Splitting Hickory

[Simonkenton]

My brother and I wacked a couple of small hickory trees today. Fresh healthy tree, the sap/water just poured out of the drums. To my surprise, the little splitter handled the two drums pretty well. It is up to my brother to split the rest of the drums.
Is this wood easier to split while still green, or when dry?

 

[Woody Stover]

I haven't gotten a lot of Hickory, although there's plenty here. They don't seem to die much. I've lost a couple that I didn't get to soon enough after they fell..they don't hold up great once they are down.
But I'll guess it's going to be easier to split when fresh, as many species seem to be. Plus those look like nice, straight woods trees so that will be easier than something with twisted grain. But I'll be watching to see what more experienced Hickory guys have to say...

 

[CincyBurner]

My experience with hand-splitting green hickory (bitternut hickory) has been at both ends of the difficulty spectrum:
1) clear grain - split easy, almost as easy as ash but just a bit tougher because of fibrous wood.
2) twisted gnarly grain - super tough splitting because of wood response growth from multiple borer infestations and after successive years (really tough !).
The sapwood decays quickly. I bucked what I thought was a great scrounge. By the time I was cutting toward the the top the predominating sapwood was yielding diminishing returns on the sound heartwood (4" diameter heartwood surrounded by a thick layer of punky sapwood).

 

[Woody Stover]

diminishing returns on the sound heartwood (4" diameter heartwood surrounded by a thick layer of punky sapwood).

Hmmm, that might be worth going after for me on a down Shaggy I've got here. If the sapwood just crumbles away, it might be pretty easy to get a bit of good, primo wood. I just gave up on down Hickory when I saw the punk, figured it was all shot. Thanks for the heads-up. 👍