# Large Wood Rounds (Silver Maple) Splitting Vertical!!



## DexterDay (Jul 29, 2011)

Well... Seems of late, that all I can get my hands on is Silver Maple (Not complaining). There is a TON of this stuff around here. Buddy calls me up yesterday and says "Hey, wanna go get some wood?".. Absolutely I do. Left the house at 5:00 p.m...... 5 hrs of rolling 500 lb Rounds and I get home about 11:00 p.m.. Got up for work this morning at 4:15 a.m.... Ugh. Tired and Sore. 4 Guys to roll the Rounds up. Average was 40" across. Some bigger at the base. Many of the trunk piece's were really straight. Gonna split like a champ.. 


For those Naysayers of splitting vertical (I know Dennis (BackwoodSavage) has my back) try splitting BIG wood like this. Cant lift it... Any round about 24" in diameter and smaller can be lifted. Step up to 36" and larger and you will be laying them down too. Wish I would have took more pics. But it was back breaking work. Just wanted to get it done.

Last 2 pics are of my last load of Silver Maple.. Thought I would share.


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## Wood Heat Stoves (Jul 29, 2011)

Nice work! I'm not familiar with Silver Maple, we don't have it around here. Sounds like the trees get really big if you have 40" diameter rounds!


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## prairiefire (Jul 29, 2011)

my back hurts just lookin at those rounds :grrr: nice score!


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## thewoodlands (Jul 30, 2011)

DexterDay said:
			
		

> Well... Seems of late, that all I can get my hands on is Silver Maple (Not complaining). There is a TON of this stuff around here. Buddy calls me up yesterday and says "Hey, wanna go get some wood?".. Absolutely I do. Left the house at 5:00 p.m...... 5 hrs of rolling 500 lb Rounds and I get home about 11:00 p.m.. Got up for work this morning at 4:15 a.m.... Ugh. Tired and Sore. 4 Guys to roll the Rounds up. Average was 40" across. Some bigger at the base. Many of the trunk piece's were really straight. Gonna split like a champ..
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> For those Naysayers of splitting vertical (I know Dennis (BackwoodSavage) has my back) try splitting BIG wood like this. Cant lift it... Any round about 24" in diameter and smaller can be lifted. Step up to 36" and larger and you will be laying them down too. Wish I would have took more pics. But it was back breaking work. Just wanted to get it done.
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DexterDay nice work on those huge rounds, should be some nice firewood.

zap


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## weatherguy (Jul 30, 2011)

Those big ones are making me sweat, I had some big oak rounds on a scrounge but they werent that big, those are huge. The other two loads look more manageable.


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## SolarAndWood (Jul 30, 2011)

Nice score.  The nice thing about Silver is that it isn't Sugar when you are working those big rounds into the trailer.  I'd still roll them onto my horizontal splitter though instead of sitting on a milk crate.


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## Woody Stover (Jul 30, 2011)

Wood Heat Stoves said:
			
		

> Nice work! I'm not familiar with Silver Maple, we don't have it around here.


Decent BTU, about 19M per cord.
Even splitting vertical, those rounds would be too big for me. I'd put a couple little saw grooves in the tops, then split 'em with wedges and a sledge.
I've always split vertical, but I just noticed some angle iron with bolt holes on the beam. Looks like mounting for a table. I may have to try this horizontal splitting, just to see what all the buzz is about. :lol:


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## Backwoods Savage (Jul 30, 2011)

Hey Dexter. Are you sure those rounds were 500 pounders? They are big for sure and you can only imagine what they would be like if they were oak! Seeing those on the trailer reminds me of when a neighbor became convinced to buy a hydraulic splitter when I took ours to his place to show him how it would split those huge white oaks he had. Dang, those were heavy buggers!

Having that ramp to roll them on is great but if you want to make it a whole lot easier now it will take a cant hook. You do not necessarily need a big one; even one with a 3' handle would save a lot of sweat and sore body. 

Oh, and the wood is still good burning wood. It will just burn a bit faster and hotter. Great for daytime burning and save the harder wood for nights. However, we've used that stuff for night burning too many times over the years and got by just fine.


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## Hiram Maxim (Jul 30, 2011)

Woody Stover said:
			
		

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It burns pretty damn hot. When it drys it sure is nice and light weight, but man that stuff sure seems heavy when first cut. 

If I tried to lift that into my splitter in the horizontal position, I think my shoulders would meet my hips.... :lol:


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## Woody Stover (Jul 31, 2011)

Hiram Maxim said:
			
		

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Now I'm thinking about grabbing some nearby storm-damaged Silver near here, that I had previously rejected. I'll see if it's still over there. It sounds like it would be some great starter wood, if I get annoyed with the messy Pine that I was going to use...


