Almost all of my hardwood is maple, ash or birch. Bucked this one today that had fallen over a year ago, wasn't paying much attention and assumed it was hard maple.. until I put it through my splitter. It split hard and was stringy throughout. Had to use a hatchet to separate most of the splits. Anyone have any ideas on what this is? The piece pictured is still wet from some snow that was on top of it.
It’s an elm of some sort. If you have time and room, after you get it bucked into rounds let it sit until it’s good and frozen next winter, then it will split much easier. My experience is even if you get it split now, it’ll be 3 years before it is dry enough to burn well. Fresh elm is pain. Standing dead it’s awesome
Was around 5F degrees when I split it. Used my backup 5 ton electric splitter as my gas one is put away for the winter. The rounds were only 8-10" and they split just fine but wow I couldn't believe how stringy it was. Can't wait to see how it burns once it's seasoned.
I've found this to be true as well. American elm is usually tough to split, but the couple cords of Siberian elm I processed a couple years ago split pretty easily. I'll be running into a little bit of that Siberian elm this winter
Roughly 60% of the wood I process is standing dead or recently tipped over elm. I would never attempt it without a pass-through hydraulic splitter. It cuts great, no bark and burns pretty clean. Usually dry when its standing and takes very little seasoning to get below 17% moisture. Getting the trunks before the ants is key. If the elm falls on it's own, the tops are strong enough to support the trunk wood off the ground for several years. Nice straight branches as well.
