1 had a lightning struck tree cut down and I grabbed some pieces to split. It was hit about a year ago, and kept most of it's leaves until fall, but this year it budded out and then died. It was a sycamore, so just fire pit and starter wood, but I thought that it would be a miserable pain to split. Much to my surprise it was one of the easiest woods I ever split! I had some 16" rounds that I threw on the Harbor Freight manual splitter and they broke off basically straight and easy with very little shredding. Every other time I tried to split sycamore it ended up just getting burned in chunks due to frustration... Is this something to be expected with lightning struck wood of other types just in case I get a hold of some in the future?
Occasionally I let Judy just give that look to a soft maple and the darned thing would split. That was handy for making kindling too.
I had a lightning struck ash bark less; lightning blew bark off as moisture in tree was like a pressure cooker and pieces over 60’ away.. that ash was dry!
No experience with lightning struck wood. Normally I don't touch sycamore for that reason. Maybe some have straight grain that splits easily? Just a guess on my part. Great that it split easily for you.
I've had some maples that were a real pita to split! I mean the lightning struck ones were really easy! Like way easier than straight grained red oak
I could see curly black/hard maple being trouble to split. I mean nothing like elm or even sycamore but also not easy like typical straight grained maple.
I fell a chestnut oak that was dead 1 year after getting struck. It split no different than any of the other ones I’ve had.
My girlfriends sister who is into witchcraft and such, claims lightning struck wood has special magical powers, so..............
So I might have a bunch of “Magic Wood”! My pupils are starting to look like dollar signs… Thanks for the info!
That is a split I cut last night. Doesn’t look like normal sycamore, and was as dry as a bone. It was a very straight tree about 60-70 ft tall with a base diameter of 28 inches. And, it was only seventeen years old. Heck, my dog is older than that tree…
That definitely doesn’t look like fresh sycamore at all. It reminds me of elm that’s been dead a little too long, or even dead maple that’s past its prime and getting mealy. I wonder if getting struck cooked that tree straight through, and it barely survived the past year using up whatever energy it had left before calling it quits?
I believe it was just running on reserves too, as it still had quite a few leaves and budded out for spring, then died all at once with all the buds nearly ready to pop open this spring. I'll look and see if I can find the pictures of the trunk that show where any bug tunnels were, a light grey column of dehydrated/crystallized sap popped out about 2/3" long. It got hit so bad that lightning ran along the roots and up into the driveway, which fried the computers on two cars. Another branch went along a root the other direction and up a rake leaning against the house, which blew a hole through the wall and knocked out a bunch of light switches and outlets. Lost quite a few small appliances and electronics too... Sure hoping that "Magic Wood" is my payback....
There’s a huge fir across just across the back fence from my acreage. I was trying to get my kids dog to come back cause she snuck out. It got hit and I was 100’ away. It was almost life changing. One ear don’t hear so good anymore and I’m not sure what else but I’ve had trouble with balance a little bit. I tend to get inside when it’s rumbling since. It killed the tv and the cable comes from the other direction. Go figure. The dog damm sure don’t like thunder anymore. It stunned me enough that it took me 3-4 minutes to find my house. On 3 acres. I staggered in the door and my son said “dad dad did you hear that?” It looks like any other big dead fir other than a strip of bark missing.
