.

 

[Oldman47]

I tried a 14 inch round as an anvil but it was way too tall for me. I ended up with a scrap 2x12 about 3 feet long as my anvil. It helped but these old rounds of ash are tough stuff. It was taking about 10 strikes with a wedge just to sink the wedge in the round then a few more on a second wedge from the side to actually split it.

 

[Plow Boy]

If I didnt own a hydraulic splitter I probably wouldn't burn wood.

 

[j7art2]

I split 5 cords by hand this year before I invested in a splitter and broke 4 handles in the process (FIBERGLASS!) I LOVE splitting wood, and am young and stupid enough to do it (31.)

I realized that for the amount of wood I need a year, splitting by hand simply isn't feasible. Toss in wood like box elder, and it's not even possible. I burn on average about 10-12 cords a year.

Do yourself a favor and get a gas splitter. I got my splitter at Menards on Black Friday for $799. It's $1500 everywhere else. I processed the same amount of wood in 3 days running the splitter than I did in a month by hand. I kid you not.

 

[Dune]

I intend to cruise my woods soon to see what I have dead and down.

Standing dead is the prize. Down trees tend to be very wet or rotted, but worth checking, especially white oak, locust and ash. Cherry if it is off the ground a little.

 

[ewlsey]

I split 5 cords by hand this year before I invested in a splitter and broke 4 handles in the process (FIBERGLASS!)

Sounds like you are pretty hard on equipment. I've split 20 cords with my current fiberglass handle. I have broken a few wood handles over the years, but I had help with those (little brother).

 

[2PistolPacker]

If I didnt own a hydraulic splitter I probably wouldn't burn wood.

Plow Boy, you are right on the money. I own 2 mauls, 3 wedges, 2 axes, and a small hatchet. The hatchet is the only one of them I've touched in 5 years since I bought the splitter.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

I tried for the first time yesterday to split some 3 year old rounds of black ash and even a 20 inch long 8 inch round laughed at my X27. I just read through this thread https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/split-now-or-in-spring.136250/ and it sounds like people process wood soon after it is cut. I am starting to think that by letting my ash dry I have just made more work for myself.

I have found ash very easy to split (by hand) when seasoned a year or two. Oak, beech, hickory -- just about everything seems to split easier after it loses some moisture. Split some gnarly rounds of redbud today, from near the bottom of a trunk. No way those split when green, at least not with the small amount of force I'm using. Cherry is the one wood that splits easy either way, green or dry.

 

[Oldman47]

Not much cherry available for me hickoryhoarder. I did drop a badly damaged cherry a few years back but at the time was not even thinking about burning. It had fallen across my grain field and was in my way. I took it the rest of the way down, bucked it into 18 inch rounds and told a guy I worked with to come and get it. For all I know, the remains are still there. I never went back to look. It was no longer an issue for me on my grain farm.

 

[j7art2]

Sounds like you are pretty hard on equipment. I've split 20 cords with my current fiberglass handle. I have broken a few wood handles over the years, but I had help with those (little brother).

All I can say is avoid the "True Temper" brand crap from Lowes. They have free lifetime replacements. 1 original tool and 3 replacements before demanding a refund. They were losing money, I was wasting time. I got a Fiskars and have never been happier.

 

[Plow Boy]

All I can say is avoid the "True Temper" brand crap from Lowes. They have free lifetime replacements. 1 original tool and 3 replacements before demanding a refund. They were losing money, I was wasting time. I got a Fiskars and have never been happier.

I've got a fiskar ax and hachet. The only one i use is the hachet, for stringy wood after splitting.

 

[j7art2]

I have a splitter now, but every now and again I see a chunk of wood on the pile thinking 'what the hell was I thinking throwing that thing on there? That's way too big.' and I pull it off and split it by hand. I won't run the splitter unless I have a face or more to split. I enjoy chopping wood, but got the splitter primarily as a time saver and back saver. It gets old when you're doing it 3 hours a day for a month straight.