# Ok...Will the hard maple split as easy as the soft?



## Bacffin (Nov 15, 2012)

Well, all the soft/fast drying wood from the grapple load is split.  Will the hard maples split like the soft ones?  Just curious.

Thanks,
Bruce


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## bogydave (Nov 15, 2012)

Green hard maple is easier than partially dry.
But the wood grain will vary. 
Hard maple is usually more difficult though. Tougher wood.


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## Nixon (Nov 15, 2012)

I doubt that Your splitter will even notice the difference . But , I'll bet You do when You burn it !


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## Boom Stick (Nov 15, 2012)

I have a pile of hard maple that has been around for some months......bucked it and went after it with my fiskars.......My fiskars bounced off it like rubber.....multiple pieces of it.....put it aside for the splitter.  Didn't get any of it split by hand.  On the other hand, I got 5 loads of freshly bucked red oak last weekend.....Have been hand splitting for like a half hour a night.....pops apart with minimal effort.  Beautiful.  Could not be any easier.....Any piece with a branch or crook gets put aside for the splitter.


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## Dune (Nov 15, 2012)

Boom Stick said:


> I have a pile of hard maple that has been around for some months......bucked it and went after it with my fiskars.......My fiskars bounced off it like rubber.....multiple pieces of it.....put it aside for the splitter. Didn't get any of it split by hand. On the other hand, I got 5 loads of freshly bucked red oak last weekend.....Have been hand splitting for like a half hour a night.....pops apart with minimal effort. Beautiful. Could not be any easier.....Any piece with a branch or crook gets put aside for the splitter.


 
Red oak is the bomb for hand splitting. Fortunately for me, red oak is 90% of what I scrounge. ( I greatly prefer hand splitting).


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## Boom Stick (Nov 15, 2012)

Dune said:


> Red oak is the bomb for hand splitting. Fortunately for me, red oak is 90% of what I scrounge. ( I greatly prefer hand splitting).


Me too, I enjoy it much more than the splitter but am glad I have it for the uglies.....If it needs a wedge and sledge it gets tossed in the splitter pile.  Would be a waste to use it on red oak.....simpler to bust it up with a splitting axe.


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## red oak (Nov 15, 2012)

I haven't found any wood easier to split than red oak.  Love the feel, and smell, of splitting it by hand.  Maple is a bit tougher, but I do that by hand also.  I notice a difference but I agree that the splitter will not.


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## ikessky (Nov 16, 2012)

red oak said:


> I haven't found any wood easier to split than red oak. Love the feel, and smell, of splitting it by hand. Maple is a bit tougher, but I do that by hand also. I notice a difference but I agree that the splitter will not.


 Butternut.  Most of the butternut that ran through my splitter this year popped apart when it got an inch deep on the wedge.


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## nrford (Nov 16, 2012)

ikessky said:


> Butternut. Most of the butternut that ran through my splitter this year popped apart when it got an inch deep on the wedge.


 
Most "gofer" wood splits easy!


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## ikessky (Nov 16, 2012)

nrford said:


> Most "gofer" wood splits easy!


 Correct, but as long as my father-in-law keeps bringing me forwarder loads of wood, I'm not going to complain about what's in them.


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## Brewmonster (Nov 16, 2012)

"Gofer wood"? You mean like the stuff Noah built the Ark with?
I know butternut is really soft and light, but I never heard it called that before.


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## ikessky (Nov 16, 2012)

Brewmonster said:


> "Gofer wood"? You mean like the stuff Noah built the Ark with?
> I know butternut is really soft and light, but I never heard it called that before.


 "Gofer", as in "Throw in a piece and GOFER another!"  A little wood burning humor!


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## Brewmonster (Nov 16, 2012)

Got it!


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## Backwoods Savage (Nov 16, 2012)

It is difficult to find much that would split easier than soft maple but hard maple is not what one would call difficult either.


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## Backwoods Savage (Nov 16, 2012)

red oak said:


> I haven't found any wood easier to split than red oak. Love the feel, and smell, of splitting it by hand. Maple is a bit tougher, but I do that by hand also. I notice a difference but I agree that the splitter will not.


 
Red oak does split nicely and is great firewood. But if you ever get hold of some good white ash or soft maple, then you will understand just how easy wood splitting can be. But if you can, stick with the oak as it is hard to beat for firewood.


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## Boom Stick (Nov 16, 2012)

gofer wood (poplar) has been keeping us in heat for a couple weeks now.........not bad stuff


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## Bacffin (Nov 17, 2012)

Okay, thanks everyone !


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## The Beagler (Nov 17, 2012)

If you get a nice straight piece of hard maple from the woods, it splits real easy.  If it comes from a yard where it grows kind of gnarly, it can be a pain.  Used to work in a cemetery & would split some of those big hard maples that were planted there years ago that fell after storms.  They were tough!


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