Had an ash tree out along the road. In '13 it was showing serious signs of decline. Last year there were no leaves. I cut it down today and started splitting it up. I took some of it straight into the garage and there are a couple splits in the FPI right now.
Looks good, sounds like the dead elm I got Thursday, went in the stove the same day, wish it all was that easy.
Ash is a favorite of mine too. So many nice qualities for a hardwood, straight grained and fairly easy to split, low MC when green and very quick to season and very much available in the NE. And as you said, dead wood standing can almost always be ready to burn after processing.
We appreciate the way that ash outgasses in the stove and maintains solid secondary flame or hot cat activity if that's your preference. Then it invites a reload at your leisure with vigorous long lasting coals. Just can't say anything bad about ash firewood. Nice catch for your hoard.
Just beware. Just because that one dead ash is low moisture, not all are. For example, I remember in 2011 almost all the ash we cut was really super dry. Yet, in December we cut 2 dead ones down. They could be ready to burn next fall but no way now as there is too much moisture there. These 2 we cut in December I will note they were in a low area. Yet, we had an ash in a really wet area topple over. We had 2 others that the tops had broken off. Starting to turn punky. So just because you find some that is good to burn, not all will be the same.
Everything considered, ash is my favorite wood. Burned a lot of it this year and it's a great combo factoring ease to split, drying time, and burning characteristics. Love it!
That's the reason I pulled out the MM, just to be sure. Didn't want to hear any hissing in the stove. Since I was using my new-to-me monster maul, I grabbed a piece of 6" oak round just to see if it worked as well with that. It split right open. Put the MM to it and got a 28.9%. That went up to the wood shed
I love ash, but I don't agree fully that it's easy to split by hand. Ash that I've encountered can be very stringy at times. Red oak and cherry are the best for me to hand split. I do love cherry too, but it's not that common and red oak needs seasoning time. I posted pics about 3 weeks ago of an ash cord score. I have maple cut down but still laying in tree form totalling about 2 cords. I can get as much red oak as I have time for this summer with the site lined up. I really will try to get as much red oak as I can. I still love this firewood and given it's rarity for me...it's what I will pursue. I will have lots of firewood left over from the season. Given my limited storage capacity, I can be more selective in what I bring in this summer. I love all firewood...even eastern white pine which many will snub.
Your right some ash is stringy and harder to split ,some not , I use hydraulics so, It's not a big deal to me
I'm using the Huskee 22 ton, but I still love swinging a maul. Cherry and red oak under about 10 inches in diameter fly apart. Anything bigger go to the splitter. All pine and most ash rounds see the splitter. White oak over 8 inches in diameter meet the splitter. I hand split a smaller locust this fall. Not sure the variety, but it wasn't bad.
Not to derail the topic...back on point...ash is dense and dries quickly. A perfect firewood for anyone lucky enough to have a significant inventory of it.
I hand split some fresh cut ash today with my 6lb Collins maul. It wasn't that easy to split. If it matters, it was a near horizontal 16" diameter limb, not a trunk. It was as stringy as ive ever seen ash and there was no way that a center hit was going to do anything. Each split took an average of 4 swings. Some more, and only a couple went from 1 double sized piece into 2 nice splits. I do feel that there are much better mauls than this one though.
Yeah I have to use , sledge n wedge , sometimes noodle to reduce the big ones to lift cuz no vertical splitter here
