Yep American and red are the hardest to split. They offer the most btus as well. Slippery and chinese/Siberian are easier to split. I've split some that was easier than some ash. Its tree dependent. Twisted old yard trees you say? No thanks.
Very valid points Barcroftb. I guess i still have that "old school mentality" and im not old. (unless 51 is considered old in the FHC!) Red oak is very abundant around these parts too. Out of what he offered the oak is easiest to hand split.
No experience using a wood boiler. Yes, i personally would at least half or quarter the rounds cigarsmokingzombie for better seasoning, uh i mean drying time and ease of handling of course.
Isn't that interesting. Around here if you look at cherry sideways it splits itself with the fiskars x25. I just wish I could get it to stack itself It's also a tree that tends to be straight no matter where it grows. It'll go multi stem at the drop of a hat though, so usually ends up being a trouble tree like maple around houses. Personal preference I'd rather process the cherry. As an arborist I often refer to red oak as the box elder of oaks. Meaning it grows any way but straight if given half the chance. Running into more standing dead red oak around here. Its disappointing to see more trees dead from the wilt after dealing with the loss of the ash from the borer.
Very interesting comments on this thread. I personally think red oak splits the best. Splits straight and the ram only has to go in a couple of inches. White oak on the other hand is a pain to split when fresh. Not nearly as easy as red. I don’t split by hand of course, but that is my experience with each. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I bucked a 16" DBH cherry back in February Barcroftb . Tree was alive but blown over diagonally from last years tornado here in Southern CT. It was "straight and true" as i often refer to them, for the most part. Not knotty or gnarly. The X27 bounced off the frozen rounds after several good whacks. It had sat in my processing area for a couple weeks covered with snow/ice. I had to sledge and wedge them, straight grained no knots. I noodle any knotty/gnarly logs. Most cherry ive scored has some twist to the grain as well. The red oaks around here are nice and straight. Keep in mind if any wood i can get is knotty and gnarly, ill refuse it....yard/urban trees that grow out, not up. Red and white oak has suffered from the gypsy moths last 2-3 years around here....especially Eastern CT and RI. Hoarding friend of mine has maybe a dozen 24" DBH dead white oaks in his woods...all victims of them. We're planning on making trails to get them out over next couple Winters One of my half cord stacks of red oak. Four rows deep
Wow, that stack is impressive! You’ll get many BTUs from that. I have a poor mans stack. Mine is like stack tetris using bad Tetris technique. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Guess you learned the hard way not to split cherry green and frozen. Sorry it was such a trial for you, but like my grandpa said the hard lessons stay with us the longest. So we don't clutter up this thread any more. Hand splitting cherry
when i was a little kid i used to do 1000 pc jigsaw puzzles with my mom. My dad would get mad at me as i would unstack the woodpile and redo it. I was maybe 5-6 yrs old. I could fit the splits together like a puzzle!
