Stringy ash is the main reason I bought a hydraulic splitter. I have several years supply of dead ash on my property and it's all stringy like that and I got fed up after trying to take care of the first tree with an X27 and then a maul and wedges when that didn't work. I think it's because it looks like my property was a cattle field until 30 or so years ago when it was subdivided and anything that wasn't a yard started growing wild. The ash trees are the largest trees in the woods, so I guess they were essentially yard trees when they first started growing.
I've had that in a field edge ash too; totally flat ground. There was a branch or 3 coming out of the trunk every foot or so. Gave my elbows and wrists quite the beating.
City trees vs forest trees I find those city trees can be a bugger. But as a scrounger I'll take em lol
You know, there is probably better things I should be thinking of just before going to bed besides hard to split ash...see my post on wanting more children as an example , but instead I was instead thinking about your situation. This is not condemning, nor accusatory, but I wonder if you might have been using the wrong implement. By that I mean, I wonder if it was curly ash and you should be using a sawmill instead of a woodsplitter? I don't know???????????????????????????? Curly Ash is rare, but it is out there. I actually had (have I still hope) some birds eye ash which is rare as well. It was sweet dreams last night anyway. Big birds eye ash being loaded on a trailer truck, two fist full of cash and a brand new John Deere 450J sitting my driveway with the wife putting on a nice coat of wax. (The latter is $106,000 just in case you are wondering, and yes I inquired!)
Yeah a little vague huh? Everyone has heard of Birds Eye Maple, but there is actually Birds Eye Ash too. The problem is, you don't know if you do until you cut into it. I found some 20 years back, and so I left the trees to grow, but am not sure what shape they are in. It is a really hard spot to log due to its location. I am assuming they are worth quite a bit of money because Ash is getting hard to get now with the Ash Borer, and Birds Eye Ash even more so. If that was so, I would cut the logs, sell them, take the money and buy a brand new bulldozer!
