No progress on getting the new build going so hauled home 2 loads of big oak from a friend’s house. I’ll keep a couple of big rounds for a sawing and splitting table. Had to cut a few inches off most of it but it cuts nice and quick with the MS400. We cut our wood pretty short compared to most. I like to stack three rows in our totes to really fill them. Bonus picture of a swamp job I helped our uncle with. I think it’s a beech tree. Half ant eaten and twisted but should be good wood. Very, very, very heavy.
This will keep me busy for a week or so. I am still on the prowl for loads of logs. I really need to get around to the tree guys and see if they keep a list of people willing to take logs. I’ve never processed beech. Does it always smell so sweet? The flies sure seem to like it more than the oak.
All the beech I've ever cut smelled great when processing. It's hard to say what it smells similar to, but it is pleasant. Comparable BTU's to oak with half the drying time. Good stuff.
I noticed in the btu and drying chart that 12 months for American Beech was enough. I’ll have to keep this separate when I stack it in totes to use the winter of 27/28. The oak I’m splitting will need as long as I can afford to give it. It was a live tree, trunks started to separate and one 12” branch died. Very very little rot inside surprisingly.
I would say since we moved to Michigan last year I’ve split 95% by hand. 99% with the x27. I have one of the fiskars mauls but it collects dust. Gave up on the beech and dug the splitter out and ran it all through but I’ll split all this oak by hand except for the really nasty crotches that I’ll noodle. By the time I mess around with the splitter I can noodle it and be done. In Indiana I split probably 75% with the splitter and the rest by hand. Trying to be in better shape nowadays. So far it’s working well!
Beech can be a real beech to split. The last time I got it 2 years ago I noodled everything into manageable quarters then split all of it with hydraulics. I enjoy swinging a maul on occasion too but on straight grained oak, knot free red maple, and the like. Beech is an entirely different animal
Good stuff there. Ill take beech over oak any day. Comparable btu's with half the dry time. How did you get the beech out of the swamp MeanJoe?
It’s easier to split hedge by hand, and I mean the wavy tree line kind. I wish I took pictures of the wavy grain in this beech.
Uncle has a tractor with a grapple. I cut the trunk into 6’ sections, chained them and he pulled them out. Then we chained the biggest limbs and pulled them out whole. There is still quite a bit of wood there but it has to dry out enough to get my truck close to make it worth it.
