Worst wood to split

[bunfoolio]

Thus far the worst wood that I have split has been Yellow Birch. Its just so stringy and does not matter if I use a splitter or an axe. I am at a point where I just might leave decent size logs and cut white pine instead. Anyone have any advice? I know its decent BTU's but it is making me go crazy.

As a reference I have cut in the past without much issue

Red Oak
White Birch
Cedar
Black Lucust
Cherry
White pine
Poplar
Hemlock
Ash
Maple

What is the most difficult wood that you have had to split?

 

[claydogg84]

American Elm.

 

[johneh]

American Elm.

X2!

 

[Applesister]

A Rock Elm, some Black locust that had been sitting in log form for 10+ years. A huge black birch that had a spiral twist all the way up the tree, that SOB did not want to come apart. A very old Sugar maple( it was very crotchy)
All these trees had knots and crotches that would not budge. A woodturners dream.

 

[jaoneill]

American Elm.

X3

 

[ole]

Elm fights you all the way to the bitter end when splitting.
Burns good though.

 

[Ncountry]

X3

X4

 

[DougA]

I find everything depends upon whether you are getting wood from a forest or residential lots. Forest wood, (except on the edge of the woods) tends to grow straight with not much branching until the top. Branches eventually fall off because they don't get enough light to survive. It's the crotches that cause all the problem with cutting & splitting. My property is half & half and I see a huge difference. I can get some trees that have a 40' straight trunk and split very nicely and then some that are a nightmare. Personally, I find black locust very stringy and tougher than elm.
I'm cutting & splitting elm today so I may change my mind.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Elm is tough all the time, but ash has been the worst twice now. Had to noodle an entire cord of splits. Here areaction a few pics. I guess not, keeps saying file is to big. Anyone no how to make the file smaller from the phone?

 

[STIHLY DAN]

I find everything depends upon whether you are getting wood from a forest or residential lots. Forest wood, (except on the edge of the woods) tends to grow straight with not much branching until the top. Branches eventually fall off because they don't get enough light to survive. It's the crotches that cause all the problem with cutting & splitting. My property is half & half and I see a huge difference. I can get some trees that have a 40' straight trunk and split very nicely and then some that are a nightmare. Personally, I find black locust very stringy and tougher than elm.
I'm cutting & splitting elm today so I may change my mind.

Roadside trees that spent a lifetime being trimmed and healing over are pretty bad also.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Thus far the worst wood that I have split has been Yellow Birch. Its just so stringy and does not matter if I use a splitter or an axe. I am at a point where I just might leave decent size logs and cut white pine instead. Anyone have any advice? I know its decent BTU's but it is making me go crazy.

As a reference I have cut in the past without much issue

Red Oak
White Birch
Cedar
Black Lucust
Cherry
White pine
Poplar
Hemlock
Ash
Maple

What is the most difficult wood that you have had to split?

Just put it aside and i'll be over to help get rid of it. Don't want you to get over worked buddy.

 

[Rebelduckman]

Another vote for elm. Sweet gum sucks too.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Any tree can be bad if the grain is screwed up enough.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I've never split elm but I say Hickory should be on the list of hard to split.

I've split by-hand: white oak, red oak, white ash, soft-maple, black locust, Osage Orange (hedge).

The thing I've never been able to split by-hand: hickory, it's VERY tough stuff and often is quite stringy

That being said, yard-trees are VERY different from forest/woods trees. I generally find soft maple easy to split by hand. I picked up a large soft-maple yard tree recently and I gave up and borrowed a log splitter.

 

[BamaScroungr]

The worst for me so far is Shagbark. But I did learn on these forums that it's much easier to split when the wood is frozen. So I tried mauling the stuff on the coldest day of the year, and it worked! But I'm wondering if freezing temperatures would even help with this twisted and knotty dogwood I just acquired. Heard it's great firewood, but so far I've only managed to knock chunks and chips out of it.

 

[bunfoolio]

Thanks for the responses. Looks like I should be happy to have not experienced American elm.

 

[Ashful]

If it won't split straight, then just noodle it. I've taken to doing that with all rounds over 1000 lb, and all crotches.

 

[aansorge]

I cut a lot of American Elm. It is probably my my most common wood that I process. However the wood is dead-standing or recent blow-overs that were dead-standing. Dead-standing elm is a completely different animal than fresh elm. It is easy stuff to split (I do use hydraulics) whereas fresh american elm is a stringy mess to split when fresh. Standing dead just pops open.

 

[claydogg84]

I cut a lot of American Elm. It is probably my my most common wood that I process. However the wood is dead-standing or recent blow-overs that were dead-standing. Dead-standing elm is a completely different animal than fresh elm. It is easy stuff to split (I do use hydraulics) whereas fresh american elm is a stringy mess to split when fresh. Standing dead just pops open.

That's not always true.

 

[aansorge]

If the bark is off it has always proven true to me. If you don't wait long enough, then it can still be stringy but not as bad as fresh.

 

[Bigsby]

Split Elm for the first time a few weeks ago and it had me cussing like a sailor. Killed the motor on my 22 ton splitter several times which I had yet to do with any other specie. Had to use a hand axe on just about every split because of stringiness. After a while I learned anything with a bend, twist or crotch just isn't worth trying. The straight grained rounds split fairly decent.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

My favorite elm is the 4-8" branches and trunks. Buck and stack...

 

[Bigsby]

My favorite elm is the 4-8" branches and trunks. Buck and stack...

I concur.

 

[jeff_t]

Sycamore sucks. About as bad as green American elm.

Never tried dead sycamore, as I don't think I've ever seen one, but I'll concur on the standing dead elm. Always splits easy for me.

 

[Scooter422]

American Elm and Sycamore have been the worst so far for me. Never touched Gum yet.