Quartering Large diameters

[habanero]

For my money, nothing is a greater insult to your manhood than to try to split elm with a maul or wedge/sledge. I burn mostly ash, and it splits like a dream. Occasionally stringy, but one good whack'll do ya.

Cleaning up behind some city tree crews, I mistakenly grabbed some of what I later found out was elm. No "D" holes...shoulda known it wasn't ash!

First time I hit it with a maul, no love. Second time I used more force than I thought was necessary, still no love. Third time, I was bringing the house--the maul literally bounced upwards. Coulda sworn it laughed on the "upswing."

I use a 10 lb maul on ash, and a "70cc maul" on elm now!

I brought home a pickup load of 16-24" elm logs last weekend. I've dealt with a lot of elm before, so I should have known better, but I didn't. Had a couple that the wedge went in on about 3 hits with the sledge, then on the 4th hit the dang thing bounced back out at me. I slabbed them down from the outside as much as I could and set them aside. They'll be much easier after a few months drying-or they just may become a camp fire at some point.

 

[sugarbush]

I brought home a pickup load of 16-24" elm logs last weekend. I've dealt with a lot of elm before, so I should have known better, but I didn't. Had a couple that the wedge went in on about 3 hits with the sledge, then on the 4th hit the dang thing bounced back out at me. I slabbed them down from the outside as much as I could and set them aside. They'll be much easier after a few months drying-or they just may become a camp fire at some point.

hard to split elm. you need to unrap it. start a few inchs in and work all the way around. burns good tho.

 

[JohnCusickjr]

Thus far this winter we've taken down 6 or so 12-18" dbh elms that were standing dead here on our property . Got to them before they rotted. I have the small Timberwolf splitter, the TM-HV1, and this elm sure POPs. It does burn nice also. Haven't had the chance to touch some green stuff yet though.
Funny, over the years I've milled and installed thousands of feet of profiled casings, made up rabbeted door jambs, made doors, etc, all in the course of residential restoration carpentry, but never SPLIT or burned it. It works beautifully as a wood working product.
The oaks, especially the white, burns so much hotter though. Harder to work with also...

 

[habanero]

hard to split elm. you need to unrap it. start a few inchs in and work all the way around. burns good tho.

That's exactly what I do. Still a pain to deal with, though. But, I split more or less for the exercise of it, so I guess I can't complain too much.