I accumulated almost two cord of hickory rounds back in October that havent been touched since dropping them in my PA. I was wanting a good cold spell to split them with below freezing temps for a while which never really happened. Been procrastinating on splitting wood at my main PA. Most of this being Asplundh wood from the Fall. Wood going to my friends has been processed pretty quick. Started last month nibbling away at them doing 100 or so splits then quit on top of working other current scores. Shagbark, pignut and bitternut. Bitternut splitting pretty straight and clean, shag second and the pignut is the grunt stuff. Ive noticed its easier if the ends are wet right after a rain rather than checked. Cooler here today and tomorrow so hoping to finish them up. Gnarlies (maybe 10%) to get noodled. First couple pics rounds/sections before i started last month. Shag splits when i first started last month. Shag splits as of the other day. Pignut and bitternut splits. (Red oak quarters behind) Easy splitting bitternut. No stringiness. Made a rack for stacking. A Backwoods Savage hybrid of sorts. Couple red cedar (juniper) sleepers with pallets on top and as ends. Stacked todays splits and some from prior. A lot to stack yet. Rack is 15'x4' and ill stack 4+' high so will hold about two cord. All (hopefully) to be hickory. Shagbark right behind the stack. Looked a little nervous when i was splitting! So FHC whats your experience hand splitting different hickory species? Easiest, hardest etc? Unusual for me to have this much on hand. Normally a scarce score for me.
I only have shagbark hickory here. It's not great to split by hand. Pretty stringy. Hydraulics for me.
I just started hand splitting my first pignut hickory score the other day...was surprised to find it pretty easy to split...especially since it was a yard tree. Split the better part of a full load of beech too (2/3 cord)...mostly pretty easy, but the rounds with limbs slowed progress for sure! I think I am gonna be a lil sore tomorrow...especially my shoulders! I generally hydro split! You must be a beast Brad...hand splitting everything is no joke! I did the whole load (almost...some "crotch rounds" are getting hydro'd!) just to prove to myself that I am not completely soft...
Mostly shag bark here plus as you get older you’re supposed to get smarter so 99% of splitting anymore is hydro.
Was that the load of wood in your blue PU? I know my limits and if it bounces off after a few whacks...in to the noodle pile it goes. I consider myself good at "reading" the end grain of a round to judge where it will split. One of my "bad" habits is trying to half the round regardless of its diameter. Although 75% of the time the biggest check is down the center. Trust me...ease of splitting is my MO when scrounging. Im not 100% sure my bitternut is bitternut. The bark is different though.
Yes. And yeah, I almost always go for halfsies on the first strike unless its a huge round...even then I might still try...because when do you succeed in halving a biggun, admit it, your inner hulk comes out a little... And yeah, I start on any existing check...
Stack is looking good, BuZZsaw! I hand split some shag hickory the other day. All small and medium stuff so it split nice and easy with the isocore.
It's been so long since I've split a hickory that I don't even remember how it split. We have a few on our place but they are so small they won't even be big enough to make firewood for my grandson.
Finished stacking the hickory today. Several knotty and gnarly chunks that wouldnt split so they got noodled. Spent some time using both saws on them. Some strange white stuff began falling from the sky and a dusting accumulated. Got too wet and called it quits. About five face cord stacked. nuglies from splitting and todays noodling. Mound of hickory and red oak shorts to be split. Gonna make a full cord 4x4x8 bin next to this rack as i have quite a bit of "long term seasoning" oak and hickory shorts to be processed. Noodle mulch in my PA from today. Id like to finish the stack with hickory and "found" a couple hickory logs among my hoard. Not enough, but ill figure something out. Now onto the 2-3 cord of red oak quarters to split. Glad i save those for last. Mostly nice knot free trunks!
Nice work Brad. It’s funny you ask that question. I hydroed those three hickory. Not bad at all. But there’s some small smooth bark hickories I got off that fencerow I’ve been cleaning that were a horrible stringy mess. Maybe because they were fresh? I was gonna send you a pic and make sure they were hickory but,,,,, ahhh, crack it and stack it. Keep up the good work.
Have only split shag and bitternut and not too much of either, however it seems that sometimes it splits ok and sometimes is stringy. I use hydraulics though so it is not as bad as you guys who split by hand. You guys who handsplit are tough as nails.
