# Best and Worst Wood to Split



## Stegman (Jul 25, 2013)

I'm sure this has been discussed on here before, but I'll be damned if I can find it.

Just curious what everyone thinks are the best and worst kinds of wood to split. And I mean _by hand_ for all you hyrdaulics freaks out there.

I've got a pile of oak [not sure what kind] from a side-of-road scrounge back in the spring that I need to split - maybe a 1/3 of a cord - and I'm wondering how bad it's going to be. Most of it has been sitting in 4- to 6-foot length for the last 3-4 months.


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## lukem (Jul 25, 2013)

Best = Red Oak

Worst = Sweet Gum


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## Shane N (Jul 25, 2013)

I love splitting red oak. I hear ash splits like a dream too.

My worst has been some twisty boxelder, but I'm sure that doesn't even compare to elm or gum.


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## Holzstapel (Jul 25, 2013)

Splitting oak by hand is very satisfying.

The easiest I ever split was Sassafrass and the scent of it was great too.  It split so easy that I used an axe instead of a maul.

Im not sure what the worst was, but it was very stringy and even the few strings that you can usually pull apart by hand had to be hit with the maul.  I finally gave up and attacked that round with a chainsaw.  The rest of that I split with a machine.


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## jeff_t (Jul 25, 2013)

White oak can be a bit stringy. Nice straight red oak is a pleasure. I use a hydraulic splitter, but I'll get the Fiskars out for it.


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## HDRock (Jul 25, 2013)

Best I have had , Red n white oak, Ash, Maple
Some elm I have had,  not so bad ,other elm, really sucked
Never had any gum
Oh yeah !  , I am proud to be a hydraulics freak


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## Backwoods Savage (Jul 25, 2013)

Easiest by far is soft maple. The hardest is elm for us.


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## ScotO (Jul 25, 2013)

It's funny because we've discussed this before, but just the other day I was outback splitting some of the STRINGIEST, most twisted stuff ever......
No it wasn't elm, it wasn't white oak.....it was RED MAPLE!  Never had a red maple give me that much trouble before...

Now, onto your question.  I agree that red oak and ash are probably the nicest to split, hands down.  Toughest stuff I've ever split was American Elm.....nasty, twisted, knarly, stringy mess.  Gum may be worse, but I've never split any of it.  All the gum I've ever cut gets dumped at a buddy of mine's place....he uses it in his outdoor burner.  He can deal with it.


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## blades (Jul 25, 2013)

less of a type of wood as more of how it grew. you can nasty twisted  stuff in just about any  brand. Box Elder & Chinese Elm are almost always a pain. I know i have run into others but these two are the most consistant pia.


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## The Beagler (Jul 25, 2013)

Easiest for me would be Tulip Poplar.  Toughest is American Elm.


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## Freeheat (Jul 25, 2013)

easiest is Maple hardest so far has to be honey locust ( I don't have a power splitter)


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## Jacktheknife (Jul 25, 2013)

Freeheat said:


> easiest is Maple hardest so far has to be honey locust ( I don't a splitter)



The worst was some Siberian elm that I got into last winter, the best was some dead cedar.


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## 343amc (Jul 25, 2013)

Easiest for me is a tie between ash and maple. 

Worst I ever split was a nasty twisted mulberry I had taken down before I put up my pole barn. I noodled a lot of that tree.


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## rideau (Jul 25, 2013)

Hardest for me:  Ironwood (Hophornbeam) that grew with a straight trunk where the grain twisted around and around.  Lots seem to do that, in the sheltered interior of my woods, for some reason.


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## lumbering on (Jul 25, 2013)

I've only been doing this one season, but I just hand split 4 cords of red oak and it was a very pleasant experience.

I just went through a cord of unknown, multiple different hard and soft woods, all stringy and annoying, then found a few rounds of red oak mixed in, that split like a dream in comparison. Red oak all the way.


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## fox9988 (Jul 25, 2013)

Easiest-Black Walnut
Hardest-American Elm


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## WeldrDave (Jul 25, 2013)

{BEST} I like, Maple or Oak.....

{ABSOLUTE WORST} $!$##&&^^(&^%#@^$#@$%#%......NJ gum.... but it burns good!


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## Paulywalnut (Jul 25, 2013)

Best- ash and red oak.
Worst sweet gum. I had 12 or so rounds of it. I had to chain saw a cut into it to even
get the wedge in... I took 11 rounds to the wood dump. I helped a guy split some willow.
Why I don't know. That's some horrible stuff too.


