February's ice storm casualty, right beside a road at work. Have decided I have to much to get done in the afternoons, and have to get up early and take advantage of these reasonable temperature mornings while they last. The big loader just down the road from this tree also helped to spur me to get a'cuttin, knowing they were going to push it into woodline and make it harder to get. Limbs that had been cut to clear road were solid and dense, but the pieces I cut from the leafed out stump end were just plain heavy. 16ish inch cut to 17-18 inch lengths....I believe they're just as heavy as oak, and definitely harder to split. Had to just lift several of the bigguns after they laughed at 10 good whops of the maul. Still probably 1.5-2 more loads there, plus a nice cherry... and about 2 20 ton dump trucks worth of poison ivy....
Yea that stuff is quite heavy. From what I've gotten, splitting can be hit or miss. Sometimes it will have a greenish/blue stain to it if it sits for awhile.
I got a cord of fresh cut hackberry 2 months ago. It was a bear to split w/ a 15# maul. I sawed some 20" tall rounds to 10" to split.
Some of the nice limb wood I'll probably try the maul.....the bigger stuff and any non-conformers will get the v.i.p treatment...
Yeah the two pieces that i split actually separated fairly cleanly, not shredded like elm. It looks like it would be decent splitting wood...maybe it was just those pieces that didn't want to play nice. Either way, Ill end up winning.... Would have just saved a bit of back if they'd busted in half.
Noce score. I like hackberry. Have just a little bit left in yhe stacks I'll take it over black cherry. I never really had an issue hand splitting it that I can remember. Maybe I got lucky.
Looks like some nice stuff there. Ideal round size IMO. Only cut hackberry once many years ago. Cant say i know the whereabouts of one around here other than one growing in my Sister's front yard.
I weighed one of the biggest rounds. Didn't think to put the tape it, but I believe it's right at 15-16 in diameter and 17-18 in long. Ill try to measure in the am and confirm or correct. But the joker weighed 104 lbs and some change.
In my experience green hackberry can be almost as stringy to split as green elm. Let it sit in rounds for a few months and it gets better, but can start getting rotten pretty quickly if’n it sits to long
Haha you should have been with me then. Cut a load of ash last thurs and fri, there was quite a bit of poison ivy there. Then tues am's load. Yesterday was very little. That pic from this morning....75% + of the green you see in front was pi. My arms are driving me a bit nuts right now. Getting ready to go scratch a bit and put salt on them....
