Man that's some great wood there ! I'd take it in a heartbeat.I see that wood laughing at that Fiskars.
I shall see next winter. Hopefully it will be ready by then...but the few pieces I have are in the later number stacks (17-20) so I don't think I'll even get to it next winter! In general I split my rounds as soon as I get them. I don't have space to store rounds and splits and since I'm starting out I need to get as much wood dry as soon as possible.....Using the splitter definitely made life easier on the elm.......and green spruce......and black birch.......and beech.........
That was my experince with it back in the early 1980's. Something ill never forget. I know the stuff is good firewood, but being a handplsitter i avoid the stuff like the plague
I have burned a LOT of elm, slippery or red elm, all split by hand. All standing dead and bark free. If the tree has a large "shrinkage" crack going up the side then it can be split by hand. The easy split is to put the wedge into the "shrinkage" crack but I put the wedge in opposite the "shrinkage" crack so the split is more evenly split. Crotches are always noodled. Bark free standing dead slippery elm (red) is VERY popular here for firewood since it dries very quickly. Slippery (red) elm with no "shrinkage" crack is noodle half way and split with the wedge in the noodle cut. 80% of the slippery (red) elm I have burned has a "shrinkage" crack and so hand splits. I NEVER cut green elm. I have harvested only one dead American elm (white) and it split easily by hand when standing dead and bark free. I NEVER cut green elm. Rock elm which is in the red elm family (elm is split like oak into two families, red and white) is DIFFERENT. Rock elm is 100% NOODLE and I have NEVER hand split any Rock elm. But... standing dead and bark free rock elm will dry in one year and burns with the best woods, as good or better than hickory, white oak, black locust, sugar maple... Rock elm wood is more brown than red compared to slippery elm wood which is more red than brown. You can earn "highest honors" as a woodsman if you can identify a rock elm before cutting (hint, the bark has slightly more "ridges" compared to slippery elm but this is a very slight difference), only "honorable mention" for identifying rock elm after cutting given the brown wood color. Hand splitting rock elm could earn "highest honors" for effort beyond "mere mortals". Rock elm is not a common tree here.
Folks just won't believe me when I tell them Elm burns hotter and longer than Maple and Oak.I have some Elm that burns so hot I thought my stove would melt.I use three Oregon splitting wedges when splitting Elm.These are the best wedges I've ever used.It usually takes two wedges to get the job done but once in a while I get a stubborn round and he gets the third wedge.Also I only split the Elm in the cold after it's been sitting in the cold.For some reason it splits much better that way.
I don't have the time, patience, nor the space to store rounds and let them dry out. When I get them, I chainsaw them down to length if necessary and I get right to splitting as soon as possible.....
I worked with a guy who had one of those cork screw splitters permanently installed on a car strapped to a piece of plate steel He would take all the big roadside trees a lot of which were Elm I watched him split a 36" dia. Elm round that grew around a piece of page wire. Once He got the screw started it pulled the log in and all he had to due was turn the piece of wood and the screw would catch and turn and repeat. I wish I had pic's from back then.
Got a nice load of Red Elm this morning. Limb wood like this is great as there is no need to split. It is RTB wood (ready to burn) and my Pacific Energy stove likes it. I like that I handle it less, just cut load and put in the garage. No stacking, drying and loading again. Supposed to get cold here this week so I'll be burning it. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk
Yep I burn more of that than just about everything else combined. Good stuff. I wish I had a train load of it
I like red elm too... I find it splits just fine with hydraulics and I've split a big one by hand, but it took some extra work... I also find it to be excellent firewood... Works great with off gassing in my stove...and often comes without bark!
Now you've got me doubting of the elm I cut and burn is not american elm, but rather rock elm. Even with the long shrinkage crack (lol) it still sucks to split. It resists, but it can't win vs the hydraulics. It burns great though. I'll have to find some with bark left on it to send you a picture.
I love that kind of firewood. It's really good stuff. When you dunt need to split it and it can go right into the stove the day off cutting that's pretty impressive. You don't get a lot of firewood that's like that.
