maple splitting

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like greased lightning
 
Depends on the Maple. I ran into an old Rock Maple that was impossible to split effectively. I could have had much more, but refused to return for additional logs because of the difficulty in splitting.
 
Like any wood, occasionally you'll get some hard splitting stuff but overall most maple splits pretty easy and burns darned good too. Splitting with hydraulics is like child's play.
 
I have yet to find a piece of any kind of wood that my huskee 22 ton could not handle. I actually like splitting those difficult chunks with it - sort of a challenge. The splits dont always come out pretty but it gets split.... and the fire doesnt care how pretty they look.

In General, I find Maple to be one of the easier to split wood types.
 
Did a bunch of maple, not sure which species, in October with my nieghbor's 22 ton splitter. Biggest rounds were 20 - 22" No problem with anything, eve the uglies split on one pull of the lever
 
I also find that most of my maple splits easily also,,,almost just like Walnut,,,,but not as easy as Sassafras.....
 
With a splitter - no sweat. Using a maul, though, some can be a real challenge. Rather wierd- some maples split somewhat easily but others act almost like elm.
 
I agree that maple can be some weird wood for splitting. Old trees growing in urban areas can be a pain to split
With a maul. This is sugar (hard) maple I'm talking about.
 
Got Wood said:
I have yet to find a piece of any kind of wood that my huskee 22 ton could not handle. I actually like splitting those difficult chunks with it - sort of a challenge. The splits dont always come out pretty but it gets split.... and the fire doesnt care how pretty they look.

In General, I find Maple to be one of the easier to split wood types.

+1 I like those knarlys and oddball pieces every once in a while for a challenge too. And with 5 more tons of splitting force, my Troy-Bilt has yet to be tested...
 
Blue2ndaries said:
Got Wood said:
I have yet to find a piece of any kind of wood that my huskee 22 ton could not handle. I actually like splitting those difficult chunks with it - sort of a challenge. The splits dont always come out pretty but it gets split.... and the fire doesnt care how pretty they look.

In General, I find Maple to be one of the easier to split wood types.

+1 I like those knarlys and oddball pieces every once in a while for a challenge too. My 27ton Troy-Bilt has yet to be tested...
 
if its silver it shouldn't be to bad but I've had sugar that slightly bent the base plate of my splitter.
 
The Beagler said:
I agree that maple can be some weird wood for splitting. Old trees growing in urban areas can be a pain to split
With a maul. This is sugar (hard) maple I'm talking about.

I'm discovering the same thing with urban sugar maple. Silver maple on the other hand usually just pops right open.
 
Got Wood said:
I have yet to find a piece of any kind of wood that my huskee 22 ton could not handle. I actually like splitting those difficult chunks with it - sort of a challenge. The splits dont always come out pretty but it gets split.... and the fire doesnt care how pretty they look.

In General, I find Maple to be one of the easier to split wood types.

Check out the thread entitled, "Rocket Scientist- Reporting". The OPs 22-ton Husky couldn't deal with black locust very easily.
 
DanCorcoran said:
Check out the thread entitled, "Rocket Scientist- Reporting". The OPs 22-ton Husky couldn't deal with black locust very easily.
That was Black Tupelo...Black Locust splits pretty easily, even by hand.
 
well i have a 22 ton huskee i just bought and we will see in the morning how it goes. I hope its not stringy. I have about 2 cords to split with my dad in the morning because its sitting right in front of my house and im afraid someone is going to think its for the taking. I will let you know how it goes.
 
Maple won't be stringy.
 
Well we finished all our splitting for next year. Like I said it was all Maple. 70% of it was strait and popped. The rest was stringy. Now I have to move it about 200 feet to my pallets as I use up this years. Do you guys think it will start to season right now in a big heaping pile? This stuff had water pouring out of it as I split it. I hope its good to go for next year. How long for this stuff to season.
 
The norm:
1 year if stacked off the ground & good air circulation
The outside pieces will dry some.
The stuff in the middle & on the ground won't do much.
Get more pallets :)
Got a picture?
 
I split a cord of maple between yesterday and this morning that would have taken longer to split using a splitter. Stuff just popped apart beautifully.

If I were to try and stereotype, I'd say that in general, the wood that I have pulled from the protection of a forest is generally easier to split than hedge row trees, lone trees in a field, etc.

pen
 
pen said:
I split a cord of maple between yesterday and this morning that would have taken longer to split using a splitter. Stuff just popped apart beautifully.

If I were to try and stereotype, I'd say that in general, the wood that I have pulled from the protection of a forest is generally easier to split than hedge row trees, lone trees in a field, etc.

pen

And that makes good sense. Trees growing in the open must develop more cell structures to stay upright. Trees growing within forests have the protection of other trees from the wind so they can devote fewer cells to stiffening and more to growing taller or wider, etc. I've also noticed that the trunk wood from the very bottom 1/4 of the trunk is denser than the trunk wood higher up in the same tree. Also, crotches tend to be denser and heavier.

I just scored a nice maple tree with a 3' diameter trunk. The big trunk split kind of difficult even with my 25 ton SpeeCo.
 
pen said:
I split a cord of maple between yesterday and this morning that would have taken longer to split using a splitter. Stuff just popped apart beautifully.

If I were to try and stereotype, I'd say that in general, the wood that I have pulled from the protection of a forest is generally easier to split than hedge row trees, lone trees in a field, etc.

pen

Finding that to be true this year. I'm cutting in woods, not along openings & Right of ways.
Straight grain, longer logs before limbs start. Don't know how it effects the BTU, (grain density) but it sure splits easier.
 
Depends . . . on the species of maple, how it grew, etc.

In general maple has never presented a huge challenge for me and the hydraulic splitter . . . although I did have a bunch of red maple that due to the way it grew would always split with curving lines . . . kind of annoying when trying to stack it in the woodshed and in the firebox.
 
firefighterjake said:
Depends . . . on the species of maple, how it grew, etc.

In general maple has never presented a huge challenge for me and the hydraulic splitter . . . although I did have a bunch of red maple that due to the way it grew would always split with curving lines . . . kind of annoying when trying to stack it in the woodshed and in the firebox.

I've experienced curving lines with some of my maple. Pain in the a&&. LOL. Then again I have my wife stacking as much as possible.
 
I've had some red maple crotches and knots be a little stringy. I have the TroyBuilt spliter that has the welds made on the cylinder itself. I used to just let it power through and almost "cut" the wood, but after reading about the TroyBuilt failures at the cylinder welds (see a thread from this summer on the TroyBuilt) I don't let it push like that anymore. I just go for the easy split and I can throw the bigger curvy piece in the door of the Garn. That thread has me a little worried about the troybuilt, but it has been flawless for the 5 years I've owned it. Haven't met anything I couldn't split, but a few of these 24" beech rounds about 24" long I can't seem to pick up. I've almost though about trying to split the wrong way, vertically I mean. :)
 
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