Why is this pine so hard to split? Why why why?..

[Corriewf]

Been trying to get this pine tree split that is laying across my yard and every piece is giving me a hard time...Poplar or Pine, my maul just sinks into it instead of going through...

Do I have to wait until the termites eat it to punk to split it?

*sad face*

 

[TreePointer]

I've run into some old Scots pine that was a real workout to split. It was in a windbreak and had grown with a twisted grain. On some rounds, the twist was as much as I've seen in American elm.

 

[Corriewf]

Man I feel like giving up... I don't like a wood to beat me, but it's pine. I think maybe the outside rings are dead and have soaked up rain or something... I hit it and my maul just sunk in with some liquid oozing out. It's already been out there for a couple months. What should I do?

 

[Bubbavh]

Without a splitter... some pine just isn't worth the trouble!!

 

[sgt7546]

I was given maybe half of face cord of pine that I wanted to use for campfire wood.
It took me longer to split that than it does a full cord of non-pine wood.
I ended up using a sledge and two wedges to get the job done....but I will never never never accept pine rounds again.

 

[Bspring]

Been there, done that and gave up.

 

[iskiatomic]

Pine or Hemlock? Hemlock has many more knots to get thru.


KC

 

[loon]

:cheese:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/29408/#310090

 

[Corriewf]

Geesh guys, your suppose to call me a wuss and inspire me.... Damn, now I feel like quitting...

 

[SpeakEasy]

I was ready to give up on a load of pine. Instead, I cut it into very short (10"?) rounds. When it was in such short rounds the splitting problem was solved.
-Speak

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Geesh guys, your suppose to call me a wuss and inspire me.... Damn, now I feel like quitting...

Put a few chunks in your freezer for a few days. :lol: That will make the wood harder and easier to split.

 

[thewoodlands]

Been trying to get this pine tree split that is laying across my yard and every piece is giving me a hard time...Poplar or Pine, my maul just sinks into it instead of going through...

Do I have to wait until the termites eat it to punk to split it?

*sad face*

http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/splitting.htm

Zap

 

[Corriewf]

Geesh guys, your suppose to call me a wuss and inspire me.... Damn, now I feel like quitting...

Put a few chunks in your freezer for a few days. :lol: That will make the wood harder and easier to split.

Damn...why do I keep getting stuck with all this wood that's hard to split? I was rolling along so well for a while, but lately I'm stuck.

Wish I had the money for a splitter, but that would take the fun out it.

 

[formula_pilot]

Been trying to get this pine tree split that is laying across my yard and every piece is giving me a hard time...Poplar or Pine, my maul just sinks into it instead of going through...

Do I have to wait until the termites eat it to punk to split it?

*sad face*

I feel your pain. This spring I split some pine and hemlock by hand, and it was like the branches had grown into to the inside of the round. I would have the whole thing split, except a darn branch (knot) would still be holding it together. I had to pry them apart or cut the "internal branch" with the sharp Fiskars, and there would be this dark stub of branch sticking out of the split that made stacking "creative". Now dry, the suff is as light as a feather. Turned out to be a lot of work for lightweight wood. The conifers out West can be different. I spent a week in a cabin in Montana this spring. The wood we burned in the stove came from the mountains, and burned a surprisingly long time compared to the pine here in the east. It was also much denser. Not sure what species, but it was some kind of conifer, not a hardwood.

 

[bogydave]

Here we split spruce when it get around -10°f.
Flies apart.
I got a splitter now, but it was allot easier when real cold.
After it dries though, burn it whatever size it is.
The bigger ones with no limbs or knots should split, unless
it's twisted, then burn it as camp fire wood if it don't fit in the stove.
Can always noodle it.

 

[precaud]

Let it dry for a year and then split it. Makes a huge difference.

 

[Corriewf]

Hey zap,

Thanks! Hey check out this instructional video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee6Raji8ojc

 

[Corriewf]

I wish I could wait a while to split it but the termites are getting to it. It is also blocking my lawn tractor in. I hate to throw away wood unless it's rotten and I hate noodling. The rounds are only a couple feet wide. I like to try and hold off noodling unless it three feet or more. What sucks is that I have two more poplars to bring down as well. I have split many different types of wood so far and that poplar was the worse. It was even hard to cut with the saw. It's like the grain is going the wrong way....

I sometimes wonder how the older folks here still split some of this tougher stuff by hand. I often wonder if a day will come that I won't be able to do the heavy wood work anymore.

 

[gzecc]

Ive said it before on this forum. If I only had (NJ)pine to burn, I wouldn't burn wood.

 

[Wingman]

I took down a 60' 30" round base pine last spring. I was able to split ~1/2 by hand then the other 1/2 had to be done by splitter which mangled a fair amount of it. Anything that had the knot was impossible to split. I did get about 2 cords of wood, but boy, did it take a long, long time to finish it.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Been trying to get this pine tree split that is laying across my yard and every piece is giving me a hard time...Poplar or Pine, my maul just sinks into it instead of going through...

Do I have to wait until the termites eat it to punk to split it?

*sad face*

Quite being a wus, our pine is so easy to split my kids do all the splitting.

 

[Beowulf]

One of several 60' pines we took down due to borers this year was much worse than the others to split. The thing about branches being embedded about 6 inches deep into the trunk made it kind of tough to do by hand. Most of the rounds are now forming a decorative border on our back driveway and feeding the legions of termites! If I did not have access to about all the oak I could ever want, I would worry more about it, but this particular tree is more trouble than the btu's merit.

 

[quercus_kelloggii]

I sweated through hand splitting a bunch of ponderosa pine rounds I had scrounged. Some were easy, oddly enough the smaller diameter "top" portions were a complete female dog. Twisted grain messes. Frustrating to be splitting 20" rounds no problem, then get dogged down by the 8 or 10" rounds! But I split them all. Sweat equity. I'm going for Douglas-fir over ponderosa pine from here on out however. Soooooo easy to split...

 

[Corriewf]

Been trying to get this pine tree split that is laying across my yard and every piece is giving me a hard time...Poplar or Pine, my maul just sinks into it instead of going through...

Do I have to wait until the termites eat it to punk to split it?

*sad face*

Quite being a wus, our pine is so easy to split my kids do all the splitting.

That's some nice looking pine! Can't wait until my son is old enough.

I do notice that once I get it split in half, the rest splits fine. It just takes about 10 freaking swings to get it in half. This tree was about 60 foot tall as well so maybe it's the knots. Looks like this weekend is gonna be full of fun for me.

 

[Wood Duck]

I've split some White and Pitch pine from the forest, where they grow a trunk without many branches, and they split easily. Pines from someones front yard, where they have a ton of branches the whole way up the trunk, can be a pain the butt to split. Even small branches seem to go all the way to the middle of conifers.