Bit off more than I could chew today...

I have to watch my lifting considering my back so noodling is something that Ive become familiar with. Its a great option for dealing with rounds that are just to much for you to handle. Ive also found that going part way through is all that is needed. A quick tap with a metal wedge and sledge and they pop open (at least on doug fir and larch)

 

Noodles and chips end up in my compost bin!

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I never noodled anything until I learned about it on one of these online forums. Have since found that it is the best way to break down big stuff for additional processing. With a big saw it goes quick. Stihl saws, unless the clutch cover is modified (i.e. cut back) will clog quickly. I have been unable to get my Dolmar 6400 to clog, even on wet oak. I usually collect the noodles and compost them. Used to think it was a "waste" of firewood but it sure beats the effort of having to hand-split those monsters.

 

I’ve never clogged the nose, but I have had to stop the saw and pull the noodles out of the back of the clutch cover where the wood chips exhaust from. I typically keep a close eye on that part while I’m cutting, you’ll see the flow of noodles coming out start to trickle and that's the time to shut off the saw and pull them out.

 

Maybe I'm young or dumb or Judy need the work out I've never noodled always just wedge and sledge them I'll cut maybe a in or so to have a better place to put the wedges. I'll have to try noodling.

 

Those times when a maul just bounces off a round is when I noodle. It's not very often, but it'll save a lot of hard work if you just flip the round on its side and cut it in half.

 

I'll take your words to heart I have done black Locust rounds that are doing that. Just sharpened most of my chains of the weekend so might work on that today.

 

I must be the minority here. Before I started heating with wood, I made it clear to my significant other that I wouldn't even consider it unless I could invest in hydros. Both of my parents have back issues (major surgeries to fix) so I'm a more conscious of that. My dad always split by hand and I remember how much he (and I) hated it. So I pretty much never have a maul or axe or wedge in my hands. Well, I do take one camping, but my son takes it over when needed. Noodling has always been my goto way of making huge stuff manageable. I even cut the base of apple tree's so I don't have so much weight to lift.

 

First off, gnarly maple can be hard to split. It isn't elm or gum, but it can be bad. No shame in noodling if you have to or want to. Some of the rounds in your picture look like they have terrible cross grain and would be very challenging indeed to split.

I split by hand and way too much has been hard to split species. Wedges are a definite step up in splitting power over any maul. Quantity wedges are better than the Indian hardware store wedges. I prefer a sledge over the maul as I like more weight; ideal weight is user dependent.

One thing I'd say for sure is two wedges is the bare minimum. It isn't hard to stick a wedge and it is entirely possible to bury a wedge without splitting the log. Make up a few wooden wedges to use to rescue the steel wedges. That way you can use an axe or maul safely to cut the remaining fibers. The wooden wedges need not be finely crafted: if you knock a very rough angle on the end of a modest section of branch it will get a steel wedge out and you won't mind leaving it in to burn later if it gets stuck. On the other hand if you do a good job making a wedge out of dogwood and chamfer the top and let it dry a year or two it will last as long as the aforementioned Indian steel wedge and be quieter in use.

With the tough rounds I've learned to break them where I can rather than where I want to. Once one piece comes off, it opens up angles of attack that didn't exist before. And sometimes it gets to the point where it isn't worth fighting about any more. I haven't met a chunk yet that stands up to a bonfire, although I have had a few mud encrusted root balls that have. Even those eventually succumb.

If you have hydraulics at home and don't want to break down the rounds for loading, you can always build a ramp and attachment point for a winch or come along and drag them up into the truck, assuming you have a way to get them out.

 

oak seems to take wedges to pop apart fairly well, at least on straight grained pieces.
Only had some big maple once and I ended up buying another wedge to get my two stuck ones out.
Sometimes noodling to get a wedge in makes it easier too.

But if you have a nice big saw that will rip right through them then time is money as they say.

