Finally!

[BEConklin]

Finished! One fallen hickory tree - bucked with my Husky 455 Rancher and split with my Fiskars X27. I've been working on this tree in my spare time on and off since December...with a lot of "off time" because of all the snow.

I had to rebuild the crib ends on the right after dropping a round on top of the pile (like an idiot) the other day and blowing one of them out. I stacked the cribs to lean in two directions, inward (side to side) and inward (front to back)...the front and back rows tilt in and meet at the top - the middle is all shorts and uglies.

By my calculations the pile comes out to .98 cord.. 12'L X 3.5'H X 3'D...probably a full cord as I took the depth measurement at the top - and it's narrower there.

Hopefully this will be one of the few piles I've ever built that will stand up for more than a year. ..especially since it's hickory.

It's also the first I've ever built with cribbed ends.

 

[Gboutdoors]

Nice work and hickory to boot one of my favorite woods. Really good job on the cribs .

 

[BEConklin]

Thanks - the first pic is the side the neighbors see... I paid the most attention to that side and the uglier stuff went in the back

 

[wahoowad]

Looks great! What are those plastic pallets and where can I get some?

 

[woodsman416]

So nice I'd hate to burn it!

 

[BEConklin]

Woodsman - I know the feeling.....I figure in 2-3 years it will look more burnable - but now it's wicked pretty wood.

Wahoo - a buddy of mine works tearing apart shipping trailers and containers for recycling. He gave me 6 of them and I took 'em. He offered me another 6 as well - but they all had "Property of the USPS" printed on them so I declined

 

[Paulywalnut]

Very nice looking stacks. You'll hate to dismantle them. Oops, My wife is looking at me like I'm nuts.... Again.

 

[NordicSplitter]

Great stacks...Nice pallets as well!

 

[Richie]

How was hand splitting hickory? I never split it but heard it was tough. Very handsome stack for sure!

 

[jaychino415]

Your Hickory stacks look too pretty to burn. Except if they are going into a bbq grill.. hehe

 

[JASFARMER]

The fiskars is a wonderful tool and the hickory looks great. Love burning it myself. Here is a cherry I worked on today

 

[BEConklin]

Jaychino - There's still some branches left in the woods - 6" diameter stuff and smaller. I'm going to dice the best of that up and dry it in the barn for BBQ and smoking wood.

Richie - The tree was growing in pretty thick woods so it grew straight grained and tall with few branches. I think I figured out that the first branching crotch was about 40-50' high when the tree was standing. Splitting the trunk wood was a cinch. Even more so because I was splitting it soon after cutting the rounds back in December.

After the snow came 3-4 larger trunk rounds and the a few of the rounds up past the crotch were left up there and I didn't get to splitting them until last week. They were tougher to split than they were when freshly cut. Still not a big problem - but stringier and more of a pain in the arse.

 

[BEConklin]

The fiskars is a wonderful tool and the hickory looks great. Love burning it myself. Here is a cherry I worked on today
View attachment 130542

beautiful wood that cherry is

 

[JASFARMER]

beautiful wood that cherry is

Yes it is. Hated to cut it as it was a beautiful tree, but it was shading my field and stunting crop growth so it was time to go. Got another cherry to take down about the same size.

 

[Rebelduckman]

Yes it is. Hated to cut it as it was a beautiful tree, but it was shading my field and stunting crop growth so it was time to go. Got another cherry to take down about the same size.

Good stuff! Might as well throw in my cherry pic of today too! Got a few rounds of standing dead maple in there too. Cherry is quickly becoming one of my favorite woods. This should split like butter

 

[Ralphie Boy]

WOOD PORN I love it! Dude, you are a heck of a stacker! Very nice. And how about mailing me about 40 or 50 of those nice plastic pallets?

 

[BEConklin]

WOOD PORN I love it! Dude, you are a heck of a stacker! Very nice. And how about mailing me about 40 or 50 of those nice plastic pallets?

Thanks! My favorite part was going along the pile every so often and tapping the ends into line with the butt of my hatchet. The hickory splits clink when you do that..each a different note depending on the size...it's like playing a huge xylophone.

I have to get in touch with my plastic pallet connection, see if he's stockpiled any more since I saw him last. I hope to be dealing with a LOT more wood this year....bunch of hardwood trees have to come down.

 

[midwestcoast]

That Hickory looks like a dream to hand split (not alway the case as you know). Good work. When it goes in the stove you won't be thinking about how it took all winter to peck away at, just that it's keeping your house warm.