What would be the easiest splitting wood you've ever dealt with? What was the hardest to split? Since I split solely by hand I find that Elm is a real back breaker, but I feel like a chisel makes it so much easier, I saw pictures of gum splits and they look even worse. If I had to split a chord of wood by hand I'd have to go for either Maple or Hemlock. Hemlock is stringy but it's a soft wood and in the cold it pops right apart, and maple is just easy to split no matter what the breed.
Tulip Poplar is the easiest I've split. Elm far worse than sweet gum, at least whatever elm I've got.
My poplar is ez to split but it is not tulip poplar. Mine is more like aspen. I mostly split Green Ash and love it for hardwood that is easy to split. Years ago young and dumb swung and swung a ax at siberian elm gave up got a wedge and maul. Ended up burnin that stringy SOB to get my wedge back out.
Elm is best left to a splitter if you can get one. I would love to get my hands on some ash, but alas haven't found any yet.
We have not been struck by EAB yet so our stands of ash are healthy yet. I try to only cut dead to get use from them knowing that too soon there will be more dead ash than I will be able to use.
I hear you there. Up in my area you're lucky to find a living ash tree, you're even lucky to find a stump of one.
Here, easiest , cottonwood (poplar) Hardest spruce. But grain direction, & limbs throws in some variables
Tulip Poplar is botanically a hardwood, but it is not a hard wood. Far as I can tell, it is mostly water because it is heavy when cut but light asa father when dried. Not primo firewood. We had one come down in an ice storm, so I bucked it and split it. It came apart so easily it felt like I had missed the wood when I hit it with the 8lb maul.
i like tulip poplar for the fire pit, but thats it. burns with a pretty yellow plame and doesnt leave coals when you are ready to retire for the night. def the easiest i have come across as far as cutting and splitting, but its just as heavy as anything else when green. really light when its dry and i dont have a problem with stinky smoke like some mention. it also a major nectar source for honey bees. i dont see too much variety of woods, but here is my list easy to hard: tulip poplar, ash, maple, oak, cherry, black locust, birch. location has a lot to do with it also. trees from center of a woodlot are a lot easier than ones from the edge that are exposed to wind.
Never split any poplar. Ash is the easiest I've run across and red oak is nice too. I have some big slabs of maple right now from a massive yard tree that laugh at the 8 pounder when I hit them. The call has been made to the friend with hydraulics.
I took down a small tulip that did split up pretty nice. I've heard they can get hard to split though when they're real big, which is the case with most tulips around here. They grow fast, tall, and fat
Out of the wood I have run across, maple is by far the easiest and elm the toughest. Even using a log splitter the elm has to be run all the way down but maple pops as soon as you touch it with the blade. Goes really quick especially for kindling.
Brings back memories of times more than once that two steel wedges completely sunk in American elm 14" round still wouldn't bust the round. So, elm the worst and ash the easiest in my experience.
Red oak and silver/red maple are the easiest for me, tupelo (black gum), elm and hickory (in that order) are the worst. I've had black gum stall my log splitter out.
