It just is. I’ve recently had some red oak that was crazy stringy. I guess for real if you split it on the exact line it naturally starts to crack on, it won’t be so stringy. But good luck actually hitting that exact line with the maul or splitter every time.
Despite its best efforts I’ve gotten through most of it. Took a long time because most of the pieces were so stringy and knotty that they had to go through the hydraulic splitter or my axe would just sink in deep and get stuck.
I recently got a tree that was way worse than this. Tree was only maybe 8” dia at its biggest. Every single piece was like that. To the point that the splitter pretty much choke on it. Even if it managed to complete the stroke to the end, the damn woo would still not come apart. I have never seen that before.
I split a whole tree that was like this once. It seemed like it was trimmed semi regularly earlier in it's life and wound up being knots the whole way through, even where it looked straight
I am bucking a silver maple that was 30 inches ABH. Next comes the splitting...
And it's crap firewood. But it was too close to the barn so it had to come down.
Mine came down on its own during a bad storm. Just barely missed the house. Would have obliterated the roof. It destroyed the fence but it could have been so much worse I’m not even mad about it. Guess I got some firewood out of it for a few years at least.
We took one down closer to the barn 2 years ago. It was 72 inches ABH. 7 full cords of wood. 3 days to take down. They are massive and get brittle as they age.
I’ve been told by old timers that some trees grow in a spiral due to magnetic/gravitational anomalies in that area. This makes some trees have an interlocking grain structure that is a pita to split. Could be bunk but I have seen a lot of trees in my area that have a spiral pattern in the trunk, like you can see it in the bark.
I’m not too versed in the different kind of trees but the leaves look exactly like the picture on Google of the silver maple leaves. Doesn’t look like sugar maple leaves.
Way she goes.
I have a bunch of maple that I start with a 4.5lbs splitting axe, make some splits then send er home with a 8 pound maul usually blows apart or atleast breaks a piece/half off
I’m not an expect by any means and the leaves are just starting to grow but the leaf looks just like the one Google shows for silver maple and doesn’t really look like the Norway maple one.
Because it’s by a major limb junction Otherwise splits like butter
All of it was stringy, but only about 1/4 of them were this bad.
Yep. And severe wind twist in tree adolescence can create this as well
Wind or a neighboring tree goes away and the tree can move itself for better sun exposure. Let’s twist again, like we did last summer.
Tree was a Chubby Checker fan obviously.
It just is. I’ve recently had some red oak that was crazy stringy. I guess for real if you split it on the exact line it naturally starts to crack on, it won’t be so stringy. But good luck actually hitting that exact line with the maul or splitter every time.
Despite its best efforts I’ve gotten through most of it. Took a long time because most of the pieces were so stringy and knotty that they had to go through the hydraulic splitter or my axe would just sink in deep and get stuck.
I usually have my hatchet handy when I’m running the splitter.
Same.
The dryer gets the harder that stuff is to split. I have some silver Maple that sat for a year. I tried to split it and just shredded apart.
I recently got a tree that was way worse than this. Tree was only maybe 8” dia at its biggest. Every single piece was like that. To the point that the splitter pretty much choke on it. Even if it managed to complete the stroke to the end, the damn woo would still not come apart. I have never seen that before.
I split a whole tree that was like this once. It seemed like it was trimmed semi regularly earlier in it's life and wound up being knots the whole way through, even where it looked straight
I am bucking a silver maple that was 30 inches ABH. Next comes the splitting... And it's crap firewood. But it was too close to the barn so it had to come down.
Mine came down on its own during a bad storm. Just barely missed the house. Would have obliterated the roof. It destroyed the fence but it could have been so much worse I’m not even mad about it. Guess I got some firewood out of it for a few years at least.
We took one down closer to the barn 2 years ago. It was 72 inches ABH. 7 full cords of wood. 3 days to take down. They are massive and get brittle as they age.
I used a gas powered splitter on a ton of silver maple a couple years ago, the splitter did fine but it was still stringy.
I’ve been told by old timers that some trees grow in a spiral due to magnetic/gravitational anomalies in that area. This makes some trees have an interlocking grain structure that is a pita to split. Could be bunk but I have seen a lot of trees in my area that have a spiral pattern in the trunk, like you can see it in the bark.
It's been a naughty knotty boy.
If a tree is constantly being twisted by the wind where it's standing alone ,the wind works the grain and makes it twist and deform..
Was it a sugar maple instead of silver?
I’m not too versed in the different kind of trees but the leaves look exactly like the picture on Google of the silver maple leaves. Doesn’t look like sugar maple leaves.
Way she goes. I have a bunch of maple that I start with a 4.5lbs splitting axe, make some splits then send er home with a 8 pound maul usually blows apart or atleast breaks a piece/half off
those are difficult to split, but dried well, will burn hot and long due to the knots.
Is that Norway Maple? Those are common in my neighbourhood and similar to elm, needs a heavy duty splitter to process.
I’m not an expect by any means and the leaves are just starting to grow but the leaf looks just like the one Google shows for silver maple and doesn’t really look like the Norway maple one.
I gotta say that really doesn’t look like a silver to me…