Thanks! Yeah, unfortunately, there are no big tricks to make it easy.

+oldglstuf Thanks Paul. I knew the drought had been horrible and it is logical that many trees would die, but this is the first time I have actually had that communicated to me. It's hard to describe the heavy feeling that gives me. I'll hope that there aren't any serious ripple consequences, like erosion and habitat loss. It sounds like a lot of this wood will end up rotting on the stump. Thanks for the information on species and their condition. Best of luck with the drought, Terry

oldglstuf - Sounds like a beautiful area you live in, drought notwithstanding. I have an infatuation with the Almond species in general, just find it a beautiful tree. I imagine it makes wonderful firewood ...

After all, the negative press it's gotten for succumbing to Dutch Elm Disease, I think it's only fair to give that little bit of positive press.

Thanks, Jesse.

(Oh, to be young again!)

Thanks Corsa.

+malcolm hogan Malcolm, I don't know how I missed your comment, but I offer a belated "Thanks". I appreciate you mentioning the species you split. While I do not ever expect to get the opportunity to split any of them, I do like hearing the names. If you would be so kind, which do you consider the best splitters and which do you consider the best fuel?

+Terry Hale Easyist to split is Pine, but also the one with the most sap so your gear gets messy, best fuel is bluegum.

Thanks!

Thank you Anne.

Thank you, Bruce.

Thanks! Makes me pleased to hear it. I lived in Sitka for two years when I was a kid. Just the word brings back pleasant memories.

+Peter Schumacher Thanks much Pete and more power to you. While I actually feel dismay any time a tree species starts to succumb to an epidemic, I certainly don't regret having ash and oak available to split. P.S. Thanks for sending that burst of Minnesota weather our way. Our beaver pond had started to melt, making it a bit dicey to go out on it to harvest the drowned hardwoods. The -21 last night gave us a foot of solid ice.

Thanks for the comment. Please don't ignore hearing protection.

+Samuel Luria Thanks Sam!

Samuel Luria agreed

I think the maul has laser sights

Good luck to you. Don't forget hearing protection!

Köszönöm!

Definitely. I get a "worth it" feel when I put one of those pieces into the wood stove.

You missed the point. As a firewood, it burns just fine. It's splitting it that is such a big problem.

Great! I hope they prove useful to you.

Thanks Carmen. When my accuracy starts to fade, I know it's time to go read.

Nice of you to say that.

I try not to talk about the few times where I have had to resort to using a chainsaw to "split" wood, but hey definitely exist.

I only had two opportunities to use a two-man saw when I was young, but I have a lot of respect and admiration for them. They are still used in some of our larger national parks. Chain saws are heavy and you can only carry in so much gasoline. I am confident that the two-man saws will make a comeback, or even become dominant, once petroleum becomes precious. I am glad you have those nice memories of life on the farm.

Brian Hennigan Respect to those who work by the acres and not by the hours.

A good question. In general, as they dry out, the loss of water induces shrinking and possibly cracking., It may also place some internal tension stresses into operation which could help to pull the wood apart while the ax is trying to push it apart. A few species, however, get tougher as they dry. Many get a bit harder. Some species are so very wet that they try to squich when chopped into. Those need to dry a bit and become brittle enough to split. Since I tend to accept the wood that "volunteers", I haven't paid that much attention to which species have which behavior. Poplar tends to be "squishy". Sugar maple dries hard. Hickory toughens a bit as it dries.

Darn! What gave me away?

+hoshnasi I do find it pretty amazing. The only thing I've found that was worse was Southern Catalpa. I no longer remember the count precisely, but it was something like my first 25 stroke literally just bounced off it. I had not been expecting that since the chainsaw went through it as though everything was normal. I did a big swing and nearly got smashed in the face when the axe rebounded. I'll go with forest-grown White Ash as my very favorite splitting firewood.

+Terry Hale I don't have wedges nor splitting axes, just some vintage and antique axes that I purchased at auction that I like to mess around with. The catalpas around here are tough to split while the mimosas are very easy to split. Great video and tips.

Thanks Big Guy.

Since making that video, I have (again) added an F27 and would now consider it my favorite splitting axe. The smooth sides and Teflon (?) coating let it deliver a splitting force without much energy being wasted in friction. I still find an occasional piece where I need the extra weight of the Stihl axe, but that's probably only about 2% of the time. I previously had an F27, but must have been dealing with wood that required a heavier head, because I was not impressed with it then. Now I am. ...and thank you for the appreciation.

Terry Hale I have the X11 right now due to the noise (the joy of apartment living) and it works really well for now! I enjoy all your videos and would love to see more if you have time! Have a great holiday season! Thanks again!

If you haven't seen them, you might enjoy my tedious series of videos on tree felling, posted as the "Weakened Woodsman".

Terry Hale I agree with all the (positive) comments about the two splitting instructional videos. May I add that I think your ‘tedious’ (your word) series on taking down problematic trees is among the very best on KZfaq right now. I worked in forestry for ten years (many moons ago now), and dealing with the many and varied situations you go through in your videos is very important. Your advice is always well-reasoned and clearly explained. It can actually save lives. Seriously!

+extreemslayer Thanks Leo. It would certainly be possible, but there are already several good ones out there that I could not improve upon.

Terry Hale Which one is your favourite on sharpening a saw chain? Thanks in advance.

Apple is a nasty one, for sure. It grows a lot of little branches (knots) that really bind it together. I also like the smell of fruit woods, though all I get in the North Country are Apple and Black Cherry.