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## Hiram Maxim (Jul 31, 2011)

Woody Stover said:
			
		

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I split it 8"x 8" and if I were to do it again I'd go a little bigger. It seem to split real easy. Great shoulder season wood.


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## raybonz (Jul 31, 2011)

Woody Stover said:
			
		

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Yes it makes good firestarter and if split large decent firewood.. It dries fast and is pretty light once dry.. Pine works too but can be messy..

Ray


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## Duetech (Jul 31, 2011)

I have some boxelder that look to be a little bit smaller than those but not by much. Lotsof twisted growth. Vertical or a saw is the best sometimes.


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## DexterDay (Jul 31, 2011)

Hiram Maxim said:
			
		

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  It is drying pretty fast. I have almost 2-2.5 cord of this now. I burned some in a camp fire I had a couple weeks ago. Lit off really quick, burned for a descent amount of time,

X2 on Big Splits. 8" is a good split size. Some are bigger and some a little smaller. It aint Sugar Maple, but I will take it al.. I have the Fireplace that I cam burn less than desirable wood (Shorts and uglies)


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## Backwoods Savage (Jul 31, 2011)

btw, the soft maple is what we always use for kindling wood. You can make it with an axe or use the hydraulic splitter. I like using the hydraulic splitter and you can split a lot of it really fast. I posted one time on how I do this and there are pictures. Guess one could do a search to find that.

EDIT:  Here is the link. Link to making kindling

Just bear in mind that I used some old wood for these pictures because that is all I had of the soft maple at that time. So I had to split a bit larger than normal. I usually split about 1" square.


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## blades (Jul 31, 2011)

Nothing wrong with Silver Maple better than pine, Box Elder, Willow ect. Burn a lot of it. Keeps me warm and the utilities at bay.


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## DexterDay (Jul 31, 2011)

Backwoods Savage said:
			
		

> btw, the soft maple is what we always use for kindling wood. You can make it with an axe or use the hydraulic splitter. I like using the hydraulic splitter and you can split a lot of it really fast. I posted one time on how I do this and there are pictures. Guess one could do a search to find that.
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> EDIT:  Here is the link. Link to making kindling
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> Just bear in mind that I used some old wood for these pictures because that is all I had of the soft maple at that time. So I had to split a bit larger than normal. I usually split about 1" square.



You noted in the thread that it was Not Green wood. Does the Silver (Soft) Maple split easier Green or did I read that wrong. It was my understanding to split Rounds a while after they have been cut to length. I  will Definitely be making me some kindling this way. My buddy has a "Round" Firewood rack that (3'-4' in diameter) he is going to give me. I was going to use it for kindling. Figured that if I can fill that entire Round Rack with 1-2" kindling, that it should last a good while. I have enough Maple to make a fair amount. 

On a side note... I have been spending a lot of time on the couch.. My back hurts, right shoulder REALLY hurts (Torn both rotator cuffs and muscles and ligament's  from Dirt bike/ATV racing), and also my abdomen/groin area. Not a Hernia, and it only hurts really bad in the a.m. But I have learned my lesson with Big Wood. I will not do that again. Unless I have equipment, I will stick to my 24" and under. I like wood I can pick-up and handle. 

Dennis. I am not sure of the exact weight. The 500 lbs would be a good guess. There were mainly 4 of us (5 on 2 of them)(2 were Large Men/over 6ft 250 lbs) Just saying that each man could lift 125 lbs (Easily attainable) then with 4 men, we should have been able to physically "Lift" the 500 lb rounds with our hands. We did try on one that was 50" across and only 12" wide. Still was not happening.


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## blades (Jul 31, 2011)

That is what noodling is for unless you have motivation equipment. If I can't roll it to the back of the truck ( 500 lb lift on truck) or get with the skidder, then it is reduced via saw to manageable sizes. A lot of the stuff I scrounge is large pieces that others can not handle. The two 5ft at base tapering to 3ft trunks of Sugar maple last fall took a bit of doing but sure look nice all split and drying about 4-5 cords worth. Due to a lot of little trees stumps sticking up all over ( take the bottom out of the skid steer) and not wanting to tear up home owners yard all of it had to be hand walked out.   Parts of me give up  a lot easier now a days also and take forever to heal if at all.  Tools are my friends.


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## Backwoods Savage (Jul 31, 2011)

Dexter, I normally split green wood. The only reason I did that with the pictures was to show some folks how I make the kindling. That wood was verging on being punky so it did not split well when trying to split into 1" like I normally do.

And on the big rounds, I never try to lift those even with help. Rolling is the only way to go and, of course, splitting vertically; the natural way to split wood.


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