A couple of weeks ago I posted a thread asking for tips on splitting fresh cut hickory. This hickory was over 20 inches in diameter and 200 feet from the road up a steep hillside. I had to split the big rounds in the woods since they were too heavy to move down the hill in one piece. Also, I wouldn't have been able to lift them into the trailer on my garden tractor. I ended up developing a labor intensive system that involved cutting a slot across the end of the rounds about the depth of my chainsaw bar. Then I used two steel wedges and a sledge hammer near the edge of the log to open a crack as wide as my wedges. Next, I hammered two plastic wedges in the middle just deep enough to free my steel wedges. Finally, I used my chainsaw to work into the crack below the wedges and cut the round in half.
Back at the house I used a variety of methods to split the wood. The 7 ton electric splitter could do some nibbling around the edges to pare the rounds down, but many of the big rounds (half rounds) needed noodling. I ended up spending about 50 hours working up the tree and got just shy of two cords of wood. Here are a few photos.
![[Hearth.com] I finally finished working up the big hickory tree!](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/img_0209-webp.177242/ "[Hearth.com] I finally finished working up the big hickory tree!")
This row is 12 feet long and 8 feet tall.
![[Hearth.com] I finally finished working up the big hickory tree!](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/img_0211-webp.177243/ "[Hearth.com] I finally finished working up the big hickory tree!")
The second row in the back is about four feet tall.
![[Hearth.com] I finally finished working up the big hickory tree!](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/img_0214-webp.177247/ "[Hearth.com] I finally finished working up the big hickory tree!")
And here is the workhorse that gets the wood back to the house. It has a 23 hp Kohler engine that pulls extremely strong. I load the trailer full, which is between 500 lbs. - 750 lbs. depending on the wood. I then pull it up a very steep driveway that is 150 yards long.
I hope I never again have to process a freshly fallen hickory tree. It was the hardest harvest I've done in the 30 years I've been working up firewood. The good news is the oak I'm working on now is slicing through butter with a hot knife after the hickory experience!
Back at the house I used a variety of methods to split the wood. The 7 ton electric splitter could do some nibbling around the edges to pare the rounds down, but many of the big rounds (half rounds) needed noodling. I ended up spending about 50 hours working up the tree and got just shy of two cords of wood. Here are a few photos.
This row is 12 feet long and 8 feet tall.
The second row in the back is about four feet tall.
And here is the workhorse that gets the wood back to the house. It has a 23 hp Kohler engine that pulls extremely strong. I load the trailer full, which is between 500 lbs. - 750 lbs. depending on the wood. I then pull it up a very steep driveway that is 150 yards long.
I hope I never again have to process a freshly fallen hickory tree. It was the hardest harvest I've done in the 30 years I've been working up firewood. The good news is the oak I'm working on now is slicing through butter with a hot knife after the hickory experience!
