What's the worst to split?

[laynes69]

Ill have to say elm. Had some that was dry, and it bogged down the splitter, couldnt go through it by hand. And the wood sounded like a grenade when it finally split. I love the way elm burns, but splitting it is another story.

 

[DanMan1]

Elm.

 

[Husky137]

My chopping block is a big chunk of pretty green red oak. About 24" in diameter, about 30" tall.

That seems kind of high or are you 6'8"?:hmm3grin2orange:


30" plus a 16" tall round puts the impact at chest level on an average height person.

 

[beowulf343]

Isn't "ironwood" actually like some kind of orange something?

Around here hop hornbeam is referred to as ironwood.
I agree with elm as a chopping block.

 

[WoodTick007]

Sycamore, Box Elder, Elm....Nuff said?

 

[hamradio]

Yes, my block is on the tall side. It does put a normal size log at about chest level. I've got a bigger one I'm going to replace it with.

 

[stihlatit]

I have not seen any IRON wood that needed to be split,,, anyways

ELM is the worst as with willow

Had some a foot in diameter on my dads farm in Owen sound, Ontario, Canada. It would not fit in the stove and it would not split so the only other choice was chopping block. Had some really old ones on his property. They burned forever. Split lots of Elm too and I would say I could at least split that with an axe. It was hard too but not like the tight grain of Ironwood. Willow is soft and all water. Need to dry it before you split it or it will squirt you in the eye.

 

[laynes69]

What exactly is chopping block?

 

[trimmmed]

I just use one round, usually the biggest one, from the tree I'm splitting, currently black birch.

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

Eucalyptus

 

[ghitch75]

A ripping chain?? for firewood?? Sorry glitch, that's some poor advice.

what do you mean poor advice?!!!!!!...stand it up on it's end and rip it into....i'm not saying doin' it with a 8" piece more like 20" and up you have to use your head and if your doin' stuff up in the 36" and bigger range i can rip it up faster than any spliter and your not breakin' your back wollerin' it around....and please tell us what was so poor about the advice?

 

[Husky137]

what do you mean poor advice?!!!!!!...stand it up on it's end and rip it into....i'm not saying doin' it with a 8" piece more like 20" and up you have to use your head and if your doin' stuff up in the 36" and bigger range i can rip it up faster than any spliter and your not breakin' your back wollerin' it around....and please tell us what was so poor about the advice?

A regular chain with the round laid down on it's side will "rip" way faster than ripping chain going end on. Curly fries are better than bug dust.

 

[ghitch75]

A regular chain with the round laid down on it's side will "rip" way faster than ripping chain going end on. Curly fries are better than bug dust.

yep i know this but it always clogs up the saw and i have found that the rip chain doesn't buck around as much....with my 372xp just goes though like a hot knife in butter!

 

[johnha]

Sycamore.

 

[trimmmed]

what do you mean poor advice?!!!!!!...stand it up on it's end and rip it into....i'm not saying doin' it with a 8" piece more like 20" and up you have to use your head and if your doin' stuff up in the 36" and bigger range i can rip it up faster than any spliter and your not breakin' your back wollerin' it around....and please tell us what was so poor about the advice?

Well, husky137 covers part of it here

A regular chain with the round laid down on it's side will "rip" way faster than ripping chain going end on. Curly fries are better than bug dust.

Curly fries does in fact blow away bug dust, both in ease and speed. Plus you don't need anything but your regular saw. Which brings me to my next point, which is safety. I do believe that ripping chain is not recommended for use in a handheld saw, more appropriate for a chainsaw mill. Yeah, yeah I know you've done it a hundred times without incident, fine that's you. Are you using two saws, one with regular chain and one with rip? What about guys like Judge in this thread that think he's missing out because he doesn't have a rip chain, based on your info. Did you tell him about the increased kickback potential of rip chain?

So basically, your advice was poor because you are recommending a practice that requires more equipment to perfom a task both slower and less safe, than he could with the equipment he already has.

More Expensive

Slower Cutting

More Dangerous

 

[l2edneck]

What exactly is chopping block?

Piece o wood to put log to be split on.Gives a hard surface as where on the ground it just bounces.(Thats my opinion)

 

[Freakingstang]

The worst wood I had to split was elm. I dropped a 47" at DBH elm that was dead standing. I have not met wood that wouldn't split in fear of the monster maul, but this stuff was terrible. I cut it parrallel to the grain (curly fires) through most of it.

I think elm gets harder as it dries. I just tried to split a 12" round that was left over from that tree a couple weeks ago. It took way more effort than it was worth.

Osage orange (hedge apple) is really tough stuff to split, but I haven't run into that in about 10 years. Not many aronud here anymore. Good burning wood, though.

And why are you using a 36" chopping block? Why are you using a chopping block at all? I find it much easier to control the mauls when the log is on the ground, and less chance for injury if you slip and the piece you are trying to split comes shootin out at your nads. Red oak is one of the easiest woods to spilt green or dry. I just did 3 1/2 cords of it that was green.... I would think it would make a terrible block.

 

[windthrown]

Box elder... maple?

Sycamore, Box Elder, Elm....Nuff said?

Agreed on sick-a-more (I cannot believe that someone wants to burn that stuff instead of oak tho), and eucalyptus (hard as a rock when dry). No elm or gums around here. I did not have a hard time cutting or splitting box elder maple though. It is soft for a maple, burns OK, medium density. I dropped and split and stacked 2 of them last year. The sheep LOVE the leaves. One of their favorites.

The big problem we have here with box elder maple is the :censored: boxelder BUGS... we have a million of them here. Crawling all over the place. What a mess. They are thicker than snot sometimes. So bad that my girlfriend wants me to fell all the remaining 5 or 6 boxelder trees here. Big old ones with hollow trunks. Next year's firewood and sheep food... they come down this spring.

 

[Sprig]

Don't have sycamores up here, the worst I've run into in recent memory is arbutus that had been down for about two years, it broke like glass, dulled my chains almost every cut, was heavy, ugly, and my wrists didn't like it much either. For chopping blocks I generally use the knottiest/knarliest piece of junk I can find (got a fir one now I couldn't split). Another winner a few years back was a twisted hemlock, stringy, hard, and lousy burning.

 

[Gark]

Elm. The "impossible splitting" division in the TREE ENGINEERING dept. must have designed it. Won't even think about splitting it with a maul anymore.