# Worst Wood to Split by Hand?



## Agrarian (Aug 4, 2010)

Alright, taking a survey. What is the worst wood to split by hand (maul, fiskars, sledge, etc)? And to make it comparable, let's not talk about crotches, knots base chunks, etc. I'm talking about a chunk taken from a straight section of the tree with no branches.

For me its a toss-up between wild cherry and shagbark maple. The grain goes every which way. I would have said elm but that has all but disappeared from around here since the early '70's. But I do remember my dad busting his ass trying to turn it into something burnable.


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## smokinj (Aug 4, 2010)

elm


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## Plankton (Aug 4, 2010)

In my experience it goes 

1. Elm
2. Shagbark hickory
3. Beech


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## Swamp Yankee (Aug 4, 2010)

smokinj said:


> elm



+1

Elm isn't much fun even with a splitter.

Take Care


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## pops21 (Aug 4, 2010)

Black gum, black locust or dog wood. Black gum is kinda like trying to split a knot on a big oak round.:censored:


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## cat-face timber (Aug 4, 2010)

For me it is a big piece of Pinyon Pine, does not spilt, more like break.


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## stint (Aug 4, 2010)

Elm is definitely my hardest

Black Cherry is one of the easier for me. 
Interesting that your is twisted and difficult


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## TreePointer (Aug 4, 2010)

Elm, of course. I'll also throw in apple and anything twisted.

I once ran into some twisted Austrian pine that the Fiskars SSA didn't like.


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## H-Ranch (Aug 4, 2010)

Hickory has been my worst. But since it's at the top for heating value and the father-in-law has given me 6 huge trailer loads of logs I get it done with the splitter. Even then quite often it has to be run the full length of the ram because it is so stringy.


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## ihookem (Aug 4, 2010)

I knew an old man that put a wedge all the way through an elm log and it still didn't split.


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## Nosmo (Aug 4, 2010)

Before I learned better I used to split Elm by going around the edge with a heavy 14 lb. wedge/mall. After I learned better Elm goes through my splitter and then in the stack. Never gonna split it by hand anymore.

Sweetgum is no sissy stuff to split either. I've never tried splitting it after it has seasoned .

Nosmo


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## ct greenman (Aug 4, 2010)

Shagbark hickory and elm :bang:


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## bsearcey (Aug 4, 2010)

Black gum and sweet gum. Haven't had the pleasure of splitting elm...yet.


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## peterc38 (Aug 4, 2010)

Agrarian said:


> For me its a toss-up between wild cherry and shagbark maple.



What the heck is shagbark maple? I never have heard of or seen that.

You sure it isn't shagbark hickory?


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## banshee67 (Aug 4, 2010)

CHERRY!!! out of the woods i have split by hand
even an almost straight piece of cherry is a #####, the wood is never straight even when its straight if that makes sense,
the fastest and easiest way to do it by hand is noodle it about 1/2 -3/4 way through, depending on how big the round is, or type or wood or whatever. stand it up,then its pretty much 1 piece per swing, cant beat it


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## Goon 88 (Aug 4, 2010)

Agrarian said:


> Alright, taking a survey. What is the worst wood to split by hand (maul, fiskars, sledge, etc)? And to make it comparable, let's not talk about crotches, knots base chunks, etc. I'm talking about a chunk taken from a straight section of the tree with no branches.
> 
> For me its a toss-up between wild cherry and shagbark maple. The grain goes every which way. I would have said elm but that has all but disappeared from around here since the early '70's. But I do remember my dad busting his ass trying to turn it into something burnable.



Morningwood!!!!


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## rmount (Aug 4, 2010)

Elm definitely, I've buried a couple of wedges into a round and had to use a third to free them.


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## amateur cutter (Aug 4, 2010)

rmount said:


> Elm definitely, I've buried a couple of wedges into a round and had to use a third to free them.



Yep, Elm sucks big time, cherry around here isn't terrible, except for the occasional tree. A C


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## Wood Doctor (Aug 4, 2010)

Elm has sold more hydraulic logsplitters than any other tree species on planet Earth.

When dry, red elm splits surprisingly well, but red elm is scarce. That's about it. Some fruitwood species can be tough as nails. Pear and Apple come to mind. Knotty pine is surprisingly tough.


