Split a bunch of cherry by hand last night. What a satisfying experience that is. I'd take all the cherry I could get my hands on. What it lacks in BTU it makes up for in processing time. The next rounds I have were the complete opposite experience. I'm not sure whether it's oak or ash, but I'm having a heck of a time splitting it with an axe. It's stringy and takes a lot of energy to split each round. So frustrating that I'm either going to noodle it or put it on the log splitter. I'll have to take a pic so I can get an id from you guys on exactly what this nightmare is. I'm sure it's not elm. It's so stringy that the rounds are tough to pull apart.
Sure it's not hickory? Ash and red oak should split like a hot knife in butter. White oak can sometimes be minorly inconvient but not to the extent you describe.
I cut up an ash tree that was horrible to split. Very stringy and twisted. 99% sure it was ash still had leaves and all. It was a pain to split by hand, still have some in my pile of rounds to split with the splitter.
Not really. Before i got my splitter i used a sledge and wedges on it. I generally enjoy splitting by hand as long as a maul can bust it up.
I'm guessing elm as described and with the darker heart wood as pictured. I think hydraulic splitters were invented because of elm.
Elm is brutally stringy. Although I did get some Siberian Elm from a tree that blew down this spring, so it was extremely wet (live tree during peak growth when it fell) and that stuff split like I dream. I could literally drop the X27 on it and end up with perfect splits. Also seems to be seasoning quite fast.
The White Ash I get here is usually one color, or close, but I have seen distinctly darker heart on a few. Red Elm isn't as bad as American. It can be split by hand if it's straight, but it's pretty tough. I use the power splitter for it. Cherry can also be nasty if it has twisted grain. Hey, if you ever get a round of that stuff split and get us a pic, maybe it will help with the ID...
The red oak I've been splitting lately has had some real bears in it. Very stringy... splitter even had a time with a few of them. When it was groaning, I was glad I wasn't swinging a maul at em.
Why are you getting frustrated ? If it doesn't split easy, throw it aside and use your hydraulics. Isn't that what you bought your Huskee for ?
Whenever I've got a gnarly-looking chunk, I'll put it in the splitter so that the wedge hits the bottom first, i.e. the lower part of the split when it was on the tree. I'll also position it so that it splits the branch in half, then split it again if need be.
My wedge is attached to my beam and after getting a few very ignorant pieces I found a trick. I place a diamond wedge in the end and push it with the ram. Works pretty good. They were truly rough pieces like 3-4 branches on the same plane type of deal. Will try to remember a pic next time it happens.
I have yet to find a round that has to be noodled because the Swisher 22-ton can't blast it. Then again, it has all been ash since the splitter was bought. Maybe its day will come yet when a load of elm comes home.
