How to break down seriously large oak wood?

[chipper1]

Noodle them?

Glad you made progress. Why did you ask .

Noodling might be less work, but I like the exercise and will avoid doing that unless its necessary.

 

[PoulanInPA]

^Cause I didn't expect to make progress!

 

[chipper1]

^Cause I didn't expect to make progress!

I get that .
I like to do a little noodling too. After you are done spread the noodles out in the sun, they dry very quickly, then I place them in a box or paper bags. They are great for starting fires in the should seasons .

 

[Ted Jenkins]

I'm an engineer and am all for calculations and such, but I can tell you without any of that that these things are sopping wet and heavy as hell. Made good progress yesterday in a couple of hours with sharpened wedges and the sledge, breaking them down into sixth-sizes pieces. I was able to get them on the vertical splitter and do the rest from there. Getting at least 60 pieces of wood from each round! Noodling might be less work, but I like the exercise and will avoid doing that unless its necessary.

I try never to noodle wood because it destroys the wood unless it is for personal use. Thanks

 

[Brian72]

When we get logs too big at the mill, my buddy has a pretty slick solution. He does a bore cut in the middle of the log going down to the center. Puts some black powder in the hole, adds the fuse and then pounds a wedge in. Light it, get back and boom. Split some big logs.

Sent from my E6782 using Tapatalk

 

[arathol]

I'm an engineer and am all for calculations and such, but I can tell you without any of that that these things are sopping wet and heavy as hell. Made good progress yesterday in a couple of hours with sharpened wedges and the sledge, breaking them down into sixth-sizes pieces. I was able to get them on the vertical splitter and do the rest from there. Getting at least 60 pieces of wood from each round! Noodling might be less work, but I like the exercise and will avoid doing that unless its necessary.

One thing you're missing that might help a lot is a hand truck. If you have a vertical splitter its a lot easier to move those big chunks into position if you wheel them in.

 

[James Miller]

That's funny, been there before lol.
Ok, everyone skip to 2:00 for the action, I don't want to watch him do a bore cut and dum a little powder in then pack it, just want to see it blow up .
I think I may try something like this with something different in the log sometime .

You should invite some PA guys for you exploding log trials.

 

[Bobby Kirbos]

You should invite some PA guys for you exploding log trials.

I'm in. I'll hold your beer.

 

[chipper1]

You should invite some PA guys for you exploding log trials.

Sounds like a good time doesn't it.
I'm thinking a nice large sweeping bore cut filled with oxy acetylene and the packed with clay .

I'm in. I'll hold your beer.

Better take a few steps back with the beer, James has seen one or two of my fires not the kicking part, but just get back .
This one was the second to last one at the house (one of my smaller fires), it's been very dry so I can't have one right now . Hopefully we have enough rain by this Saturday to have one as we have a nice size group of friends coming over for a bonfire, your welcome to come although there probably won't be any beer at this one.

 

[James Miller]

Sounds like a good time doesn't it.
I'm thinking a nice large sweeping bore cut filled with oxy acetylene and the packed with clay .

Better take a few steps back with the beer, James has seen one or two of my fires not the kicking part, but just get back .
This one was the second to last one at the house (one of my smaller fires), it's been very dry so I can't have one right now . Hopefully we have enough rain by this Saturday to have one as we have a nice size group of friends coming over for a bonfire, your welcome to come although there probably won't be any beer at this one.
View attachment 605388

We have one by my buddies cabin we were Gona try tanerite on but sounds like Maryland added it to there list of fun things your not allowed to have.

 

[chipper1]

We have one by my buddies cabin we were Gona try tanerite on but sounds like Maryland added it to there list of fun things your not allowed to have.

Nice, but they let you have the guns used to set it off lol. Just grab a couple of the large casess of match packages, that and a fuse will do a little damage .

 

[jrider]

https://my.extension.illinois.edu/d...ucing, harvesting and processing firewood.pdf

Weights of different types of cord wood....

 

[jrider]

Curious how the breakdown of these rounds is going?

 

[jrider]

A cord of wet Oak weighs much closer to 10,000 lbs per cord. A very dry seasoned load of Oak often times is 6,000 lbs. Live Oak is heavier that White Oak, but not nearly as light as dry Pine. I just finished breaking down a Oak that was averaging 60'' at the trunk/ A dozen wedges a couple of sledge handles. A great way to get into shape. Two or three hours a day swinging a hammer will get you going after a month you should be able to swing for up to six hours without being sore. Thanks

I've looked all over and can't find any wood that weighs 10,000 pounds per cord.

 

[chipper1]

I've looked all over and can't find any wood that weighs 10,000 pounds per cord.

Don't worry, there will be plenty of other people on the Internet who say wrong, or funny things, just search all my post.

 

[PoulanInPA]

Curious how the breakdown of these rounds is going?

Its going well, with what little time I've had to work on them. The sharpened wedges help a lot. I've also learned that when and where in the process the wedges are placed is a factor in whether they get buried and how effective each wedge is at splitting.

Plenty of the rounds are too thick for firewood, so I have some large-scale bucking to do with the Poulan 4400. Might be easier just to break them down into eights and then buck the smaller pieces to length. Come November, I'll be hitting the pile a lot more and will post updates.

Oh, I picked up a 5 foot pry bar on amazon for $30 and its a huge help for pulling apart partially split sections and freeing buried wedges.

 

[PoulanInPA]

A before and after photo and the current wood pile...Have a solid 1.5 cords so far. I'm not counting, but I think that was generated from four or five big rounds.

 

[Marine5068]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the input; realistic or not! This is definitely the hard way to get firewood, I agree. But its from my front yard, just like my black cherry dining room table. So when I burn the oak I can relish in the fact it took three times as much work as it should to get the same amount of heat Its good stress relief to break it down, I just don't want to get burned out by doing it the wrong way.

Remember that it will take 2-3 years to season that Oak before burning it.

 

[JTM]

Can you noodle out a kerf then insert wedges and split?

 

[Deleted member 117362]

A before and after photo and the current wood pile...Have a solid 1.5 cords so far. I'm not counting, but I think that was generated from four or five big rounds.

You may have a better method, but I place wedge at outside of round and follow a natural check in wood. I use one wedge, sledge and maul. Split rounds in half then use vertical splitter. Place 2x8s flat on ground in front of splitter, makes sliding half rounds under splitter wedge easier.