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## flushcut (Aug 4, 2010)

smokinj said:


> elm


I think the first post says it all!


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## Axe Man (Aug 4, 2010)

As stated previously, elm will eat wedges and make them disappear. But I like it.


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## flushcut (Aug 4, 2010)

Axe Man said:


> As stated previously, elm will eat wedges and make them disappear. But I like it.



You are truly a sick sick man!


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## Agrarian (Aug 4, 2010)

peterc38 said:


> What the heck is shagbark maple? I never have heard of or seen that.
> 
> You sure it isn't shagbark hickory?



Your question got me to thinking that I may not know what I was talking about so I looked it up. And I knew I was in trouble when Google had no hits for "shagbark maple". 

I know it was not shagbark hickory because we have some of that growing on the edge of fields around here but I believe they are planted, not native. This is definitely a maple and is what I have always called "shagbark maple" since I was young. However, looking at maple ID websites, it turns out it actually is a silver maple. Older silver maples have bark very similar to older shagbark hickories. 

So thanks for calling me out on that - learned something new!


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## nomak (Aug 4, 2010)

Agrarian said:


> Your question got me to thinking that I may not know what I was talking about so I looked it up. And I knew I was in trouble when Google had no hits for "shagbark maple".
> 
> I know it was not shagbark hickory because we have some of that growing on the edge of fields around here but I believe they are planted, not native. This is definitely a maple and is what I have always called "shagbark maple" since I was young. However, looking at maple ID websites, it turns out it actually is a silver maple. Older silver maples have bark very similar to older shagbark hickories.
> 
> So thanks for calling me out on that - learned something new!



yeah and that silver maple that gets bark that rough on it is a real pain in the u know what to split as I am learning.. I have noodled 36" rounds in to halves and still can split smaller pieces from one side to other. the branches of these trees were no problem but nothing but a wedge and sledge or noodling them almost down to nothing before the main trunk of the silver maples can be split with ease.. or is there some trick about splitting maple when its first cut.. cause it is been in rounds for 2 or 3 months now...


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## MNGuns (Aug 4, 2010)

What is this "split by hand" you speak of...:monkey:


 Those of you that split all your heating wood by hand are far better men than I...


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## Ductape (Aug 4, 2010)

smokinj said:


> elm





:agree2::agree2:


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## Blowncrewcab (Aug 4, 2010)

About a week ago I was splitting a 5" round of elm with my SS (Super Splitter) and it got stuck, when I rocked the SS to get it loose the wood pinched it so hard it spit it out fast enough to fly up and hit me in the Lip, All I could do was laugh.....

Now the Sweet Gum..I borrowed some firewood earlier this year when mine ran out, a Pick-up load of Sweet Gum showed up (from a guy at work ) I took a swing at it with my (non SS Maul, didn't have it yet) Regular Maul, I spent the next 15 minutes trying to get the Maul back Out of the wood. There are marks on my cement slab front porch where I was banging the piece on the end of the maul onto the cement, It smoothed the texture of the cement it was so hard. I have split wood there for 13 years and never left a mark, this sweet Gum gave a whole new meaning to:censored: Hard Wood


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## super3 (Aug 4, 2010)

MNGuns said:


> What is this "split by hand" you speak of...:monkey:
> 
> 
> Those of you that split all your heating wood by hand are far better men than I...





I couldn't agree more!


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## fredmc (Aug 4, 2010)

Elm, hickory, white oak and hedge knots.


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## ct greenman (Aug 4, 2010)

MNGuns said:


> What is this "split by hand" you speak of...:monkey:
> 
> 
> Those of you that split all your heating wood by hand are far better men than I...



Thanks


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## B-Edwards (Aug 4, 2010)

Black Gum is the worst I have split, I dont want to try Elm!!!


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## rmihalek (Aug 4, 2010)

Alright, whenever MNGuns posts, I spend more time staring at his avatar than thinking about the thread... ah, it's such a tough life.

