Does colder weather make splitting easier?

[Stelcom66]

I've heard it's a myth - but today it may have made it to 20º, a few weeks ago was splitting when it was in the teens and it did seem easier. Maybe it was the wood I was splitting - very straight grain. It been sitting for about 7 months. Even a piece that I thought would be a pain being that it had another section/branch from it was not bad. Overall today's splitting was very easy.

 

[peakbagger]

My favorite weather to split.

 

[Stelcom66]

My favorite weather to split.

I must agree - not just due to the ease but a sunny day in the teens or twenties is a great day to split.

 

[Osage]

If the wood is frozen it splits much easier. Had some mulberry that was giving me heck last week, we had some 0 deg. lows this past week and the rounds cut from the same tree split without to much trouble.

 

[Stelcom66]

Thanks for confirming, makes sense. These rounds certainly weren't large, a bit over a foot in diameter, but sometimes just one swing with the Fiskars 27 and they split right in half. It wasn't always that easy.

 

[wishlist]

I’ve had some nasty huge yard grown elm that wouldn’t split with hydraulics until frozen solid . I’m so glad that stuff is all burnt up now .
On the other hand I have a bunch of shagbark hickory that was green and split with ease this summer . Worked on the pile some more a few weeks ago and nowhere near as easy . Go figure !

 

[Stelcom66]

So I guess the results aren't always 'cut and dry'!

 

[hickoryhoarder]

I like to split after the wood has had eight or ten weeks to get cold. So about now. But I like to do it on an afternoon when the temperature is up to 40.

 

[mcdougy]

In my experience frozen ash splits much easier (axe) after sustained sub zero temperatures

 

[Stelcom66]

It was sub zero (according to my vehicle's thermometer) earlier in the week on the way to work.. That temperature is rare in these parts. I respect those that deal with those temperatures routinely,

 

[mcdougy]

Don't worry.....a woodcutter is never cold.....climbing in to our cold cars seems much worse and makes big men holler in agony..... 😀
"Holy #@%! It cold" is my go to descriptive as my azz starts going numb from the cold car seat.. which produces the other common words of.....I"'m freezing my ass off" 🤔

 

[mcdougy]

The people that cut wood in the heat and bugs have my respect......

 

[Stelcom66]

Yea heat and bugs are much worse IMO! I got used to cloth heated car seats when I had Subarus, don't have one now so I have those $20 or so heated car seat pads. They do help. But like you said, and the saying goes - something like owning a wood stove heats you in more ways than one, meaning the work involved.

 

[xman23]

Cool weather makes all the wood processing we do better. But I say yes, wood splits better after it's frozen.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I enjoy splitting in the cold. I cant stand splitting when its warm. I mostly split from January to march.. the latest in may. This morning when I was out there it was 16 degrees and in the shade. I got the ear buds in and Spotify.. and 90s music. Here is the pile im working on

 

[Stelcom66]

Nice! That's a huge amount you've got already. I can't bring myself to split wood in the summer, but probably should. A good way to spend a winter weekend afternoon.

 

[tpcolson]

When its cold enough that your legs are freezing, you can't feel how many times a split ricocheted off your shins.

 

[peakbagger]

I drop, buck and split on the snow and usually haver chaps on. In addition to being cut resistant, they are real good padding from ricochets.

 

[Stelcom66]

Those sound like a good idea. We all know wood can go flying unpredictably.

 

[highanddryinco]

I'm still chuckling about "90's music." (Oxymoron?)
Any one of the 4 decades prior for my wife and I. If we're hand splitting, the truck doors are wide open and Willie's Roadhouse is blasting from Sirius.