Good for you! I just split up an elm tree I took down on Wednesday and even with the splitter it was a bi*ch!
I attempted to split by hand once some Elm that my brother cut . Notice I said attempted haha. That was the only real reason I didn't think this was Elm. Where in the Catskills are you?
Being dead and the bark fallen off makes a world of difference. We just won't cut elm until it is at that point. It can usually be split with a splitting maul if you don't have hydraulics.