I rarely encounter elm these days, so I can't complain too much about it, though it did cause lots of cussing as a kid trying to split it for Dad and getting all the wedges stuck. These days rock maple (aka sugar maple) takes way too much effort, so I just noodle it with a saw for the most part. I had an enormous cherry log mixed in with a tri-axle load: that stuff would split down a spiral such that the wedge would start at "noon" and the split at the bottom would be at 3 or 4 o'clock.


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## nomak (Aug 4, 2010)

MNGuns said:


> What is this "split by hand" you speak of...:monkey:
> 
> 
> Those of you that split all your heating wood by hand are far better men than I...



well it wont be split by hand after tonight.. im reserving a splitter for the weekend next week to finish off what I have cut in rounds of maple and locust in the yard and the two more (S10) truck loads of ash rounds I will be getting... I have already split 2 cords by hand since it got in the 50 degree temps this spring and cut back a few weeks ago when it turned to 90 plus every day not counting the humidity.. so no more splitting by hand for me.. gonna rent me a splitter for the weekend for a decent price and be done with it all but the stacking..and have enough wood for this season and most of next.


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## dingeryote (Aug 5, 2010)

Elm. 

Frozen it just sucks.
Green and warm it's a pointless and fruitless endeavor unless your plan was to drink beer, sweat, and cuss.

Shagbark hickory ain't much better, but frozen it's not too bad.

I like burning Elm though. It holds the burn as well as Oak and dosn't ash out too bad. 

It might be more work, but in the long run, it's less splitting time for the same heat from lesser species.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote


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## bcorradi (Aug 5, 2010)

Cottonwood for me.


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## stevohut (Aug 5, 2010)

MNGuns said:


> What is this "split by hand" you speak of...:monkey:
> 
> 
> Those of you that split all your heating wood by hand are far better men than I...



I have to split by hand can't afford a splitter. I do a lot of noodling for the real wet hard stuff. Besides I need the workout from swingen the super splitter. I've only almost taken out a shin 3 times with supper splitter off of a deflection.


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## turnkey4099 (Aug 5, 2010)

Swamp Yankee said:


> +1
> 
> Elm isn't much fun even with a splitter.
> 
> Take Care



Yep. When I prepare to split that stuff my hatchet lays right there to cut the unsplit stringers. Beats pulling the round and turning it over to complete the split.

Harry K


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## turnkey4099 (Aug 5, 2010)

MNGuns said:


> What is this "split by hand" you speak of...:monkey:
> 
> 
> Those of you that split all your heating wood by hand are far better men than I...



I split most of mine by hand for the excersize. Splitter only comes out for the tought stuff.

Do a 1/2 hour or so most mornings just to get the blood pumping again. Gotta do something to get this old body woke up .

Harry K


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## turnkey4099 (Aug 5, 2010)

pops21 said:


> Black gum, black locust or dog wood. Black gum is kinda like trying to split a knot on a big oak round.:censored:



Black locust? That stuff splits nice by hand green and almost falls apart when dry. I am closing in on around 40 cords of it in my "retirement stock" and a good half or more was done by hand.

I have a small rick out there now waiting to be done in the morning.

oops. Right after I sent it I recalled one grove I 'did' a couple years ago. That stuff was tough and I ran it through the splitter.

Harry K


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## wooddog 066 (Aug 5, 2010)

Elm or locust


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## pipehead (Aug 5, 2010)

Yellow Birch can be ignorant. I've had wedges sunk right in it, and would not give and inch (it had a pretty twisted grain, mind you).


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## hardy steve (Aug 5, 2010)

Green pin oak for me


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## fields_mj (Aug 5, 2010)

Elm is a bear, that's for sure. I prefer to split it when it's down around zero. A few hits with a maul will generally do the trick depending on the size. 

I generally have better luck on hickory using an axe, again depending on the size. Same goes for Cherry and Ash. Around here, cherry splits pretty easy most of the time. 

I've been cutting a lot of black locust this year, and an axe won't seem to even touch the smaller piecs. I dropped the trees back in Jan, and bucked a lot of them in the spring. They are now dried and checked, but the maul still has a hard time with the 18" rounds. So I bought an 064 and now I noodle them. A nice easy hit with about anything does the trick just fine now  No more beating my brains out with a maul. I"ll take a 15 pound saw to an 8 pound maul anyday :biggrinbounce2:


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## Firechief (Aug 5, 2010)

I'll have to agree with Swamp Yankee that Elm is a bear even with a splitter. Cherry here in Northern Indiana is a breeze to split, every time the wind blows they fall down.


