I was pleasantly suprised today

[PA. Woodsman]

There is a section of woods and people's property up the mountain from me that I have been very fortunate to have gotten some good wood scores over the last few years; Memorial Day weekend past in particular, so I cruise through there every so often and see if I can spot any new scores. About a month ago, I spotted a decent sized Ash tree that uprooted as they tend to do, and it is a pretty wet area, so I asked the landowner if I could take it sometime and he said "yeah, sure". I told him that must be a new "victim" but he said it came down in one of the storms last year or before. Now I didn't want to argue with him, but I KNOW that my "radar" would've spotted that a LOT sooner if it had been laying there, especially when I was right across the street on Memorial Day. But anyway, I was planning on having a tussle with it; I remember dealing with some really dry Ash and man does it fight back, dulls the chain fast, even makes the saw hot and smoke etc., but this today cut like a dream-WHEW The owner wasn't home so I just sliced and diced and hauled it up a little hill again and again and again.....I cut the tops into manageable sections so I can throw them in the compost site tomorrow as I wanted to clean it up and not just "cherry pick" and leave the tops lay while I take the good stuff, you know? I didn't take it all, I left about a 15 foot section there that I can go back for anytime; it was getting late, getting cold and the old Bronco was getting full-but my point is I would tend to think that I was right thinking it came down more recently than he thought-if it was laying there for a year or more I think it would've fought me harder but I'm glad!

My kind of day-off from work, burning wood in the stove and working with future fuelwood....

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Interesting what you say about cutting the ash. We've never noticed that problem and we've cut about 98% ash for the past 10 years or more. Sure is a good find though and congratulations on that one.

 

[Sinngetreu]

Gotta love that Ash! Nice score!

 

[Paulywalnut]

I'm sure you have cut a lot of wood but I never noticed Ash to be difficult to cut, Splitting green by hand can be an experience though.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Yes that's what makes that strange; it must've been about 7 years ago or so, and this was an Ash that was down for who knows how long. I remember having very much difficulty cutting it-the saw was smoking, the chain was leaving black marks on the wood, just a nightmare. If I recall correctly I even changed chains but it didn't help much; perhaps the chains were dull because as you guys said Ash should be easy to cut through!

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Most hard-hardwoods are a PITA to cut when dry. I have always loved splitting white ash. Little more than my Austin Powers "Judo Chop!" is required.