Whataya do with the crotches

[Streblerm]

I noodle mine into blocks trying to make as many rectangular pieces as possible. I will make two or three cuts most of the way through and then turn 90 degrees and make two or three more cuts. I don't cut all the way through so everything stays together. One wack with a maul and they blow apart. It makes for nice stackable pieces for the corners of my stacks.

I gave up trying to split gnarly crotch pieces. It's faster to noodle and the pieces stack better. I can't bring myself to just let the gnarly pieces rot.

 

[alleyyooper]

I do mine like drilling man (aka sawyer Rob) also. With the push block on the cylinder and the wedge a old semi leaf spring razor sharp it may just cut the crotch instead of split it.

Al

 

[Big_Al]

Rarely get crotches in wood up here, burn mostly tamarack, red fir & lodgepole. It's all pretty straight wood, very few crotches or forks. On the rare occasion we find one it goes in fire pit. Plenty of easy splitting stuff, no sense fighting those things.

 

[unclemoustache]

I still burn it. Little chunks fit in the stove too, and I have plenty of kids to move wood around.

 

[GrizzlyAdams86]

Goes either to OWB's or bonfire wood. If it does split ok then it does go to people with indoor stoves.

 

[reddogrunner]

Split off what can be split easily and then pile it on some skids for bonfire wood. Burns longer on a pit

 

[300zx_tt]

I sell chords of What I call "big uglies". Sounds like what it is... All the gnarly grain crotches or pieces that I don't feel like spending 20 minutes on. Usually have a chord or two every year. I discount them 20-40 bucks compared to normal splits. Same few guys always buys them. Gotta feed the OWB's.

 

[sam-tip]

Big ugly crotches get put into burn pit. Got plenty of good easy wood to spend my time on. Used to split them but got tired of fighting the uglies. Plus they don't stack very well.

Sent from my SM-N910R4 using Tapatalk

 

[Tenderfoot]

Scratch them. Or if you are a dog, sniff them.

 

[LondonNeil]

this guy shows how its done, from 10 mins in, makes it look easy.

 

[unclemoustache]

Only thing I don't like about that technique is the height of the splitting block. I make mine as low as possible to get as much acceleration as possible from the maul.

 

[LondonNeil]

I agree, I go lower too. I have to say I found his tutorials (there s a second one) very informative, being new to wood burning i wanted to know the tricks and he explains a good few very well. Ok he is puffing hard at times but generally its brains over brawn, he reads the wood and knows where its weak. I use his technique on crotches and it works well.

 

[chipper1]

Yeah I am thinking it's not worth the effort.

I disagree if you need wood and don't have a lot of choice.
I do a lot to make my cut so that the crotch will be as easy to split as possible.
I have not run across a crotch piece that I can't split with a 22 to huskee/county line splitter.

Just like all of my other firewood rounds, I push them through my 4-way wedge!

NO problem at all,

And keep on pushing them through,

until I get the size splits I want...like I said, no problem at all...

SR

Your a brute Rob .

Knots and crotches are usually the densest and best burning parts of a tree and I don't waste them.

That's right, best part for sure, hottest and longest burning pieces .

Ill cut them down to make them easier to split... say 8-10 inches and then they go in the shorts bin... Right now my shorts bin is roughly 32' long by 4' wide and 50" tall. Its almost full.

View attachment 581869

I like that nugget holder Casey.
I throw them in a pile along with other shorts and give some away as well as burn some.
My neighbor has an outdoor pizza oven and I'm sure to donate a few to him, the rewards are great .

 

[Marine5068]

Speaking of firewood of course. I had a bunch of oak with joints in it. I set em up and noodled them trying to separate the straight and splittable wood from the twisted wood. I noodled through the centers of each branch to release the outer, presumably straight grained wood , and keeping the centers seperate.

Anyway how do you pro's deal with the crotch wood.

I usually only cut firewood for my own use in the stove, but I do sell some.
I cut crotches off short and split them in half and separate them on their own pallet. They are usually the ones I use for overnighters as most are hard and dense.

 

[bikemike]

Noodle it for fire wood

 

[MrWhoopee]

I just finished processing some oak crotches. Cut 'em in half (8 in. long), then bust 'em, shred 'em, whatever it takes. They're good barbecue fuel.

 

[tomtom85]

Burn it

 

[sb47]

Speaking of firewood of course. I had a bunch of oak with joints in it. I set em up and noodled them trying to separate the straight and splittable wood from the twisted wood. I noodled through the centers of each branch to release the outer, presumably straight grained wood , and keeping the centers seperate.

Anyway how do you pro's deal with the crotch wood.

I split most of it. Most of it is actually easy to split. I'll try to explain.
Take a Y fork, I cut just above the crotch and just bellow at the same length as the rest of my firewood.
I put the fork on the splitter with the single end away from the wedge. On the forked end you can see the middle of that branch. I put the wedge in the pith of one of the forks and split off that side. Then i split off the other branch, right in the middle. Once I have both sides split off then I flip it over and put the wedge on the single end and split down the middle. Easy as pie. Sometimes you can just put the wedge in the crotch and do it that way. But the bigger ones I do the other way. The challenging ones have multiple forks. Look at the end grain and that will give you a good idea of where the weak spots are.

This is not the best example but it's the only forked piece I have at the moment.
I split off the strait grain first.

Wrong. If you try and split this way it will not go down the middle. It will veer of to one side.
This also the tuff end.

I flip it around like this. With the forked end away from the wedge. That gives you some strait grain before you get into the forked end. This give you leverage. and it will split down the middle of the fork.

See how it split down the middle.

 

[rarefish383]

That's pretty much how I do it. If you are using an ax or maul that way works too, Joe.

 

[NSMaple1]

If you are using an ax or maul that way works too, Joe.

People really do that?!?