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## rmount (Aug 5, 2010)

pipehead said:


> Yellow Birch can be ignorant. I've had wedges sunk right in, it and would not give and inch (it had a pretty twisted grain, mind you).



I would put as a second worse to elm. Yellow birch can be a funny wood to split, sometimes it cracks open so easy that you wonder why you used two hands to swing the maul and other times it takes 3 or 4 swings to start developing a crack.


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## pipehead (Aug 5, 2010)

rmount said:


> I would put as a second worse to elm. Yellow birch can be a funny wood to split, sometimes it cracks open so easy that you wonder why you used two hands to swing the maul and other times it takes 3 or 4 swings to start developing a crack.



Thats just what I find. One piece will explode with one swing, the next will take a sledge/maul, and still take a dozen hits while grinning at you.


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## bsearcey (Aug 5, 2010)

TreeCo said:


> Black Gum makes elm look easy!
> 
> Black gum is the worst there is....bar none!



I think what makes it even worse is the BTU value of BG. At least with elm you are rewarded with a decent BTU value. BG not so good.


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## mooseracing (Aug 5, 2010)

Add another to Elm. I haven't had any problems with anything else up here in MI. Elm always seems to be a PITA, sometimes I don't know if it's worth dinking with.

Even the splitter sometimes doesn't like it, or it will just slowly cut through all the grain.


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## BlueRidgeMark (Aug 5, 2010)

MNGuns said:


> What is this "split by hand" you speak of...:monkey:
> 
> 
> Those of you that split all your heating wood by hand are far better men than I...





Yes, that's true. We certainly are. :agree2:




:hmm3grin2orange:


Oh, c'mon! You asked for it!


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## JBinKC (Aug 5, 2010)

1.) Any Gum
2). American Elm
3). Sycamore


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## BlueRidgeMark (Aug 5, 2010)

stint said:


> Black Cherry is one of the easier for me.
> Interesting that your is twisted and difficult





H-Ranch said:


> Hickory has been my worst. ... often it has to be run the full length of the ram because it is so stringy.





pops21 said:


> Black gum, black locust ...




Interesting differences here, folks. Black cherry is a piece of cake for me. Hickory too. Black locust? One of the easiest! Straight grained and just pops open!


I suspect we're calling different trees by the same names. Probably regional differences, coupled with the fact that most of us don't know how to ID trees as well as we think we do!


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## woodbooga (Aug 5, 2010)

Always good having a few elm rounds on hand. For when there's company. 

Usually the gals like to talk amonsgt themselves. Us fellas usually head out to the barn or else to the woodpile. Even my non-woodheat friends like to mosey on out.

Gee, that's a lotta wood.

Yep. Split it with a maul. Like this. (Demolish an oak round by way of demonstration.). Here, you try. (put elm round on stump. Enjoy the free entertainment.)


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## pops21 (Aug 5, 2010)

BlueRidgeMark said:


> Interesting differences here, folks. Black cherry is a piece of cake for me. Hickory too. Black locust? One of the easiest! Straight grained and just pops open!
> 
> 
> I suspect we're calling different trees by the same names. Probably regional differences, coupled with the fact that most of us don't know how to ID trees as well as we think we do!



BL might be easier to split when dried but when green ive alwayse thought it was hard to split.


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## Swamp Yankee (Aug 5, 2010)

woodbooga said:


> Always good having a few elm rounds on hand. For when there's company.
> 
> Usually the gals like to talk amonsgt themselves. Us fellas usually head out to the barn or else to the woodpile. Even my non-woodheat friends like to mosey on out.
> 
> ...



Cruel, very cruel

But somehow brilliant in its simplicity.

Take Care


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## BlueRidgeMark (Aug 5, 2010)

Swamp Yankee said:


> Cruel, very cruel
> 
> But somehow brilliant in its simplicity.
> 
> Take Care





Kind of like woodbooga! Only in reverse....


