# Splitting frozen wood



## Pine Knot (Jan 12, 2010)

I spent a couple of hours this morning splitting wood. It's frozen of course and  it split easier than normal. It was Chestnut Oak and Red Oak. It split more cleanly with less strings holding the peices together, and poped apart with one swing of the maul.


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## rnlincourt (Jan 12, 2010)

I split some oak over the weekend and will be back at it this evening and look forward to it popping apart. 
lol Nothing like burying a maul and having to work to get it out! When it's frozen though it's all good!


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## ISeeDeadBTUs (Jan 12, 2010)

Ummm . . . frozen or not, your maul shouldn't stick in Oak . . . Wait!! You one of those guys using an axe to plit wood?? :sick:


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## rnlincourt (Jan 12, 2010)

haha funny- yeah ok I did first use an axe but smahtened up! 
how about wet oak?


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## gregp553 (Jan 12, 2010)

Not wet either.  Now, if the oak has a big knot, maybe you get stuck a little.


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## ISeeDeadBTUs (Jan 12, 2010)

I Made Fire! said:
			
		

> Not wet either.  Now, if the oak has a big knot, maybe you get stuck a little.



Do NOT attempt to split knots nor crotches. You'll wear yerself out, and they burn hot and hard so don't waste 'um.


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## Wood Duck (Jan 12, 2010)

I had some twisted-grain, knotty pieces f White Oak left over from this fall, and tried again to split them this week. They were frozen solid and I was able to split them this time. They didn't exactly pop apart, but i was able to split them after a few whack, whereas this summer I couldn't split them at all.


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## ChrisNJ (Jan 12, 2010)

I was splitting some frozen honey locust the other day np, but a single hit on a frozen green piece of white pine and the pine shattered like a block of ice :-O I will wait for it to thaw before I try the pine again as about 20 little pieces littered the driveway from the part I hit.


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## rnlincourt (Jan 13, 2010)

yeah I almost broke a window splitting a knot!


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## EatenByLimestone (Jan 13, 2010)

Tips and tricks with knots and stuff...   They won't split cleanly anyway.  Cut them into shorts and burn them in the shoulders. 

Matt


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## Battenkiller (Jan 13, 2010)

Just read somewhere that it's a myth that frozen wood splits easier.  They tested both methods and found no measurable difference.

Which has actually been my own experience....

..._not!_

Must have tested with a mechanical (slow and powerful) splitter.  But with a maul or axe (ya, I'm an axe man), frozen wood's the way to go.


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## myzamboni (Jan 13, 2010)

EatenByLimestone said:
			
		

> Tips and tricks with knots and stuff...   They won't split cleanly anyway.  Cut them into shorts and burn them in the shoulders.
> 
> Matt



If I encounter a tough knot,  I put the round or split on its side and hit the center of the know with my Fiskars.  It works.


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## savageactor7 (Jan 13, 2010)

I was out the last couple 3 days processing standing dead. All split real easy because they were frozen but I'm just doing the easy takes...8" diameter and smaller, no elm that I could ID anyway bark was off.


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