What kind of wood is this guy splitting?

To be honest, the stuff I cut is already burnable and under 20% mc when I cut it. It's dead standing barkless elm.

It's probably more like maple if green, because almost nothing is like oak for seasoning time.

 

The last American Elm I cut was in 2009. ~36" DBH. It had been uprooted in an ice storm months earlier. I remember feeling the dampness through my jeans from the sawdust while bucking. I was splitting with a maul, so I gave the trunk section to my buddy , he had a splitter. We bucked it up and I loaded it on his trailer with my tractor. The next time I talked to him, he asked, "What the @#%^ kind of wood was that? I barely managed to split it up with my splitter". It just about tears in half, like the Cottonwood pics I've seen posted.

It dries much faster than oak. Most say in as little as a year. I didn't pay much attention back then to MC, but after a year it burned good in my old smoke dragon.

 

I say that looks like 'Bass elm' No fair though as all the milkcrates around here are only made of plastic.

 

Glad you're able to get out and do some work on the piles. Bet it felt good, no?

 

Dennis, Keep going man, one foot in front of the other. Your going to get better.
those before me have said it, Elm, dead, bark off. I might add leave the stump rot and in 7-10 years Morel mushroom picking grounds. Mother natures abundance from something not so good such as Dutch elm disease.

 

sounds like poplar when you toss it and it hits other pieces???

 

If you have some handy. Some wood splits considerably better once dry. I've never split any local elm dry but its so horrible to split wet, I can't imagine it splitting like your video.

 

He just has the camera turned sideways.

 

I'm horrible at ID'ing trees from pics, but yes it looks like American Elm. Hard to believe after watching it split. That was splitting like Red Oak . Here, if the splitter wedge goes all the way down, the two splits are still attached with a stringy mess. But its so stringy, after drying good, each split comes with its own kindling sticking off it.

 

This I think can be as the wine snobs say , "terroir". The exact same cultivar of grape will taste different in different areas. Except in our case, we don't taste the wood, but then again, wine makes don't split grape vines.

So maybe certain soils make wood easier to split. Most wood splits better when green. Elm certainly isn't one of those, as it does seem to be easier to split when wet/ green.

What was the mc of that wood?

It sure looks like American elm to me based on bark pics.