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## Shadow&Flame (Jul 25, 2013)

Best - Red oak
Good- Maple
Worst- Gum

For me anyway....


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## Wingman (Jul 25, 2013)

Jacktheknife said:


> The worst was some Siberian elm that I got into last winter, the best was some dead cedar.


 
I've split two different Siberians recently.  The older mature one was so easy to split I couldn't believe it.  It was also live but had to come down due to insect and storm damage.  The other was a smaller, deadstanding and had not been nearly as easy as the other.


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## bogydave (Jul 25, 2013)

My area of AK
Most Birch is easy
Spruce the toughest .


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## Sprinter (Jul 26, 2013)

Around here, my red alder splits like a dream. Just goes crunch and falls apart. Usually.

On the other hand, I just finished putting up about a cord of xmas tree stumps from the xmas tree farm across the road. They cut up to 4' lengths off of some pretty big fir xmas trees (like 10") when harvesting and it's really twisty and knotty. That's an unusual situation, though, and free is free.


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## Soundchasm (Jul 26, 2013)

Bitternut hickory and burr oak have been the most fun.  Could split them into perfect chair legs if desired, and shave with the corners.  Stringy hackberry=Yech!


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## Got Wood (Jul 26, 2013)

Love splitting Red Oak, especially big rounds - looks like lumber cuts and makes great cross stacking pieces for the ends of the stack.

Worst I have dealt with in American Elm that was living when cut (still wet inside) - like trying to split a wet twisted ball of yarn. Standing dead elm is much easier.


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## KaptJaq (Jul 26, 2013)

I have a lot of red oak here. The trees that grow in an open field are easy to split. The trees that grow near a house and have been shaped, trimmed back, and influenced by their surroundings are usually twisted and a lot harder to split.

I was spoiled by "Sandy" wood. There was sooooo much on the ground that I only took the clean straight sections of the trunks. I basically tried to stay in the 12" to 3' diameter range. On the smaller rounds one hit with the light maul and there was that satisfying "ping" as it split. On the larger rounds I had to start with a wedge on one side, then a good hit with the heavy maul would do the first split.

Worst I have split around here was some type of red elm from a neighbor's yard. Very stringy and every split took multiple hits.

KaptJaq


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## TimJ (Jul 26, 2013)

Oak can be on the worst list, red or white, because the bottom line is oaks are big trees which produce big rounds which produce hard work for the man and not the splitter


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## Mitch Newton (Jul 26, 2013)

Soundchasm said:


> Bitternut hickory and burr oak have been the most fun. Could split them into perfect chair legs if desired, and shave with the corners. Stringy hackberry=Yech!


 
Ditto on the stringy Hackberry


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## USMC80 (Jul 26, 2013)

Holzstapel said:


> Splitting oak by hand is very satisfying.
> 
> The easiest I ever split was Sassafrass and the scent of it was great too. It split so easy that I used an axe instead of a maul.
> 
> Im not sure what the worst was, but it was very stringy and even the few strings that you can usually pull apart by hand had to be hit with the maul. I finally gave up and attacked that round with a chainsaw. The rest of that I split with a machine.


 

ill second the sassafrass


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## teutonicking (Jul 27, 2013)

Stegman said:


> I'm sure this has been discussed on here before, but I'll be damned if I can find it.
> 
> Just curious what everyone thinks are the best and worst kinds of wood to split. And I mean _by hand_ for all you hyrdaulics freaks out there.
> 
> I've got a pile of oak [not sure what kind] from a side-of-road scrounge back in the spring that I need to split - maybe a 1/3 of a cord - and I'm wondering how bad it's going to be. Most of it has been sitting in 4- to 6-foot length for the last 3-4 months.


 
Red Oak = best
Gum = worst


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## Gark (Jul 28, 2013)

The types I thought to be easiest splitting (ash and red oak) can even be tough splitting sometimes. The worst had wavy and twisted grain that grew in the open wind. The straightest grain best splitting ones came from dense woods (protected from wind).
The worst: American elm.


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## Applesister (Jul 28, 2013)

The worse for me was a Rock elm. It had the worse case of interlocking grain I have ever seen. Had to use an axe on every split after the hydraulic splitter had bottomed out and the splits were still stuck together.
The easiest to split is aspen, what it lacks in BTUs it makes up for in ease of splitting.
But my favorite hands down for processing is Black birch. Love the smell.


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