I have lots of wood buried under the snow this time of year, every year. It all turns out fine. But what do I know, my wife thinks I'm nuts, and never hesitates to tell me so.
I've taken a leaf blower to piles of wood plenty of times when they were covered with snow. I know it's too late but you could have done that and then thrown a tarp over it before the rain.
I would have liked to see him split several varieties, including hickory and elm. Red oak at 6° doesn't tempt me, it's easy enough to split above freezing.
i think the point was more to show off his assistant ( i know you were not looking at her madam )than to be a real test ,in my defence someone sent it to me
Yes, almost all the videos like to show how easy it is to split some wood....then they use some easy splitting wood. They do the same thing if a manufacturer or store gives a demo. I'll never forget one time at a local tractor supply store when they were going to demo their splitters. I just happened to be going to the store for something that morning and did not realize they were having a demo. I went over just as a pickup arrived with some wood for them to split. Ha! It was all dead wood almost falling apart on the truck. I watched and they did split it. "See how easy it is to split this wood?" Right.
Only reason to buy a power spliter is to make small uglys out of big uglys. that nice strait stuff is easy split with a AXE even. Of course some don't want to expand the enegiery either. Al
I was hoping for you to pull up with a load of uglies and toss them an elm crotch, and say show me now.
Had I known that day what they were going to do, I certainly would have taken a few choice logs with me.
I kinda thought Scotty Overkill already did... Our local Rural King store had a splitter vendor on site one weekend with specials and a "stop the splitter" contest...I think they had some small prizes and discounts for anyone that brought wood that stopped the splitter...I'm sure they were using some 35 T monster...so it was either going smash or mangle pretty much anything...never did hear how it went though...
I seem to remember hearing something about this somewhere from someone. Hmmm, let me think on it...........
Some wood simply does not split well in the winter. Birch for one. Others, like Elm seem to split easier in the winter.
I did a trial of frozen wood splitting today, at 21° after getting down to zero overnight. First up, maple, very easy. Next, a straight piece of honey locust with no knots. It took 4 or 5 strikes to get it in half. Next, a honey locust round with a crotch sliced off. I did a little damage after multiple strikes. I couldn't break it up any further, so I noodled it. Looking at the grain, I would never have broken it by hand. Last up, a small, straight piece of elm. Five strikes and it's starting to give. Success. So, my subjective conclusion from a very small sample is, yes, it is easier to split tough wood when it is frozen. It seemed like the strings in the elm shattered a bit, and didn't hold on so tight. They honey locust knots were still impossible, though. And the maple split like butter.
I split about 2.5 cords of oak today after an overnight low of zero and although I used a machine it was noticeably easier- not one bit of stringy pieces
