but it might as well have been.
Splitting wood. Lots of it. I did a whole tree's worth of some heavily knotted fir. Oh man what a pain to split. And then I did the 5 biggest rounds from the base of a really old Hemlock that fell.
Lots of splitting wood. My little bro was using a 6-8 pound maul on a wood shaft to split the wood when he was here just as the snow was falling. But it cracked and he stopped. I started with it and the second swing... crack. Damn. There is a big giant red wedge metal maul here. Supposed to be a light weight fiberglass handle maul somewhere. Well we couldn't find it so I was stuck figuring out how to use this freaking wedge.
I'm guessing I split about 1/2 a cord of wood today. With that 12 pound maul. And the wicked knotty wood it doesn't just burst apart like clean fir. No this was wack wack wack wack wack crack split. It got to the point that my hand holding the base needed to switch and I had to split the wood lefty. And well i was able to.
No using some tire and a sledge hammer here. Chop, stack, chop chop chop stack. Then there were the hemlocks that got all split up. When the diameter of the rounds are over 2', well that winds up being a decent amount of chopped wood to move up.
Felt good. A tiny bit sore but being outside just chopping away was fun. Swinging that big old Maul around. And yes, damn i got some good head speed on it. Took a good bit of practice to get used to the retarded wedge shape, but once i got the hang of it, the easy to split rounds went flying 10' in either direction. I kid you not. literally 10' feet. Total pain in the ass to go retrieve them to split them in 1/4s.
Hmm now that I think about it, i've got two rows, about 10' long, stacked 4-6' high. How ever much wood that is, well that's what I split. Might be over a cord.
Certainly is keeping the house warm at anyrate. This cough is waking me up on the 3 hour sleep cycle so I've been able to keep the wood stove stoked and we've avoided firing up the oil burning forced air furnace in the house. Down side, sleeping for only 6 hours in 3 hour stretches isn't quite enough.
Bring on the beer.
heddwch
G
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Fir? WTF hardly even worth splitting fir and hemlock. Get some wood with some BTUs in it. Free is free, but ....
And yah, I did some fir and hemlock this fall (i know i know, but what else am i gonna do with it when it blows over) and I must agree, that fir is some stringy shit. PITA to split.
I dunno how you can work with that big red thing. good lord, you are gonna damage yourself.
My neighbor uses a splitter, but I pride myself in hand splitting. Its faster anyway.
The trick is not making it fly around, just enough force to split it.... grasshopper...
I am currently using a flared head splitting maul, has little ears on the flanks of the head. Works well. Fiberglass handle.
My Dad was the master, and he only split with a chopping axe (short handle, wide head). When I try it gets hopelessly lodged in the cut. He had this flick of the wrist with that thing, sent the wood to which ever side he wanted. He made neat little piles (which i picked up). Insane.
He would make me set up the logs while he split. I had to line up the cracks for him, butt end down, etc. etc. He was very picky.
i spent 4 winters using a hydraulic splitter in the arboretum... nice but man that makes ya work... but a crew of two or three can make quick work of a big pile.
Yes, the lighter weight splitters are nice, but the big sections I were splitting were from the base of a tree, and they had seasoned pre-splitting. These hemlocks out here are different than the east coast ones. Very very dense stuff. Close to Oak in weight. This is seasoned.
I split a handful of alder. Talk about not quite worth the BTUs. That stuff burns wicked hot and very very fast. Grows like a weed though and is pretty ubiquitous out here.
Not exactly sure which conifer it was. Doug fir is different than your east coast fir too. I suppose a tree guy should take the time to do a proper ID from the bark. What ever it is, it is loaded with resin, plenty green and smelled wonderful splitting.
Ain't the smell of a pile of fresh split wood just the best?
Dense woods split the best. Nothing splits like a nice frozen maple or oak. Almost splits itself. Its the damn stringy softwoods that get you.
Fir is a long fiber wood, I believe, and its a sumbitch.
I keep a bunch of pine split and dry cause it just keeps falling all over the place, and I like using a piece or three to get a quick fire going in the AM that I can then feed the hardwood on all day. No kindling needed.
Woodsplitter and 2 or 3 guys? Shit, 2 or 3 guys can make a pile disappear with axes too! I submit that the damned slow hydraulics is what makes a splitter a worthless device.
That said, I keep a pile of giant base chunks that dont split right away and trade them with my neighbor for better splitting stuff. Hydro is good for that.
All in all, wood chucking in general is a great workout.
yeah - hydro is good for the stuff I was trying to do. big stumps...
And the splitter on the back of the John Deer Tractor (PTO driven) wasn't really that slow. With old Craig driving the hydro it chewed through wood about as fast as we could feed it. But then it was generally frozen maple and oak in the winter so the wedge would hit and bang next log...
let one person run the controls and everyone else scrambled as the rounds pile got further and further away.
The tough stuff to split was actually a pine. Based on the bark it was no Doug Fir (we don't have that other fir much out here), it wasn't western cedar (arborvite), not spruce, nor hemlock. So. It has to be a pine. Nice and green and wicked knotty. The last round i split was clear and those pieces went a flying.
kinda sore today. At least i took my wedding ring off before splitting yesterday. My little bro didn't take his ring off after he split a bunch just before the concerts and his ring finger had an infected blister/sore from swinging the maul.
Did a bunch of digging today to add to the mess. Drinking a beer at noon after working for 3 hours digging and moving soil w.o breakfast is a great way to get a nice buzz on.
Post a Comment