I was excited to split something other than oak so I dug into the beech. Yuck. Had to get the hydraulics out for it. Knotty twisted stuff, even the big trunks. Hope the maple is better!
I rarely have any luck with finding straight grained beech. Maybe 10% of it comes out clean. There was a lot of noodling involved in the last one I processed. I’ve had only slightly better luck with red & sugar maple too, if it’s on the bigger side anyway Oak is the only thing I found that is straight more often than not.
Beech can be tough as you found out. The little branches on the trunk don't help either. Ive had it easy and tough over the years. The stuff I cut over the Summer was on the stringy side. I was thankfully for the hydro. Good luck with the maple!
I split some this spring but I can’t remember if it was this bad or not. I usually noodle tough rounds. They make nice blocks for cribbing the ends, but I didn’t feel like noodling the entire tree. The bark sure is deceiving to have such a twisted wavy mess underneath. Not sure the maple is much better but we will see. It’s some hybrid or soft maple.
Knowing the amount of BTUs contained...I fairly well avoid dealing with Beech. If it's in my lap I'll process but too many battles at the splitter for me to favor it in any way over others I can get. I will take small rounds sometimes too.
Interesting reading the comments here as it's completely different than my experience with beech. I rarely ever had oak in my stacks until a few years ago, so for fourteen years, beech was my best (and favorite) firewood (and it has a higher BTU than red oak anyway). I used to be able to scrounge a lot of beech annually (dead and down) until the forest road where there were plentiful beech groves washed out a few years ago and hasn't been reopened. I don't recall ever having any issues splitting beech and miss having it in my stacks. Even now, with an abundance of standing dead red oak to process, I would love to scrounge some beech mainly because I was always able to burn it within a year of splitting (as opposed to RO).
No doubt that was because it was grown in thick forested area. Then the trees usually grow straight and not so many limbs down low. It's been a long time since I've cut beech simply because we don't have but a few young ones. There used to be a good stand of beech on neighboring property nut not here. So I haven't cut much since leaving Michigan's UP. I am in agreement with you that beech can be wonderful.
It's not so much the knots for me as it is the 180 degree rotating grains. Split ends are seldom uniform for me and the rounds never seem to come apart how I think they would.
Thinking it has to do where the tree grew. Those forest grown ones make some sweet splits. ANd yes I'll take beech over oak any day. Its some heavy stuff though...either that or I'm turning into a weakling in my old age.
Ive seen the twist you speak of in beech. IIRC the stuff I cut over the Summer had some slightly twist where the rest was straight grained.
It sounds like a wind problem. Wind can do bad things to trees that catch lots of wind. This is why I always hated to cut mature trees grown in fence rows or that lone tree out in the pasture.
I've probably missed out on some decent beech having prior dismissed it. Seems every time I re engauge I get the same results. Have to laugh as my buddy last year made an unsolicited comment about some rounds we were working... 'this stuff splits like S---!' I got probably 1/3-1/2 cord of it in a 2029/30 stack.
Sorry you have to deal with this. Believe me, I know what it is like and it has taught me what frustration really is. Good luck to you.
Good point. I've never had to never scrounge in urban/residential areas, so I guess I'm spoiled with only going after forest growth. The top pic shows a typical beech I used to get whereas the second pic shows they were sometimes a haul to the truck (one round at a time...those were the days). Bottom pic is quite a few years ago but shows I used to scrounge a lot of beech.
Ime beech and red oak split about the same. My firewood comes 100% from tree service so most of it is yard trees.
