One of these videos was posted here: Splitting wood green or dry by species?? First video is of splitting dead elm. The splitter is an MTD somewhere around 30 years old. 20 ton run with a 5 hp Briggs & Stratton engine. Operated by a 70+ year old Hoarder. The splitter had split around 300 cord when these videos were made. I had cut the elm in January and think none of it had any bark left and this the key to getting good elm. Second video was a small pile of oak a neighbor wanted split.
Excellent when handled right. The charts are all wrong for what we do. No doubt they used elm that was cut live and also split right after. When you do that the wood does not want to split and the hydraulics tear the wood rather than splitting and the fibers are loose after that. This makes the wood very poor for firewood and the reason why so many hate it. Chazsbetterhalf posted a picture of some elm they cut a few days ago. I'm hoping Jill will post that picture here for others to see. It is excellent and I advise her to not even split it. I've heated our home many winters with wood exactly like that. Long live elm!
Hope this is the one you are talking Dennis. And no we didn't split it. We had a small fire last night and Chaz had grabbed one of the small ones. Started quick and could see no water coming out the end. So Chaz moved them over with this winter's ash.
Aside from the splitting issues, elm leaves large solid blocks of ash in my stove. Pita! Hate the chit.
Dennis, I take it I should let the large pieces dry out more prior to splitting? Was already thinking along those lines, I can put that off to the side for now, and split it later this year.
Thanks Jill. Yes, that load can be burned without further drying. I'd love about 4 cord or more of that stacked up.
I'll move those off to their own pallet for a few months then. Maybe go after them in Dec or Jan. Thanks Dennis
I have noticed solid chunks similar to that but only when burning Slippery (Red) Elm, American & Siberian don’t seem to leave those remnants.
I have burnt many cords of elm, I love burning elm. Nice hot long fire with a nice coal bed. All the elm I burn is dead standing, mostly barkless.
Marketing people need to adjust their pitch: "This splitter splits vertically of course....but when you remove this pin and tilt, it goes into "Backwoods Savage" mode!"
Probably 80% of the wood I burn is standing dead Elm. I love it and have no issues with it in my stove. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk
A neighbor gave me an elm tree years ago - I remember it being tough to split by hand. I think I had to break out the metal wedge and sledge hammer a lot. But I also remember loving the way it burned and not noticing much difference between that and red oak.