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## BlueRidgeMark (Aug 5, 2010)

pops21 said:


> BL might be easier to split when dried but when green ive alwayse thought it was hard to split.



Ah, that would make a difference. I haven't split any green.


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## nixon (Aug 5, 2010)

By hand ? honestly it's been years . But I can say by hand or machine , Elm sucks ,followed shortly by Sweet Gum.


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## Woodcutteranon (Aug 5, 2010)

Elm.

Here are a couple pics of my elm experiment. Notice how small the log is. The wedge was swallowed by this elm round. It never did split.


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## avalancher (Aug 5, 2010)

Woodcutteranon said:


> Elm.
> 
> Here are a couple pics of my elm experiment. Notice how small the log is. The wedge was swallowed by this elm round. It never did split.




It never split?So what did you do?Just throw the log and wedge in the fire?


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## Woodcutteranon (Aug 5, 2010)

avalancher said:


> It never split?So what did you do?Just throw the log and wedge in the fire?



The log didn't need split to begin with. It was a boring day last winter so I thought I would give it a try. I had to spread both ends to work my wedge loose. I thought the elm gave a good fight so I left it in tact.


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## Mike PA (Aug 5, 2010)

I'm going to go with gum. I wack it with the Fiskars and I'm lucky if it sticks. When I'm not lucky, the wood spits it back out. Swear I can hear it laughing...

Splitting gum with a splitter is tough, also. I'm lucky that I don't find many large gum trees as a 15" round can nearly stall a splitter. It doesn't split as much as it tears. Hard to make good stacks out of split gum. Dries quickly, though, as it has 3-4 times more surface area exposed.


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## Wood Doctor (Aug 5, 2010)

*Elm--Tough and not so Tough*

I once stuck three wedges into an elm round. Hidden crotch swallowed all three of them. I said to myself, "P__s on it." Guess that's why they call it p__s elm.

However, I also with TreeCo that some elm is not that tough to split. It depends on how long it has dried, where the round came from on the tree, which elm species it is, and a host of other factors.


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## stackwood (Aug 5, 2010)

*lol*

:deadhorse: ELM ELM , and any knotted wood!!!


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## discounthunter (Aug 5, 2010)

sweet gum. i would say live oak ,but you said straight grained,ive never seen a piece og straight grained live oak,lol


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## Nosmo (Aug 5, 2010)

*Dead or Dying Elms*

I still say Elm but I don't have much choice in the wood I can gather up. There are a lot of dying or dead Elms in my part of the state.

I've read that Elm was used to make wagon wheels and spokes because the grain is twisted. I don't mind using it in the stove after it has seasoned.

Nosmo


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## Labman (Aug 5, 2010)

Plankton said:


> In my experience it goes
> 
> 1. Elm
> 2. Shagbark hickory
> 3. Beech



In my experience, nothing is in the same ball park as elm, nothing. I have done maple including silver maple, ash, hedge, box elder, choke cherry, mulberry, oak, apple, peach, and some others I don't remember or never identified.

Some of the nicest stuff I ever split was beech. I was doing 3' rounds with a full size ax. I could consistently quarter it with 3 blows of the ax. It was nice straight grain without any big knots.


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## ronsetoe (Aug 5, 2010)

cottonwood!!


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## Cambium (Aug 6, 2010)

Elm by hand. Need 2 or 3 wedges at least.


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## Plankton (Aug 6, 2010)

Labman said:


> In my experience, nothing is in the same ball park as elm, nothing. I have done maple including silver maple, ash, hedge, box elder, choke cherry, mulberry, oak, apple, peach, and some others I don't remember or never identified.
> 
> Some of the nicest stuff I ever split was beech. I was doing 3' rounds with a full size ax. I could consistently quarter it with 3 blows of the ax. It was nice straight grain without any big knots.



For sure there is some nice beech. The reason I threw that on there is I just spent the day prior to that splitting nasty twisted beech with a maul.

But your right Elm is a league of it s own in horrible.


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## fields_mj (Aug 6, 2010)

Cambium said:


> Elm by hand. Need 2 or 3 wedges at least.