 

Thanks for the replies. I had a few things working against me yesterday - I had to get back to the wife and kids so only could stay about 30 minutes, it was raining/muddy, it had been raining for past few days so rounds were extra heavy, I couldn't back my truck right up to the rounds so no rolling, I only had one steel wedge, etc.

I guess I was a little hesitant to break out the chainsaw and was a little overconfident that I could split with my maul and then lift into the truck. Will try noodling or noodle/wedge next time.

 

I ran into a big hickory it couldn't split. The only way I could get the wedges to start and stay buried was to noodle a bar width deep into the round. Then I would take my wedges and it would usually pop open with out rooming fuss.

 

I noodled a big chestnut oak last year.... 14 feet( ish) of trunk into 16 inch rounds and noodled them into 4 pieces each so I could get them in the truck.... it was a 30" plus tree and even the 1/4's of a round were all I cared to lift. I used a 6421 to do most of the noodl'n, but I let my ps421 eat one round..... more cc's is way gooder. as for the noodles, I think I could have filled the truck bed with them and still left a good bit, but I didn't take any with me.

I also use a hydro splitter on most stuff.... I bought it, so I use it most of the time. I do have a fiskars, but I use it mainly on easy re-splits or tulip poplar if its not to big.

No pride thing for me, If it needs to go into the truck and I can't lift it without concerns of injury ( i dislike injuries as much as the next guy ).... noodle it is.

 

That's what I was gonna suggest. I've done it with ash rounds bigger than that.

 

And I see you have some decent saws there to make that noodling fast.

 

I will probably give noodling another try sometime. I will make sure the bar tip sticks out the other side into the clear and stop to clean things out if the RPM starts dropping at all. My reluctance to noodling is also economics, while I believe that there have been many good arguments in favor of it.

 

It is hard to see all those noodles laying on the ground as wasted BTU's. The first year I kept them to light fires, but now I use super cedars. Really though, it doesn't waste all that much wood; a large trash bag of noodles may only weigh 5 lbs. I guess there's the usage of fuel too, but you gotta factor in what your time is worth to you.

 

Speaking from an "economics" point of view, one of those rounds in the OP's picture weighs around 250-500 and I would estimate that a cord of hard maple in that state(not Pennsylvania lol, but partially seasoned) is probably 4000 lbs. That means that each 400 lb round is 1/10 of a cord approximately. I burn 3.5 cord a year so I would only need 35 of those rounds to heat my home for the whole yr. I like the economics of noodling .
I like that, 3 of those rounds noodled up will make a nice big load in the bed of that truck and would probably heat my house for 2 weeks in the polar vortex part of the season. I'm guessing I could noodle 3 of them on one tank in the 461 with ease. not a bad haul for standing in the same place, not having to go into the woods to gather it, one sharpening of the chain(see below), and about 10-15 min of cutting, I like loads like that, great economics. Also lets not forget you get to run a saw, which to me if more fun than a splitter or a maul .
Another nice thing about noodling is that there are many opportunities for wood such as these large logs because other don't know how to work with them.
Some saws will noodle better than other and and true saw aficionado will have one specifically for this task .
Noodling can be made less troublesome by rocking the saw from to back in the cut and cutting the fibers rather than drawing them which will leave longer noodles jamming the clutch cover full and stopping the chain as the noodles get in-between the drive sprocket and the chain(don't let this happen, it's not good on your equipment). The dollars seem to be one of the better noodling saws as do many of the older saws without side tensioners as both have a much clearer path for the noodles to exit.
Be sur when working with large rounds or logs that you watch out for metal and other foreign objects inside them. In the video(noodling the oak) above you can see staining on the round from metal inside it, do not noodle or cross cut in those areas or you may find yourself saying.
Noodle on boys.

 

Wow! Redfin that saw is cutting nicely! Sharp chain!

 

Sure is.
660 with a 20 or 24 with the rakers down a little extra makes for a fun noodle machine .
Redfin is that a square grind, or round?