Hasufel
Feeling the Heat
I'm very lucky in that I have lots of second-growth trees around me with long, straight, almost knot-free stretches of trunk. I've been splitting a lot of red oak, maple, tulip poplar, and hickory this winter and I'd rank their ease of splitting (for similarly-sized rounds) in that order with oak being the easiest. For whatever reason I just haven't had that much success with poplar for pretty much the whole 20 years I've lived here. But I completely agree that it's easier to move & stack, I definitely see your point about that.You must be having some weird splitting experiences between this and other posts you've done. Poplar is super easy to split. I would tie it nearly with the oaks. The difference is, oaks tend to be a bit more knotty than Tulip Poplar. In addition, it is so light that moving and stacking it are significantly easier. For me, it's so easy to fell and process and puts so little wear on me and my tools, that the quicker burn times are a fine trade off.