There's no way I would attempt to split something that big by hand, even if it wasn't elm. I'd at least noodle it in half first. I've cut a lot of ash and white oak that size in the past 2 years, and I've decided that I just don't have the time or energy to spend whacking on stuff that size anymore. I had been using my 036 to noodle it, then pop it apart with a maul or wedge. Now I just let my 064 eat it  I noodled some 18" rounds (22" long) last night and timed a couple of the cuts. They took between 45 sec and a full min depending on the operator and the size of the wood. Much easier than that old maul.


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## Swamp Yankee (Aug 6, 2010)

Stephen C. said:


> my worse experience was with a load of dried willow a guy gave me. It was as light as balsa wood but that stringy stuff would not come apart! I put out way more BTU's trying to split it than I got back by burning it.:hmm3grin2orange:
> 
> Elm is bad also but at least there is some heat in it.



Willow is nasty.

Willow is indeed some very nasty stuff. Kinda like an elm lite. All the work with 1/2 the BTUs.

Take Care


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## wvlogger (Aug 6, 2010)

Beech i know were serveral full cords are but can not split the stuff. Oh well maybe when i hit the lotto and get my M817 five ton i will cut it all and rent a splitter


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## Troy G (Aug 6, 2010)

Green Elm and Green Cottonwood is a PITA even with the Timberwolf TW-P1.


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## turnkey4099 (Aug 6, 2010)

Swamp Yankee said:


> Willow is nasty.
> 
> Willow is indeed some very nasty stuff. Kinda like an elm lite. All the work with 1/2 the BTUs.
> 
> Take Care



Must be different species. The stuff I cut splits like a dream (except crotches/knots) green. A bit tought dry but still no problem. If let go long enugh to begin getting "punky" any wood will be a problem.

Harry K


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## Junkrunner (Aug 7, 2010)

JBinKC said:


> 1.) Any Gum
> 2). American Elm
> 3). Sycamore


Yep, sycamore is a bear. I call it "rocket wood" when splitting dryed sycamore, with my hydraulic splitter. 
I gave-up trying to split it, by hand.

Green, it is painfully slow.


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## wigglesworth (Aug 7, 2010)

Elm and shagbark hickory are the toughest to split around here. I hate Elm so much, I usually leave it in the woods. It's just not worth the effort. Shagbark just burns too good to leave it be. Looking back, I now know where this constant neck pain comes from.


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## StihlyinEly (Aug 7, 2010)

Of all the woods I have ever split, American elm is the worst. Stringy and nearly impossible to split by hand.


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## spudulike (Aug 7, 2010)

Willow - where boughs come off the main trunk - the stuff is like hard rubber and doesnt burn well - the wood kills you when splitting it with an axe - almost impossible - a wedge isn't much better!

Spud


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## cjnspecial (Aug 7, 2010)

Live Oak is the worst down here. It's dang near impossible to split with a maul and is notorious for bending hydraulic splitters.


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## Wood Doctor (Aug 8, 2010)

Both elm and cottonwood split much easier if you let them dry in the round for about four months. When that is through, the elm is still tough but managable. The cottonwood is then surprisingly easy and not stringy at all.

On the otyher hand, some species of wood get worse to split as it seasons. Bradford and Cleveland pear are good examples of that. When seasoned in the round, these fruitwoods harden up so much that they will literally explode like a cherry bomb when the splitter finally breaks through.

I just split some sycamore last month. It is really tough stuff. You need a power splitter for most of it. Tough as nails.

I, too, have also heard horror stories about live oak and watched some men working with it in Florida about 20 years ago. It is miserable to split.


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## mojojojo (Aug 8, 2010)

Thank God its's not just me. I've split some tough oak, silver maple no problem, modesto ash, cottonwood piece of cake....but willow just about killed me. I would split and stack about 10 rounds after work each night. But that willow I would split maybe two rounds, break 2 wedges, throw some profanities then stop. It's been seasoning since Feb and there is still green leaves on it whereas all other stacks are gray already. Never again with the willow. It may not even burn it til next season. Live and learn I guess.


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## Oldtimer (Aug 8, 2010)

Hornbeam. (Elm?)
Big twisted grain Poplar.
Butt rounds of White Oak.
Basswood.