@@terryhale9006 How many cords do you burn a year? Do you split it all by hand? I did all mine by hand the first few years, about 3 or 4 cords a year. I enjoyed the sense of accomplishment. I told myself I'd never take the easy way out. Then a friend let me borrow his 22 ton log splitter. That was 3 years ago and the splitter is still at my house. It's just so much faster and easier esp. the big Y pieces. I tell myself I'm not cheating, because I still get plenty of exercise driving to the wood, splitting the rounds with wedge and hammer, loading it, driving home, unloading it, lifting it onto the splitter, throwing the pieces into a pile, then stacking. Please don't hate me!

Atlantic blue cedar(Cedris atlantica glauca) smells of apples I find.

+rick seifert Yes. That's why it is generally ignored as a firewood. I usually take up its challenge "Because it's there". Also burns well. From the way you described them, I got the impression that some of your Gums were very hard. Are they fibrous as well, like Elm? You also mentioned the Silver Gimlet being known to dull chainsaws quickly. I've heard that some wood species, particularly in semi-arid settings, absorb minerals and have those form crystals within their heartwood. Might this be a case in point?

Some of the gum species here are quite fibrous and very tight grain structure, the gimlet is a very dense grain to it as well.

I date from when most maul handles were made of wood. If you pound on a maul head, you are putting a big shock wave into the handle right next to the head. That shear wave will lead to premature cracking of the handle. If you miss-hit a wedge, it's no big deal. If you miss the head of a maul, you may be buying a new handle and going through the hassle of rehafting it or buying a new maul. Wedges are much cheaper than mauls. I'd rather mushroom one of them out than a maul. The split doesn't always follow a straight line. If you start driving in your maul and the handle is going end up against wood, you have to quit driving it. If your ax is seated into the wood and opens a crack adjacent to it, it's easy to place the wedge in that crack. In my opinion, wedges and mauls serve different purposes and those should not be mixed. I feel that every serious splitter should have two or three wedges in their arsenal.

Terry Hale never really thought about that. All my mail handles are not made of wood. I don’t even give it a second thought. Thanks for the insight.

Thanks, Belinda.

jaydekaytv Thanks!

I haven't had the opportunity to split Sycamore. I guess I was hoping that, with leaves like Maple, it would split like Maple. Shucks!

Green sycamore just takes the hit and laughs back at you. It is essentially a wooden sponge when freshly cut. Your maul goes in and moisture oozes out all around your penetration and it rarely opens up on the first swing with the beginnings of a splitting crack. It also lacks the typical grain pattern we all associate with oaks, hickory, ash and many other hardwoods and that contributes to its difficulty in splitting. Also Terry, another good video sir.

When I lived in Alabama and Korea, I enjoyed the look of Sycamore. Armed with your evaluations, I will no longer regret its absence from my present upstate New York property.

When dealing with crotches, the most prominent crack is not reliable. I definitely find it best to go for planes of symmetry.

That would make sense, but I do it quite rarely. I have a wood-working shop and get more than enough kindling from that. Otherwise, yeah...I should get one. (Pretty sure I've actually got one "someplace safe".)

It's actually very safe and the best way of making sure the split goes exactly where you want it to.

Of course. Didn't you see it demonstrated?

+Cyber EMR Estrella I've seen that done. I even vaguely remember having used it a few times years ago. If the wood has enough mass, you may actually get more energy out of driving the wood onto the blade than you can get out of driving a lighter axe head into the wood. I'd be a bit worried about discovering that the wood was not solidly onto the axe when the wood is directly overhead. Another minor concern would be that the poll of the axe head would often not be coming down squarely onto your chopping block, possibly introducing some stresses that could damage the haft. All things considered, however, if it works consistently for you ... Great!

Knots definitely suck, but the trees insist. For me, it's often about not wanting to admit defeat to a hunk of wood.

Try it. You'll like it. Much, much safer than hammering nails. It's a low-energy swing, Your hand is well removed from any fixed-object surface. The maul's blade is not sharp and the combined swing practically ensures that your hand will never be touched by the blade.

Terry Hale The Fiskars X27 blade cuts paper and is extremely sharp. You sound comfortable with this technique but a lighter and quicker maul might surprise you how fast and can come down and throw off the timing.

tubesockets120v If you're using an X27, I can understand your desire for some extra caution. The X27 is designed to work both as a splitting axe and as a felling axe. For the latter mission, it does need to be kept sharp. Sharpness is not nearly as important for a sole-purposed splitting axe, as most of its work is done by the cheeks of the axe, not the cutting edge. All that said, I would still be comfortable using a sharp felling axe to split kindling in the manner demonstrated. The key is to keep the blade in contact with the wood throughout the lift and the swing. That way, the edge is "locked" into a specific location on the wood and there is essentially no issue with a poor aim. The axe is used more in a pushing mode than in a real swing.

Southern Catalpa was the only wood I've encountered that was tougher to split. I would avoid elm if looking for firewood. However, If I have to cut dead elms down on my property, I feel obligated to split it and put it in the wood pile. (Love a challenge.) I have not had a problem with it smoking. Was yours still a bit green?

You're right. The pieces i have were really green and i should have waited. I had 2 straight wedges and one "GRENADE" buried in it at the same time. Water was coming out everywhere. That was a very long time ago. I guess we learn as we get older I'm 78 now, no more hand splitting here. Actually, a neighbor out back has a dead elm that she is going to have taken down soon. Nah, i was thinking but.......forget it. I'll let her give it to the kid a couple houses away. He can bust his ass Gotta LOVE it. Happy burning.

Wet or not, good idea not to give it a second chance. Cheers!

Interesting. I find sycamore easier to slit than elm and Southern Catalpa the worst I've ever tried to split.

Southern Catalpa is the only thing I have encountered that is harder to split than Elm.