If splitting your own wood warms you twice... (Wood ID & Stack pics!)

[Leftyinthewoods]

..then this is the highest BTU wood around!

Can anyone ID this demon species? It's like it's designed to catch ax heads, compressing without splitting, despite lining up my swings with radial splits in the cut ends. I have 23 rounds like this one, and they're going to wait until I can get a hold of a splitter or winter comes and they freeze solid. I've split a couple with the ax, but only to see if it could be done. One round split after a dozen or so whacks, but refused to be quartered. There's a second species with darker bark but the same bad behavior:


I had considerably less trouble with other species, and before the wood started to thaw out:

I figure it's about 3.5 cords and should last us the first winter. Most is cut to 19-22" long. There's two rows in the foreground and a bit more in back.All split with the Fiskars and cut with a Stihl 032AV ("Made in West Germany"). I've no idea what I have stacked up, but it's clear from splitting it that there's a variety of species. Some is unbelievably dense, which I suspect may be oak that'll have to be sorted out and saved for another year. My favorite is the dark-centered wood that never fails to split in a single swing.

Two and a half months ago I started with a pile of logs left behind after clearing half an acre for our new home:


Working on stacking for winter #2 in the hope of not having to bother with a moisture meter after the first year.

Finally, lest anyone think there weren't any mistakes along the way, here's the first of many stack collapses (hint: don't stack 5' high across a hill, especially before the ground's thawed and dried out):


Thanks to everyone on these forums for all the advice I've picked up, getting answers to questions I didn't know to ask!

 

[ScotO]

I see ash in the first pic, and what appears to be red maple in the second pic. Both of those woods should split very easily. I'm betting you are having trouble splitting them because they have knots in them (I can see the knuckle on the side of the ash round in the first pic). When I get a round with a knot or overgrown 'knuckle' in it, I flip it upside down to split it (put the part of the round that would have been facing upward when the tree was standing on the ground). Makes splitting knotty pieces a LOT easier, IMO. Also, try to line your axe up with the knot, so as to split the knot itself in half.

Also, for the harder-to-split rounds, you may want to consider a maul.....it'll make those denser or knot-infested rounds a lot easier to split.

 

[bogydave]

r the harder-to-split rounds, you may want to consider a maul.....it'll make those denser or knot-infested rounds a lot easier to split.

+1
More weight = more energy

Also splitting soon after it's cut helps with most wood types.
When I split by hand, I tried to avoid hitting the round in the middle or other edge , edge closet to me & 1" max from the edge. Saves handles,

Nice stack.
Have had them fall over from wind, earth quakes, frost heaves & just poor stacking on my part.
Yep, 5' high is difficult to stack & stay stacked

Gonna be ahead with the wood from the beginning, very good plan

Wood ID;
Ash & maple

Another solution for easier splitting :
(broken link removed to http://www.speeco.com/products.aspx?id=95&id2=509&prod=358)

 

[nrford]

One other tip. An overly sharp axe is not the answer. A duller blunter axe will split better. And like others in this post have already said, trying to split pieces in half right of the bat is not the way to go, try taking some off the outside first.
It sure looks like Ash and Soft Maple to me as well.

 

[Hills Hoard]

firstly, i'd never heard the saying splitting wood warms you twice...i love it!...second, nice stack...

 

[Woody Stover]

Huh. To me, looks like the same stuff in pic1 and 2.

Yep, chip off the edges first on the tough ones. You can probably do that with the Fiskars...but I also have other weapons, as you can see in my sig.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

And if you do attempt splitting through the heart, start on the far edge with the first swing. Closer to you on the second. Closer with the third, etc. until you've drawn a STRAIGHT line across the log. It is when you can't hit where you want to that adds much to the frustration.

 

[tomahawk]

Out here we have a type of paper birch that I've found splits better if I take a utility knife and cut the bark on each sides of the round first. The bark just seems to hold the wood in otherwise and won't let it split. Kind of a pain but the wood inside is worth it.

 

[Coog]

firstly, i'd never heard the saying splitting wood warms you twice...i love it!...second, nice stack...

Or three or four times...

 

[Woody Stover]

And if you do attempt splitting through the heart, start on the far edge with the first swing. Closer to you on the second. Closer with the third, etc. until you've drawn a STRAIGHT line across the log. It is when you can't hit where you want to that adds much to the frustration.

I've also had some success using two mauls. Leave the first maul in there when you get a good strike that starts a crack, acting as a wedge, then hit the other side with the second maul to split it the rest of the way apart.