Why does it split like this???

[Cattle Feeder]

I split some Walnut, Oak, and Ash today. The walnut and ash were cut down five days ago. Don't know if it matters but since then it has gotten into the teens at night. Cut up the Oak yesterday, and it probably only got down to 25 or so last night.
When I split the wood today, the Walnut split awesome, the Ash and the Oak were both kinda stringy when I split them.
Why was this the case????

Thanks for the replies, long time reader...first time poster.

 

[chinkapin_oak]

walnut is super-easy to split green or dry. Ash and oak and a little stringy when green, but if you let the rounds sit a couple years, they will just pop right open.

 

[joshlaugh]

I think it depends on the species of tree and how that tree grows. We all know that elm is extremely difficult to split and is very stringy. I find that ash is very straight grained wood and is about as easy to split as it comes. Where I am in Ohio, I usually get white and green ash and both are a dream to split by hand. And with so many different species of oak, I am sure that some are more stringy than others based on how they grow and where they grow.

 

[golfandwoodnut]

Actually I find most Oak to split easy, especially when fresh cut. Never split Walnut.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Ash and oak are pretty easy to rive and split. Was the grain in your trees straight or twisted? Sometimes a tree will grow odd for some reason.

Matt

 

[CountryBoy19]

Walnut will split if you look at it the wrong way (or the right way, depending on the outcome you want).

Ash and Oak, not so... sometimes they split pretty easy, and others they don't...

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum Cattle Feeder.


I've never found any of those difficult to split. Especially ash as that is about the easiest wood to split there is. Using the hydraulic splitter, most times it is a case of just touching the ram on the wood and it splits. That makes splitting go really fast. I also recall one winter with an injured back I would go out and sit on one log and with sledge and wedge, just tap the sledge (couldn't stand the jar if I swung the maul) and the ash would split apart. Walnut splits about the same. Oak is also a dream to split and I've split lots of it using only an axe.

 

[Cattle Feeder]

I think maybe the Oak being stringy is a result of the way the tree was growing. The Ash wasn't that bad but just kinda surprised me a little bit as to its stringiness.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Dune]

Red oak wants to split. White oak is a little harder. Not familiar with any other types of oak.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Depends on the type of ash. White ash generally splits very easy. Texas and green- may be stringier. Black is easy I think. There are others.

 

[gregp553]

Split one each last year - red oak, white oak and ash. The oaks were living and hanging way over the house so they had to come down. Split very easy with a Fiskars. Standing dead ash split almost as easy as the oaks. I'm a fan of a Fiskars. Not a fan of elm.

 

[Wood Duck]

All three of those are usually fairly easy to split, with White Oak maybe a little less easy and generally stringier than the others, but any in all types of trees there is a range of ease of splitting. Some White Oak split pretty well with few strings, but I have found a few White Oak, or at least parts of a few White Oak trees, that were pretty stringy. I haven't split a lot of Ash. Black Walnut can be very easy to split but some of the ones around here are knotty and harder to split.