Best wood to split

[hacknchop]

Up here in northern Ontario white birch is very easy splitting even with a few knots, it also burns green or right off the stump,not much left in the way of elm here, only sawn maybe 4 or5 elm cut standing dry elm 25 yrs ago after dutch elm beetle wiped them out in the 70s. Hardest wood to split here is problably yellow birch with twisted grain.Best wood for heat hard mpl hands down.

[WmFritz]

I havent been up there since I was about 10 years old.

You do realize your in the middle of some the finest country you will ever find.
All you need is a tent and some gas money to get up there; oh... and bridge fare.  :D
I look for ANY excuse to get up that way.

It's been some years now, but for a lot of winters I snowmobiled that area with some special people. I got to know four men who served in Vietnam together and were all from the Saginaw area. They stayed close the rest of their lives. These guys  began trail riding sleds in the early 80's when snowmobiles had no suspensions. They rode primarily the middle of the UP because they were friends with a couple more Vietnam Vets (brothers) that were Yoopers from that area.

Roy was a family friend and I met the rest of the group through him. Around '93, Roy invited me along with my FIL and BIL for a week trip because he knew we kept our machines dependable and we rode similar to his buddy's. We stayed in Seney that week and it was the best time riding I'd ever had. Roy's friends rode fast and hard. We left early each morning and they had to get 100 miles in before we could stop for breakfast. If we didn't get 300 miles in a day they weren't happy.  :D

Those four guys never needed or carried a map. If we hit a rough trail, they'd  stop, pow wow a minute and head for a county road or a two track to get to a better trail. We didn't ride the same trail twice in five days. They knew every road and trail from Shingleton to Pine Stump Junction like the back of their hand. They knew who they could wake up at 3:00 in the morning to turn on a gas pump.

I rode every chance I could get with those guys and enjoyed every minute. I deer hunted the Fox River Country near Seney with my family until I was 21.  I was about 34 when I began my trips with Roy's group and fell back in love with that area. My friends are gone now, but I still cherish the memories they gave me.

Sorry to get side tracked from wood splitting.
If I owned land there,  that's where you'd find me!  ;) ;)

[Brleclaire]

When I was a kid the local saw shop had a guy come and demo a wood splitter "that would split any block"  they posted a sign that said bring your ugliest block for splitting.  Every old timer from three counties brought him their ugliest elm. He only split a few that weren't to twisted but couldn't split too many. Everybody had a good laugh and sent the guy packing with his new fangled splitting device. They gave him some real ugly ones and told him to go redesign his machine. They said when his machine could split them bring it back and then they would look it over.

[Dieselsteve]

I hear ya ill be up there alot more often now! than was a great story by the way. I hauled a oversize load from down here to ironwood a couple years back and the permits thank the Lord took us mostly state roads once we crossed the bridge due to massive construction on 2 but we rolled through kenton and sidnaw where I used to go quad riding in my early teens we used to put 200 plus miles in a day.

[CTYank]

Black locust is also very doable for hand-splitting.

But, the word "maul" covers a huge spectrum, from blunt overweight instruments of torture to serious wood-splitting tools. Mauls from the corner hadware or the big-box are generally a lousy joke. OTOH, try the mauls from Husqvarna (Hultafors), Wetterlings, or Mueller. They will get it done & make logs cringe. The heaviest of the ones mentioned is 6.5 lbs., suitable for initial splits of larger or more difficult rounds.

Council tools, in NC, is an up-and-coming mfg of quality tools. Anyone got an eval. of their maul?

I should add that for the really nasty, crotchety or knotty stuff, I've found that a "hybrid" attack works best. Noodle to sever the cross-grain, then maybe set a few wedges or whack it with a maul.

[garret]

Depends on whether wet or dry.  In my experience fresh cut splits easiest.  My favorite is white ash with few knots; plenty of it standing dead due to emerald bark beetle.  Worst splitting is sycamore and stringy grained woods like dry elm, IMO.

[thecfarm]

garret,welcome to the forum.