Splitting firewood

[grandpa Love]

Spent 4 hours at my folk's house splitting firewood today. Too HOT!! But my brother is in town and willing to help.

Started out stacking as we split, decided to get it all busted and stack when it's cooler. We had skipped church Sunday to haul it out of the woods, with the Massey loader tractor

 

[wh]

Got delayed for some reason one spring and did not get to the wood cutting until mid july. To put it mildly it was HOT in the woods. Had stopped to cool off and dad said the good thing about cutting now is the fact that they are not burning it faster than we can cut at the house. Do not think we ever cut in summer again.

 

[Russ from MN]

I prefer to split wood by hand, with an 8 pound splitting maul, when it's about -10 F! The most common wood we have is black ash, and it's easier to just whack it than to pick it up and put it in the splitter. I did build a 3-point splitter for our JD that I use for the tough ash and elm, I don't even try to split elm by hand. Here is a picture of my wife splitting birch, it splits easy also. She uses a little maul, only 6 pounds!

 

[rustred]

that is true the colder the easier it splits. if she has a more solid block those would split easier also.

 

[RM-MN]

White birch splits easily, yellow birch doesn't. Elm isn't real hard to take a slab off the side but not through the middle. All of them split better at -30 and you don't work up much of a sweat then.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Summer cutting is hard on the guy ,the saw and everything else. I don't care for cutting wood in the winter so much either as I get older. And yes wood splits easier when cold frozen. Elm will never split well and definitely not through the middle. Red Oak splits about like Ash does pretty easy till a knot comes up. White Oak not as easy as Red Oak. I think elm is just about the most disagreeable wood to burn it is like a sponge holding water and doesn't split well and some times need to take the block out to leak before it will burn.

 

[Bruce from Can.]

I have a hydraulic wood splitter that attaches to the tractor, and its great to use on some real twisted narly chunks, but most of the time I just use a 3 1/2 lb axe just like we always have.

I prefer to work at wood in cooler weather in the fall, less bugs to battle with too.

 

[Blksmok]

I drop and drag trees in the summer and cut and split in the fall. In the summer it is very easy to identify the dead trees. I have about 60 acres of thick woods and when the leaves are off can't always ID the recently dead trees. Mostly oak, elm and some cherry.

 

[BAnNC]

Not a big fan of splitting no matter what the temperature. But the 10 lb maul and a 4 1/2 lb axe are my choice for that job.

 

[Jim in NC]

For many, many years swinging a sledge hammer or a splitting maul with wedges was the way I did it, and now I am very thankful for a woodsplitter. We have many varieties of trees that I could not split easily by hand.

 

[2SteveWI]

Spent the last few days cutting on the wood pile of tops from logging my woods last winter. When that is cleaned up I will start on the dead, and damaged trees from last winter's ice storm. With Maple Syrup season going right into planting, summer is my wood cutting time. Start as early as I can and rest when it gets hot. Will try to go back out after it cools down in the evening. This is North Central Wisconsin. Cannot imagine what hot means in Alabama. Spent 4 years in the Marines in SoCal, Okinawa and N Carolina. Was a lot younger then.

 

[ford1956tractor]

Guy gave me an Elm tree for free--I got screwed. Was told to wait for cold weather to split--waited to 20 degrees and wound up filling a gully with it

 

[Two0aks]

Only Doug Fir.
I felt real good when 62. Neighbor's field and I got all the trimmings. Four plus piles like this all by hand.

Let's see, saw, stand upright to split, pickup toss in pile, pickup into pickup, pickup into wood shed, pickup into house, pickup into wood stove. Been doing this for 32 years, only wood for heat.