Soggy spring splitting session with a twice-scored American elm

“Huh?” you say… So a quick rundown is in order. Firewood has changed hands a few times on here between members. Fellow Connecticut hoarder buZZsaw BRAD scored this elm back in October and offered it to me. Since it was already bucked with a lot of the bark falling off, I gladly made two trips down to his neck of the woods to scoop it up. I stacked the rounds top covered all winter and today I finally got around to start the splitting. Good progress was made and although the splitter worked hard on a few pieces, hydraulics prevailed. For me it’s almost like a new firewood score, revisiting something that’s sat for 6 months. The march towards having a more organized wood yard continues.
What was split before the rain started coming down heavier:



What remains to be split/stacked:

 

I see what everyone says about elm being tough to split. Looks very stringy. I have a bunch of elm that I'll be splitting shortly.

 

Honestly it’s not that bad if it was cut dead or sat in the round for a while. If you cut a live tree and split it right away, that’s when you’ll struggle the most. At least it’s decent, good-coaling firewood, compared to other stringy stuff like black gum that’ll be both hard to split and marginal for burning.

 

Was it cut green in October?

 

I think it was dead for only a few months at that point. The bark was coming off in sheets from the larger trunk sections. The bark is still tight on the limb wood.

 

Ok just trying to get an idea of how long it takes to reach the stage where it splits clean and easy

 

Standing dead with the bark off will split fine as soon as it hits the ground for the most part bottom 1/3 will still be pretty wet but will probably still split pretty fair.
In my experience, elm taken alive should be bucked to your desired length and then stacked on it’s side, not stood on end for about a year if the rounds are of a size that they can be maneuvered by hand. Something bigger should be noodled down or left to sit a while longer. Let the ends get good and checked.


Your mileage may vary!

 

Nope, I'm out.

 

There's a PU full of mostly smalls right down the street from me and im wondering how it'll split...with hydro of course. Felled dead 18 months ago.

 

I never wouldve guessed!

 

When the man, the myth, the legend gives away wood, you know it isn't worth a pint of p_ss.

 

Tree died late Spring/early Summer last year and guy had it cut down mid September. Most of the bark was coming off when he cut it up.

 

X2. Have a score of it im waiting to buck. Wanna split ASAP after cut and prefer it string free if possible.

 

Cant believe its been that long. WHen is this scheduled for burning Eric? ARe some of those splits bigger than normal?

 

Actually the wood was some solid stuff. If it wasnt such a stringy mess (even on hydro) id probably take it more often! Thanks for the kind words btw!

 

This won’t get burned until at least the 2023-2024 season, so 2 summers of drying. It’ll probably sit longer than that though because that’s when some of my backyard red oak from Isaias will hit 3.5 years. Plus the locust I have will also be ready… I’m still going back and forth in my head on what I want to burn and when Yeah a few pieces are split on the large side for long burn times.

 

That stage doesn't happen. Not in my experience, and I process a lot of elm. There's easier, and hard splitting elm, but no easy splitting elm.