In my experience over the last 2 days, splitting Beech is a nightmare . I’ve been told it also comes as straight grain but not this bugger, been fighting me every swing.
Beech can be a real beech a lot of times. The base of the trunk can be punky, or the grain twisted, and the limbs are usually a pain. In my limited experience I've only had one tree out of half a dozen that was easy going.
You must have gotten the son of the beech instead of the real thing. Good thing my hydraulics don't care what the wood thinks.
I've had beech that is nice and straight grained and splits like cake and ive had wavy twisty beech that is tough. Are the ends of the logs starting to dry and check Eddie Hughes ? If so that makes hand splitting a lot harder IME. Keeping one end moist helps a lot. I store rounds end down most of the time. Big yard tree seem to have twisty grain vs ones growing in the woods. Love me some beech. Ill take it over oak anyday.
It was cut 2 days ago so it’s as wet as can be. It’s crazy tough. My axe is crap which doesn’t help but it’s the same axe I’ve used for other wood and this is by far the hardest. The wood just seems to suck my axe in real tight which takes a lot of energy getting it out or it just doesn’t go in at all and bouncing off the wood. I’m dealing with knots, twists, joins, you name it, this tree has got it all. It was a very old beech tree I think as it was over 4ft at the stump, maybe even 5ft (didn’t measure) I’ll put up with it though and fight through as it’s Beech.
I admire your persistence. If its too hard with the maul after a few swings i take the saw to it. Ease of splitting is my main criteria for the wood i scrounge. Any pics?
The trunk of that is gnarly. The limb wood doesnt look too bad. Did you get all the wood? Your house? A LOT of wood in that tree!
I just received the wood off a friend who is the tree surgeon, I’m not sure if I got the whole tree , but the pile I did get was humongous so I’m guessing I got most of it . Not my house no, the house was bought by a new owner and he wanted it gone unfortunately.
I never turn it down. Also one of my favorites. I have 3 logs back in the woods I need to go get. Thanks for the reminder
That’s a monster! You don’t see beech in yards here. Mostly grow in the woods. Hard to turn down wood delivered to the house regardless of the species! I love noodlin beech
That’s a big beech! Some people including my parents live in fear of giant trees killing them in a storm or they don’t want to clean gutters or pay to have them cleaned or have mossy shingles. I bet that beech made some sweet shade in July.
Might not be a bad idea to rent a splitter for a Saturday. You could split the whole thing in a day with hydros if it was all ready for the splitter
The last beech I processed was a yard tree (although it was a wooded yard for sure) but it did not split easily...I did a few rounds my hand, but most with hydraulic splitter...there were quite a few rounds that really popped when they let loose...had a few pieces go flying!