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## J.W Younger (Aug 9, 2010)

toss up between black gum and sycamore.
Or not, cause your not going to split either of these, you can crush em with a splitter but no way in hell are you gonna split em with a maul.


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## fields_mj (Aug 9, 2010)

As a bit of a side note, an old guy named Nate taught my dad, and later taught me how to split wood by hand. Nate grew up during the depression and his dad ran a saw mill. Due to his background, during the war Nate was an inspector for the lumber used to build gliders and such. When he bought his farm (in the 60's I think), he paid $25K, and had the wallnut select harvested and paid the farm off the next year. Point is, that by the time dad and I met him in the 80's, he was a smart old man and he had been cutting wood all his life. Even in his 80's, he could walk up to any piece of wood, identify what it was, and know exactly where to hit it, and what to hit it with to make it split. I rarely saw him have to hit a piece of wood more than twice to split it, and I never saw him miss his intended mark. Even when I was a young teenager, he could outsplit 2 of me. The wood didn't need bark on it to identify it, and he knew whether it needed to season first, or to split it green. He knew whether to use an axe or a maul (he normally used an axe), and he knew how to read the grain in the wood, and any check patterns present in order to know exactly where to hit the wood to get it to pop open. He taught me (us) that where you hit the wood is a lot more important than what you hit it with, or how hard you hit it. 

Just food for thought. 
Mark


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## stihl sawing (Aug 9, 2010)

Elm- Like beaten on a huge rock, Another waste of time
Sweetgum- Forget it, Get a splitter.
Willow will split ok, But a 100 pound log will weigh 5 pounds after it dries out. Not worth the effort.


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## J.W Younger (Aug 9, 2010)

stihl sawing said:


> Elm- Like beaten on a huge rock, Another waste of time
> Sweetgum- Forget it, Get a splitter.
> Willow will split ok, But a 100 pound log will weigh 5 pounds after it dries out. Not worth the effort.


At least sweet gum will split,black gum(which prob anit a gum) won't.
And willow ani't worth the time it takes to clean the bark out of your bed even if lookin at it hard will split it.


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## stihl sawing (Aug 9, 2010)

J.W Younger said:


> At least sweet gum will split,black gum(which prob anit a gum) won't.
> And willow ani't worth the time it takes to clean the bark out of your bed even if lookin at it hard will split it.


Yep, I've split a bunch of it with the splitter, It looks really bad with all the shredding it does. If you let it dry out some it will slit smoother. Bad thin about sweetgum is it molds really bad and fast too even stored under a covered roof. Some of it we burned was black with mold. I throwed a lot of it on the outdoor burn pile. It also rots really fast if stored in the weather.


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## rob066 (Aug 9, 2010)

Elm is real hard to split. Twisty hard maple can be very hard also. I have some now that is a bear. I have one of the 15 pound monster maul. I can hit that maple more than 20 times and it will not budge.


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## Cerran (Aug 9, 2010)

Poor hardwood burners lol!

Everything out here in the PNW for the most part is easy by comparison. Red Fir, Larch and Pine all split nicely, even by hand.


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## J.W Younger (Aug 9, 2010)

stihl sawing said:


> Yep, I've split a bunch of it with the splitter, It looks really bad with all the shredding it does. If you let it dry out some it will slit smoother. Bad thin about sweetgum is it molds really bad and fast too even stored under a covered roof. Some of it we burned was black with mold. I throwed a lot of it on the outdoor burn pile. It also rots really fast if stored in the weather.


Yep, it anit worth much and you need to burn it pretty quick but I have so much of it in the way its gonna get burnt.
At least its easy cuttin and not much limbing.


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## turnkey4099 (Aug 9, 2010)

J.W Younger said:


> At least sweet gum will split,black gum(which prob anit a gum) won't.
> And willow ani't worth the time it takes to clean the bark out of your bed even if lookin at it hard will split it.



Odd. I have heated my house almosst 100% with it for around 30 years and sell it at $120 cord. Of course the customers don't know better and there is alsothe fact that Willow is about the only wood available in abundance around here.

Granted you stuff the stoveabout 3 times as often but...

Looking forward to this heating season. I have stocked around 40 cords Black locust in the past 2 years and will be burning a lot of locust instead of willow.

