Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire First third of the two maple trees cut split and stacked

Now taking a break to enjoy some of this epic April Fools day weather.

Wettest-Winter-On-Record Pale Legs to go with the Pale Ale.

A non-Oregon beer? It must be April Fool's Day

Costco. Left over from a party. Ran out of Ten Barrel Joe's and it's 20 minutes to town.

In that case, it's not so bad. Tried the 10-barrel "Riding Solo" yet? Darn good beer. I've been splitting what's left of a 74-year old Fir tree we took down in the back yard. Should be enough firewood for the next few years.

No, I haven't. Did a quick search and it sounds really good. Have to try and find some on my next trip to Freddy's.

It's worth a six-pack to try out. How's the chainsaw working out for you? I've been reading over chainsaw threads trying to decide what to buy for working in the two acres of woodland we've got.

Worked out awesome. Never hesitated. Got a few other trees coming down for a pole barn later (to the left of my feet in the pict), so It's gonna get a work out.

I have only had one 10-barrel but I thought it was plenty good enough to try again.

Thinking of a way to turn this into a chainsaw thread.....

I heard Ted Cruz likes Poulan and Bernie Sanders uses an old Homelite. What say the Campfire??

Who wants to start a collection to buy Steve a tanning booth??

Trump-Saw!

Maple, huh? I got hold of a truckful of maple once and it was hard to split.
Are you using a maul or a gasoline powered splitter.

Maple has a pretty good firewood value, not as good as oak but better than pine.

Big Leaf Maple. Six pound splitting maul. It's splitting pretty easy.

10 Barrel makes some pretty good beer. Kinda a bummer they are now an In Bev/Bud brand.

Fuggin great weather the last few days! Lawn might even dry enough to mow!

As long as the grain is straight and you have a good maul, and are not a pansy, it'll split. A pair of steel wedges and a 6 or 8lb maul will handle the rest. Just pile it up and hit it for a half-hr or so daily and you can skip the gym.

The Joe is a great one.... hoppy as hell, in a very good way. If you like the Joe try Lauralwood Workhorse IPA, which as a added bonus is available at BiMart for under $8 every day...

Congrats on the maple! Good stuff. I'm a maul guy too. After 25 years I don't even get sore from splitting wood. The body just adjusts to what you ask of it I guess. When I was younger it used to kick my ass!

I've actually got my 2017 wood in the shed already... 4 cords. A big windfall fir and a big cottonwood I cut down are the bulk of it. Also some mixed understory hardwoods, about a cord of that... small enough it doesn't even need splitting. Rack it and cut it up.

That's what I've been doing.

What are the 2 white stumps next to the beer bottle?

I have a Monster Maul. Twelve pound head and all-steel. This maul is a bad ass.
Still, that maple gave me hell and I never have messed with maple again.
I burn lots of wood, I have a fireplace and a wood stove.
Burn lots and lots of black walnut, as well as oak and locust.

Maybe there are different species of maple and yours is easier to split.
Either that, or I am a wimp.

I've used several mauls, ranging in weight and a few with extra "features" cast into the head, little sub-wedges and flappers and such...and also Fiberglas handles.... I much prefer a relatively light, plain head on a good well mounted hickory handle. Think "club speed".... and decisiveness. A good clean high-velocity stroke, that you believe in, more than the round believes in itself.... gits 'er done. Except when it doesn't <g>. Then the wedges come out. I've even had a few gnarly white oak rounds or the like that finally "won".... I simply couldn't split them. Those I section up with the saw.

Saw for 6 acres- 20" Husqvarna. Perfect. Great tools.

The fir that went down... don't really care about THAT but the root wad coming up knocked a smaller pine onto my shop and screwed up the roof pretty good. Will burn great, the fir I mean. The pine is trash.



The cottonwood with my 24" Husky. These things carry major water in their cells; very heavy wood when green. Would've crushed my shop, and they are notoriously brittle trees.... time to go. Should've dropped it a decade ago but I like the sparkle of the leaves in the summer, and the sound they make in a breeze... unique among my hardwoods.



A load of pecker-pole understory hardwoods. I have come to appreciate this wood very much as firewood. And I have more now, than I started with 25 years ago!



Pecker poles in my cutting rack. I load way more than that into before cutting. It's not a perfect process- the smaller poles in particular can be a problem as they get shorter.



Love me some wood heat! Go Ducks!!