Anyone enjoy whittling?

[oliver1850]

You are welcome to help, this tree is giving me the Deep Ellem Blues. It's a Slippery Elm, known locally as a Red Elm. Twin trunked from about 12' above the ground, which makes for a really gnarly hard to split main trunk. Firewood truly does warm you twice.

[choke]

I made the mistake of using an elm for firewood one time. Never again. That was the toughest wood to both cut and split I've ever dealt with - it made hedge seem soft. It had been blown over by a storm or I wouldn't have touched it.

Good luck and have fun. :)

[Peter B]

You've illustrated the reason I always borrow the hydraulic splitter this time of year. And the wood still warms me twice.

Gotta go haul an armload now and get the fire going.

[oliver1850]

I burn a lot of both elm and hedge (osage orange). Love it when the neighbors pull a hedge post fenceline, but they are getting scarce these days. This is just a particularly tough elm.


I have a hydraulic splitter, but I can't lift the chunks. Need to build a platform with a conveyor up to it.

[hillzofvalp]

No. No. no.

[thinpin]

Chainsaw? then a heavy splitter. That tool looks more like an axe than a splitter.

[oliver1850]

It's an 8 lb splitting maul, the best thing I've ever used for tough splitting. Those heavy triangular head splitters just bounce off elm. But on this tree I have to use the wedge on every piece.