Harry K


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## B-Edwards (Sep 15, 2010)

TreeCo said:


> Black Gum makes elm look easy!
> 
> Black gum is the worst there is....bar none!



After looking at the pictures posted here of Elm after it is split I have to agree that Black Gum looks worse. The last I split with a TW-5 (it almost wouldnt split it) around 6 Inches diameter, the grain looked like a braided cable. I have never seen anything like it. Not sure why but I dont ever remember trimming or removing an Elm in my area. I'm not sure there are any around here.


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## CTYank (Sep 15, 2010)

Here, along the CT/NY line:

elm cannot be split; it can be cut.
chinquapin oak, with similar interlocking twisted grain, barely, with hydraulics.

Shagbark hickory can be split, preferably green or frozen. Worth it.

Black cherry and black locust get easier with seasoning & drying. Both are very resistant to rot- some really old dead falls are pretty easy to split, but the locust makes a saw work hard.

Sugar maple takes max effort, but worth it.

Sometimes the best you can do is to "daisy" a round- whittle chunks off around the exterior. And/or give it a little chainsaw "surgical prep."


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## sawkiller (Sep 15, 2010)

Around here elm, hedge and shagbark hickory are all a PITA and that is with a splitter. You have to split a full ram cycle and then hatchet the strings or turn it around on big pieces.

I once got a walnut about 30" in diameter from a friend who was clearing a lot for a house. It must have been 30-40' to the first knot and straight as an arrow. By the time I got there and seen what it was he already had it cut up in 2 distinctly different lengths of firewood (to long and to short). Either way I had to split it some to be able to handle the pieces. Splitting walnut is great it really makes you feel like a man one hit and it is apart. I probably split that tree faster by hand than I could have with a splitter.


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## bobt (Sep 15, 2010)

Here in the UP of Michigan the worst to split used to be Elm, but it's been long gone for years. Of the wood I split each year Yellow Birch is a bugger when it gets big. We burn a little Tamarack and it can be real tough to split as well. Hard Maple is OK to split, and,,,, well,,,, Red Oak and Wild Cherry are a real splitting VACATION! But I usually don't have any Oak or Cherry to spit.


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## iowawoodcutter (Sep 15, 2010)

American Elm and Green Ash.


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## QuickDraw (Sep 15, 2010)

Elm is at the top of my list, followed by sweet gum. Finally got through my last elm round the other day, Thank God ! My Fiskars wasn't up to the task of splittin the concrete wood, had to use a wedge, and 10# sledge.


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## Blowncrewcab (Sep 15, 2010)

I brought home a few thousand pounds of Elm Today (((((((Very muffled--> Yaaah)))):censored: It will heat the house though (and it was free, already loaded on a trailer, I brought my trailer and left it for him to fill again while I unload his) Free-Free-Free (it's worth it Right????):censored:


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## flyfshrmn (Sep 16, 2010)

*hardest wood to split*

Eucalyptus. does the same thing as elm (stringy) when green. Stalls the ram on my TW6 when it's seasoned. A maul just bounces off it when seasoned.
Next worst is mountain mahogany - Ok with the splitter because it never gets real big, but mauls bounce off it green or dry.


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## rancher2 (Sep 16, 2010)

Around this part of the country hedge elm are the two worst. Ash walnut oak are far the easy ones to get to split.


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## MarkD1 (Sep 16, 2010)

APPLE:angry2: Still working through my trunk I cut last year. Good thing I only use it for smoking.


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## nixon (Sep 16, 2010)

From My own experience , it's elm, Sycamore ,and sweet Gum . Even with a splitter they are hard to deal with .


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## Nosmo (Sep 17, 2010)

Blowncrewcab said:


> I brought home a few thousand pounds of Elm Today (((((((Very muffled--> Yaaah)))):censored: It will heat the house though (and it was free, already loaded on a trailer, I brought my trailer and left it for him to fill again while I unload his) Free-Free-Free (it's worth it Right????):censored:



Elm is one of my favorites to burn. Now you really have a good thing going .

Free wood and someone loading the trailer for you with the free wood. Keep up the good work.

Nosmo


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