Old Goshenhoppen Oak

[Ashful]

So, I got around to splitting up that 60" diameter oak tree I brought home from the Old Goshenhoppen picnic grove last spring. That church was founded on this site in 1732, and have been having their big oyster festival under this very tree every year since 1877. That was, until Sandy took it down last year. I don't know how old this tree is, because the rings are just too dense to count, but I know my front end loader can't pick up these rounds! Biggest round in this photo measures just a hair shy of 50" diameter.



Most of these rounds were twisted and gnarly, and did not want to split straight, so I did miles of noodling. I think I have a cubic yard of streamers to burn up, now.

Here's one of the smaller rounds going onto the splitter.



I find that this mid-size stuff is the slowest to process. I can do about 5 cords per day, if it's all horizontal work with 12" - 16" rounds. I could probably do 3 cords per day with the monster stuff, as there's no way to move rounds well over 1000 lb. onto the splitter, so I'm forced to noodle 'em. Noodling is fairly quick. It's this 24" crap that takes forever, since I waste all my time trying to muscle it onto the splitter.

 

[aansorge]

Good lord.... Big!

 

[Paulywalnut]

Wrists,forearms, and biceps ouch! Can you split them once they're in half? Nice JD too Joful.

 

[Paulywalnut]

Oh BTW, my cousin lives in Harleysville and talks about the Goshenhoppen festival.

 

[Ashful]

Oh BTW, my cousin lives in Harleysville and talks about the Goshenhoppen festival.

You should come! I was cashier this year. Good time had by all.

I stood each of those three big rounds on their side, and noodled them into 6" thick slabs, like slicing a boule of bread for sandwiches. The slabs with straight grain were then parted out at the splitter, and the gnarly ones noodled to make 6" x 6" or smaller "splits."

The trouble with having a trailer load of noodled splits, each a perfect rectangle in cross-section, is the stack perfectly tight. It's a challenge to stack them loose for air flow and drying.

 

[Ralphie Boy]

Man, you should have had some C4 to split that monster! This would work too! Call me the next time you have a monster like that and me and the boys will be right over for some target practice.

 

[Paulywalnut]

Sounds good.

 

[Ashful]

Well, here's today's project... more of the same:

 

[JustWood]

How many of those rounds to a cord ?

 

[NH_Wood]

The nice thing is those rounds give up a lot of splits, but a bear to work sometimes - great job and enjoy! Cheers!

 

[Ashful]

How many of those rounds to a cord ?

Four of them made a full cord. Doing the math, and using our gub'ment-assumed 85 cu.ft. solid wood per cord (average stacking), one 50" diameter x 20" long round is 0.27 cords.

I'm getting pretty quick at processing these monsters. Roll onto side, noodle into 6" thick slabs with the Stihl 064, the process the slabs on the splitter. It really goes pretty fast, but I was knee deep in piles of noodles all day. I started a fire with some pallets, and would dump bucket loads of noodles on top, using the front-end loader on the tractor. I lost count of exactly how many 1/3 yard buckets of noodles I moved to the fire pit today, but I know it was about 10 buckets (3 cubic yards!).

 

[Soundchasm]

Shock and awe!

 

[BIGDADDY]

Wow that is some tough stuff. Do you think if you cut the round in half that the splitter may be able to crack it then? Or still would be to tough? Think it might be quicker then noodling and easier. I don't know I personally haven't split pieces that large.
You could get this guy to come over.

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[Ashful]

Trouble is, those rounds were way beyond the 1200 lb. mark, so half is still 600 lb! I sliced each into 6 or more slices, which I still couldn't lift, but I could "walk" em over to the splitter, like moving a filing cabinet. The straighter ones got split, only the gnarly ones were noodled to final size.

The three big rounds in the first photo were from the crotch of a two-trunk ash, so lots of noodling! I'm not sure which is faster... that 064 AV cuts pretty damn fast.

 

[jatoxico]

Those are some serious rounds . Never processed anything that big, biggest has been maybe 30" (prob less) and humping that size stuff around is no fun. How did you get that stuff home and stacked?

 

[Ashful]

When I bucked up that big oak, I was lucky to have a guy with an excavator and dump body truck nearby. He loaded the rounds into the truck, drove over to my house, and dumped them in the driveway for me.

I wasn't so lucky with the ash shown in the second set of photos. That was brought home on a dual axle u-Haul trailer. We loaded them into the trailer by backing it into a hillside, and rolling the rounds in. Unloading meant just rolling them off, and then stacking the rounds with the front end loader.

 

[Jags]

Big stuff for sure. I like working up big rounds. Lots of wood.

 

[tekguy]

So, I got around to splitting up that 60" diameter oak tree I brought home from the Old Goshenhoppen picnic grove last spring. That church was founded on this site in 1732, and have been having their big oyster festival under this very tree every year since 1877. That was, until Sandy took it down last year. I don't know how old this tree is, because the rings are just too dense to count, but I know my front end loader can't pick up these rounds! Biggest round in this photo measures just a hair shy of 50" diameter.

View attachment 119103 View attachment 119104

Most of these rounds were twisted and gnarly, and did not want to split straight, so I did miles of noodling. I think I have a cubic yard of streamers to burn up, now.

Here's one of the smaller rounds going onto the splitter.

View attachment 119108

I find that this mid-size stuff is the slowest to process. I can do about 5 cords per day, if it's all horizontal work with 12" - 16" rounds. I could probably do 3 cords per day with the monster stuff, as there's no way to move rounds well over 1000 lb. onto the splitter, so I'm forced to noodle 'em. Noodling is fairly quick. It's this 24" crap that takes forever, since I waste all my time trying to muscle it onto the splitter.

got to love the Huskee 22 ton from TSC!

 

[Ashful]

I like working up big rounds. Lots of wood.

You, sir, have Big Wood Envy Disorder (BWED). I have a love/hate relationship with the big stuff.

Pro's:
- I get to really put my Stihl 064 thru some heavy use... fun!
- They're fun to look at and talk about.
- 1/4 to 1/3 cord from each round!

Con's:
- My body hurts after a day of dealing with them.
- Slow! I only processed a cord per day, from these big rounds. I can do more than 3 cords per day from smaller rounds.
- Did I mention my body hurts?

 

[Jags]

You, sir, have Big Wood Envy Disorder (BWED).

Maybe I should go see a doctor about that.

 

[1750]

Wow that is some tough stuff. Do you think if you cut the round in half that the splitter may be able to crack it then? Or still would be to tough? Think it might be quicker then noodling and easier. I don't know I personally haven't split pieces that large.
You could get this guy to come over.

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This guy is hilarious.

A fire-and-brimstone, raucous, gaseous prophet of the wood-fired future.