Cause I am Regretting this one! Did I take home my first elm? I split by hand, and can't touch this stuff! Twisted and stingy
It's subjective but I'd say yes lol. I've split elm years ago and have been avoiding it ever since. My 25 ton splitter didn't like it either.
Great photos Midwinter ! Can you noodle it into quarters? Or maybe even halves and then it might split easier. Experiment partial noodling and then splitting if you get tired of sharpening the chain.
Every 2 years or so, I borrow my FILs splitter to get a few gnarly ones I just can't do by hand, these may just have to sit till next summer.
I was trying to push the stuff back away from me. But, the "crazy wood lady" was on home turf. She ended up pushing it into my van. I noodled it. My x27 just bounced off it. I didn't want to play the waiting game in case it becomes more splittable. Actually, I had never worked with elm. Midwinter had some and wasn't happy with it, so I took it. I left some black locust with her.
Yup that's elm. You poor man,I feel your pain from here! Being a hand splitter myself I avoid it like the plague. I did scrounge a couple fresh cut logs last week. Tried to split one and no go. I'll noodle it. One other option is to slice "cookies" rather than split it. I've split fresh cut green elm in the Winter and split rather easily. Dead elm forget it. I scored some red elm fresh cut in June and processed it the next day. I was able to split it with a little more than normal effort. I'll post the link later.
Yup. Looks like it to me. Burns real good though. When it gets down near the coaling stage it gives off slo-mo blue ghost flames with small orange sparks on the edges. Very cool to stare at. Mesmerizing.
Had some weird elm myself, think it was called “Winged elm”. It looked like pine all around for bark but split it and smelled like inside of an old leather shoe. Hardly seemed to even season for heaven sakes, even at the end of a summer! Good luck with it, and hopefully keeping it whole a bit might work more than just splitting it.
I had a "Chip Drop" from last year where they "gave" me a cord and some of wet cottonwood..... I tried finishing it off today with my 25 ton splitter and said screw it. Threw it all in the dump trailer (except for the 2, 35" rounds I can't lift) and the oldest and I went to the dump.... Replaced all that crappy cottonwood with a load of free lodgepole this morning! The cottonwood was just like that elm, super stringy. I'll burn the splits I have of it but never again.
I wouldn't waste my time on cottonwood, but I guess it depends on what is available. Lodgepole is a definite upgrade, minimal bark and ready to burn when it hits the ground.
Looks like that's whatcha have. I'm an elm snob. I'd rather watch that chit rot than process it. I'd get out of the game if that 's all I had available. 34T will split it, it's just a fight for every separation. So to answer your question, yes there is a bad scrounge. If it says elm or gum, leave it.
Yeah I agree, the cottonwood came from "Chip Drop" and I couldn't request specific wood types. When they delivered it I wasn't too happy... but it was free and I tried to make the best of it. I won't do chip drop again as I feel it's just a way to get rid of crap wood. Our area (Reno, NV) we don't have many choices to cut from other than the different pines in the Sierras. Or just pay for wood which I try really hard not to do...
