How easy is this to split?

[turn_n_burn]

Just got a load of what I think is poplar hybrid, only main trunk sections have what I would call bark, most all of it is as smooth as a baby's butt. I took a 10 inch round and had a very hard whack with my maul, and I still can't unstick the durned thing. Is this stuff gonna be a nightmare? Seems to be mostly green,some check in log ends but when the maul hit it it made that dull, muffled, disappointing whump. I can't seem to find info on this kind of poplar, most every post ive searched talks about some other kind. This stuff is grown by everybody and their dog here in Idaho for windbreaks and paper pulp. The tree came down a month ago, and apparently died this spring after the root system was partially severed when the landowner was digging a pipe trench on his new property. All still in rounds of course. What's the seasoning time on this stuff and does anyone have advice on whether to split dry or green? I had an easier time with similar sized green 'merican elm rounds I cut last year. Wedge and sledge, or maul? I refuse to use a splitter. Takes all the fun out of it, if you can call splitting unsplittable wood fun. Or am I just nuts?

 

[DougA]

Or am I just nuts?

Quite possibly.
It sorta looks like poplar. If it is, I have always found poplar to be one of the easiest to split, with an axe or a splitter.

 

[Fred Wright]

It does resemble yellow, or tulip poplar. Been many a year since I worked up poplar. Had a couple near-dead ones taken down in the front yard where I was living at the time.

As I recall, it split fairly easily with a maul after the rounds set for a month or so. Took me that long to get around to it. Have never split it green off the stump.

 

[mustash29]

I'm definitely not an expert at identifying species but.....

I scored 2 cord of tulip poplar in June of '14. An older retired guy quit burning cords and switched to pellets. He had this big pile (which would up stacking out to 2 cord + some ugly stuff) that was "free". The nice gentleman did a fabulous job loading my trailer with his Kubota BX-2200 (I fell in love with that little tractor) so I gave him 50 bucks.

It was an "edge of the farm field" tree that was down and in 4' chunks for 2 years. I bucked, split (hydraulics) & stacked it in the best sun I have. It was a pretty hot & dry summer here last year. It burnt ok last fall and early winter. It seemed a little wet at first but after the cold dry air hit it seemed to really finish drying out. I saved my better oak for the dead of winter.

It seemed a little stringy and slightly hard to split. Not sure if that was the wood itself, because it sat for 2 years in 4' sections or because it was a rather knotty tree. My new Fiskars did not impress me on this stuff, the trusty 8lb maul was tiring me out quick in the heat, so I threw it through the 31 ton MTD. My splitter is like "Mikey" - it will eat anything.

 

[gerry100]

not familiar with species in Idaho, but frozen wood can spit easier