Tough Splitting Wood

[danrclem]

I was splitting wood today and I had some seasoned wood that was given to me. They person who gave it to me said that he didn't know what kind of wood it was but that it was tough. He told me that he couldn't split it with wedges. I have a splitter so I thought it would be a piece of cake. WRONG!

I thought sycamore was the hardest wood I had ever split before but this was a lot worse. I can split most sycamore fairly easy with my splitter but this wood was awful. Some of it was about 30" across. I quartered the big stuff and it was even hard to cut with my saw.

The bark had a twist in most of it even though there were no limbs. The grain of the wood took the same twist that the bark did. It was real stringy and didn't want to come apart. I don't know what kind of wood it is but I think I'll name it Superman Wood or John Wayne Wood.

Sometimes cut up and dried free wood ain't such a good deal.

Danny

 

[Stihl051master]

Is it ironwood? We get some of that around here, and it's about as close to impossible to split as you can get. The trees don't get very big either.

 

[Jkebxjunke]

Is the wood kinda white in color?
Gum comes to mind ... we have that here in DE .. and it looks nice until you try to split it... forget using a ax or maul... UNLESS its like the middle of winter.. its just been felled.. and its like below 0 if it is green and frozen it SEEMS to split a little easier... :jawdrop:
Gum .. a pain to split .. but burns nice

 

[4Kings]

Could be Elm. I've got about a 100 yard fence row with a bunch of elm. At some point I'll have to remove them all because they're dying. I've found that if I let them stand dead for a couple of years then fell, I can split by hand, otherwise, no way.

 

[woodbooga]

Without seeing the wood, I'd tend to think elm, mainly because of the twist in the grain.

 

[danrclem]

The guy who gave it to me thought maybe gum but he wasn't sure. I thought elm but I haven't ever saw an elm tree with bark on it like this has. I know that there are different varieties of elm so it still might be elm. If ironwood doesn't get very big I don't think it would be that because some of the rounds were probably about 30" across.

If I have time I'll take a couple pictures and post them because I know some of you guys will know what it is for sure.

Danny

 

[Ohiowoodguy]

Ironwood around here splits easy, red elm can be stringy, white elm can be a :taped: - its fibers twist and knit in sworls. Gumwood (Black Gum, Sweet Gum) is the worst- large groups of fibers sworled. TW6 busts them all, though

 

[mga]

toughest wood i've ever split was elm. stringy and twisty...gave the old splitter a real work out.

 

[danrclem]

OK, here it is. What do you think?

Danny

 

[Mike Van]

It looks like rock maple from the pics, especially the 2nd one down. Around the crotches, hard maple can be a bear to split.

 

[Jkebxjunke]

almost looks a little like some gnarly wild cherry....

 

[cjnspecial]

Looks almost like Pecan, it's full of crotches and knarly as heck. Hard to be sure without a leaf though.

 

[danrclem]

I just got it awhile back and he said that it's been down over a year. I didn't get a chance to see the leaves on it. If I ever see some twisted bark that looks like this I'll definately look at the leaves.

Danny

 

[wkpoor]

That looks like the stuff I split here everyday.

 

[woodbooga]

It looks like rock maple from the pics, especially the 2nd one down. Around the crotches, hard maple can be a bear to split.

+1 on that. Just split a 1/2 cord w/maul of that :censored: stuff last night.

If you have any more of that, it might be more valuable to bring log lengths to the mill. Cabinet makers drrol over the figure of the stuff. Especially if sections have that birdseye effect in it.

 

[hornett224]

looks like swamp maple .

he gave you all the crotches.they are a pain to split.

 

[barkies]

looks like pecan

 

[Gumnuts]

IF its a gum with tesselated ,patchy bark, ...pale yellow wood , would be box-gum. Yellow or Grey box.( great for honey bees)
But if its a gum you would most likely be seeing one or 2 gum veins or pockets.


- Graeme

 

[acer saccharum]

Peel it like an onion

I've had logs like your pictures. Looks a lot like red maple. The easiest way I have found is to hit them along the edge, taking off 2" of so at a time. They are pretty much impossible to split across the middle. After knocking off the outer layers I usually end up with an unsplittable crotch. Since there is more wood available to me I dont worry about finishing them off. Many people here will suggest that you rip them.

 

[stihl sawing]

Sweet gum has twisted grain, Whatever it is you definitely got some gnarley wood.