Splitting wood

I find it best to split after it has been down a while, as the wood dries out it will crack and then you can follow the cracks to make less work for the person splitting. If you have a hydraulic splitter you can do it any time.
Zach
 
When I split by hand I like to do it right away, when the ends start to dry it seems like the maul sticks worse. If your going to burn it this winter you better do it right away, not much drying weather left.
 
If I didn't need it this winter I would wait till it is froze. I have better results splitting frozen wood by hand.
 
As a former resident of Puyallup, and a woods burner, maple is almost impossible to split dry by hand, also wood splits best from the bottom' up, Jim
 
What kind of maple, soft, hard, straight grain or gnarly twisted grain ?

Soft will split fresh, I've done a variety of the maple we have here and if its bucked, and checks, you can use those cracks to split it, even if a few weeks have passed the cracks will be prominent enough to use, I often times align those with the wedge on the splitter and it always works better, more so with elm. I've always thought if the wood is bucked into length, that when it dries down the checking is in your favor, but with so many variables it is hard to say for sure.
 
Dad always made us boys split wood when it was 0° or below. Any moisture in it would freeze and he said it split easier then. Splitting wood kept you warm no matter how cold it got.
You probably don't get those cold of temps though.
 
We virtually never get temps down into the single digit or lower range. In fact, the weather here in the Pacific NW is wonderful---rarely too hot, rarely too cold. If the unrelenting drizzle and grey skies for upwards of six months a year don't drive you to alcoholism or suicide, it's great.

Stan
 
Two weeks ago I was hoping to trade the wood for some landscaping. I'm sorry my friend didn't go for it. It's mostly a waste of my time to have to haul and buck and split and stack it, but I'm too tight-fisted to be completely reasonable about it. It'll be fine as long as I value my time at less than minimum wage, and don't get hurt doing it.

Stan
 
A maple fell in my yard in hurricane Sandy. I did not cut it up until this year. So it is fairly dry . Ax is just boucing off. I'd say I missed the window on that. Good news is I have seven wedges. Bad news two of them are already stuck in other logs.
 
Why not just rent a wood splitter for a few days? In the days before wood splitters we ripped the blocks part way through with a chain saw then split them with a go-devil.
 
(reply to post at 14:59:04 09/04/14)
s other posters mentioned, Wood splits the easiest when it is froze solid.
Don't know about maple though, we don't have that around my parts.
 
The little bit of maple that I've split was done with a splitter, so I can't help you much.
My part of the Pacific Northwest is a little different than yours. We had -7 for a low last winter, and a high of 109 this summer.
 
I guess I should have specified the Puget Sound region rather than including the whole Pacific Northwest. I never really thought about what counts as the Pacific NW. If it includes Washington and Oregon east of the Cascades, then that's totally different weather. Where are you?

Stan
 

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