I tried splitting the load of beetle killed spruce I got off my buddy today with the isocore maul and the x27. Mind you this stuff is light as a feather. Not a chance. Just to many knots. If I didn't have a splitter I would throw it in the woods for sure.
Thanks for the heads up, I have a large one that is dying and was thinking about taking it down this weekend and splitting it. That project just went on the back burner until next winter now that I know it’s not going to be smooth sailing. I was thinking it would be like pine, obviously not.
what length did you cut the rounds? What if they were cut to a shorter length, say 12". My neighbor in front took down a spruce and has the rounds stacked in his front yard. I wont touch the stuff.
There is no sap to speak of. This stuff is light as a feather and dry as a popcorn fart but it will not pop open. I did get 2 of them to split but they were the smallest rounds from the top of the tree.
A fellow wood hoarding friend of mine cut down 3-4 tall spruces in his front yard. I bucked the trunks to normal fireplace length and we tossed it in his woods. Can you burn them as rounds or are they too big?
If it is dying because there are grubs eating the sap pathways under the bark and the tree is no longer getting sap up the tree it's not going to be full of sap. Lack of sap is why it is dying. You could wait for it to be completely dead and then there will be no sap in it. In the meantime there could be grubs eating your firewood. There can be numerous [kinds of] beetles attacking a tree when it is weak. The sugars and starches in sap act like anti-freeze and allow an evergreen tree to not form ice crystals, flow and stay alive year round. Like with deciduous trees the pressure in the tree is a little higher in Spring.
