Splitting flood-soaked locust rounds

[PDXpyro]

A few days ago, I posted a thread about one of our stacks that had been completely dismantled and submerged by floodwaters. That stack was 100% black locust, most of it in rounds that were cut 1.5 years ago.

I've managed to salvage most of the rounds, and let me tell you that they split like butter! I was slightly worried about leaving that locust to partially season in rounds, fearing that they would then be harder to split. But the rounds that took a week-long bath split ridiculously easily.

I'm proposing a new crackpot theory that this soaking of partially-seasoned rounds creates a "water wedge", where the expanded fibers at the soaked cut surface enable the axe to penetrate more efficiently.

(Edit): This may not be as "new" a principle as I'd assumed, but if not, such discoveries are typically made repeatedly throughout history. Any similar experiences on this forum?

Of course, locust is the ideal wood for this scenario since it's so rot resistant, and a few wettings during the seasoning process don't matter much. Similar bathing of rounds probably won't become a routine practice here!

 

[pen]

With locust, the water might have helped you. If I get a shot at some locust I split it immediately after it is cut, as I have found rounds that sit just a few days were more difficult to split than their counterparts that were done right after bucking.

For other woods, like beech in particular, I have found that drying in rounds for a few months can make their splitting easier. I suppose it is a "depends" sort of thing.