I like to find these old larch trees. This one has been dead for probly 5 years. It was still standing last fall. I didnt get pics out cutting cause it was snowing like xmas at the north pole. I cant think of any wood that splits easier than old dead larch.
Ya even green it splits pretty easy. This one i posted is a little past prime but will still put out some decent heat after it sits c/s/s in my woodshed all summer.
I'll bet you'd love some of our soft maple to split too along with some of our ash. Using the hydraulics, most of them we drop the wedge from 1-3" into the split and it is done! That makes for some super fast and easy splitting. I absolutely love to make kindling this way too.
There's this sound that wood of that kinda nature that makes this " ping " noise when you split it and gets more prevalent the smaller the splits get. I may be deaf but with aids I can hear it. Beautiful sound. Lets you know its ready!
I'm wondering if, like maple, it might tend to split and really blow apart? When making kindling or splitting just a small piece, one has to watch the legs lest it sting a bit. I've seen some splits fly 15' or more. It's good for a laugh but I'd hate to have someone standing there and get hit.
Yes larch will do exactly what you said when making kindling. I would love to get some soft maple or ash, i have burned maple before but dont know what subspecie it was.
Nice score tamarack! I love finding old dead larch. Ive got an area that I work that has some standing dead ones that I hope to drop in the next month or so, definitely a rare thing to find. That wood will be great in your stove next winter!
Larch burns really hot too. More than one person has burned it here in Maine for firewood. Its been said that it burns so hot that it will warp a cast iron stove! Larch, called hackmatack here...or "Hack" for short, or even incorrectly Juniper, it a much sought after tree. The wood is often used for pilings a it does not rot out when used for docks in even brackish water (salt/fresh water mixed). They also use the stumps for wooden ships knees. They also use it to make paper, BUT it is so close to its kissing cousin Eastern Hemlock that it can be used in mixed loads, that is a few cord of hemlock, a few cord of hack, etc. I have cut my fair share of it, but a few years ago it was hit with a blight and a lot of it was wiped out. This was a native Hack. Back in 1994 a paper mill was concerned about available wood as it was the heyday of the paper industry. Fearing a shortage of wood, they gave seedlings of hack to landowners. At the time we had fields that were going unused as farming was at an all time low. We planted acres and acres of these free hybrid-hack in our old fields. Now the economy is such that farming is on a come back and we have absolutely no market for these high-bred hack...none. Even the paper mill that gave them to us does not want them. However the forester said these trees would get to be a foot in diameter and 60 feet high in 1o years time. Yeah right I thought, no tree in Maine grows that fast. He was right. Sadly these high bred hack have a bark beetle that prefers the wood and part of the reason for their lack of sales is they are under quarantine here in Maine. Like many of our tree plantations here, a monoculture forest just does not do well for whatever reason. We are losing about 4-5 trees per acre, per year. Worse yet, these trees put a tap root down past hades and as such they are a bear to rip the stumps out of the ground. In other words, its difficult to put the plantation back into fields.
I am not sure that the eastern larch is the same as the western larch that we have here and call the tamarack. Ours (western) is a deciduous conifer. It makes good firewood, about the best BTUs we have around here. It is not good kindling, as it has pitch pockets that explode, will frustrate you by putting small fires out. It also has a creosote smell when burnt, like freshly treated telephone poles. It gets very dark (red almost) when dried. I take all I can get. There is one standing dead on my land that is coming down this summer. I won't cut a live one though, they are just about the only non-evergreen tree we have, and the color change is nice in the fall.
The tamaracks here make great firewood and kindling, but its got to be dry and 2-3 years standing dead or seasoned is about perfect imho. Some btu charts will say you can cut green and its ready in 6 months. Yes it will burn but not well its much better wood with some decent drying time. Tamarack has some very good resistance to rot, splits easy. The sawmills that used to be here didnt want any, i guess cause of how easy it splits. Some ends up as lumber, disguised and labeled as douglas fir. At least thats what happened when i worked in the sawmill.
I totaly agree about the monoculture forest. There are pine plantations that were planted in the late 80 s here where i live. These plots are growing very slow and with alot of dying trees. You are right for some reason it doesnt work.
There are some nice size larch trees up there in ne washington. I was on the forest fire north of kettle falls/ colville for 4 days in 2015. Very pretty area and seemed like a good slower paced small town feel.
Some very interesting comments on this tree. For those who read my rants you will know that the larch is my most coveted tree. It comes in at 19.5 mbtus and aside from a scarce amount of birch (20 mbtus) is the highest btu wood that we have in the wild. The larch or Tamarack family of trees are the same but are different depending on where you are. In my area we have western larch which from what Ive read is the biggest of the larches, we also have alpine larch. The use of the word larch and tamarack are often used to describe the same tree. I dont recall seeing any western larch in around the lower mainland where I grew up but I could be mistaken. Larch is the Latin name for conifers of genus Larix of the pine family (Pinaceae). All 10-12 species of Larix grow in the Northern Hemisphere; 3 are in Canada. Tamarack (L. laricina) is a small tree of cold, wet areas from eastern BC to the Atlantic Provinces. Alpine larch (L. lyallii) occurs at high elevations in southern BC and Alberta. Western larch (L. occidentalis) is a large tree of southern BC and southwestern Alberta. (Describing Canadian distribution only) Larches are slender, with straight, gradually tapering trunks and narrow, irregular crowns. Larches are the only Canadian deciduous conifers, turning golden and shedding all their leaves in fall. The leaves are needlelike, soft and borne in clusters on dwarf twigs. The cones are 1-4 cm long, and composed of smooth scales and pointed bracts (modified leaves). Western larch is the most important timber-producing larch. Tamarack is used for pulp. Tannin, for tanning leather, can be extracted from the bark of the larch. Heres an image of western larch in the foreground during the fall and then a whack of it across the valley. My picture is a bit washed out but you get the idea. You can see that they give us color after the aspen trees are done and bare.
We have tried a variety of plantations. White Pine which was lost to the White Pine Blister Rust issue. High Bred hack with its bark beetle infestation. White Oka with the deer and moose eating the young seedlings. I am probably missing some, but it never worked out. Now planting black spruce throughout an existing forest, that worked well, and there was some success with seed spreading of White Oak in an existing forest, but monoculture forests always struggled here.
