Decided to try maul splitting some oak rounds, I got through about 80% of this one with a knot in the bottom, I may have done it but I'm probably gonna take the day off tomorrow for recovery
I love splitting straight red oak. Some of the easiest wood to split out there, which is one of the reasons it was commonly used for shingles.
I believe this is pin oak in the splitter the straight pieces will just pop open, so easily I wonder if the splitter is even doing any work the maul however would bounce back, small scratch but that's it
We split some Ash that had some branches like that piece. Some we were able to split enough slabs off of to keep as overnighters, and others have been piled for one of those winter days when I want to get out and run the saw for a couple hours. Maybe take the saw out and slice and dice tomorrow as part of recovery?