logs like rubber

Heg

TreeHouser
Joined
Jun 2, 2014
Messages
54
Location
Oregon
I cut down a dead oak and bucked it up. All the logs split fine with my Fiskars splitting axe, except for the 2 logs that were closest to the base/stump. My axe bounces out like the log is made of rubber. Hoping someone can enlighten me what causes this. Thanks
 
Screwy grain going into the stump, couple with larger rounds to split.

"Noodle" cut into workable sized pieces for a bonfire. Hydraulic splitters have the toughest time with stump wood, and crotches, like an ax/ maul does.
 
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Must be an Oak thing, as I have never experienced this with Doug Fir. Then again I don't have much experience...10 trees maybe. And Sean what is a noodle cut?
 
Not cross-cut, not rip-cut, ...the other orientation of bar and chain to the wood. It would be parellel to the pith/ center of rings, resulting in long, stringy, noodly saw chips. This will easily start to clog your clutch cover, if you keep the powerhead up tight to the wood. A more distance from powerhead to the 'round' of wood allows some noodles to fall clear away before wanting to get under the clutch cover.

Noodling is much faster than ripping with a normal cross-cut sharpened chain.




More butt flare in an oak? MIGHT be the nature of some oaks, too, but I don't know. Like how elm has that reversing grain that makes it hard to split and durable in some tool applications such as a wooden axle or hub, IF I recall correctly.
 
More moisture, more minerals and lateral grain from the root flair. It's also harder on chains!
 
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Apparently the embed video tags don't work.
 
The compressive forces coupled with the multi directional forces applied to the near or at fulcrum / base of tree to stimulate wood cell growth in the form of compressed and tension wood cells.
 
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The compressive forces coupled with the multi directional forces applied to the near or at fulcrum / base of tree to stimulate wood cell growth in the form of compressed and tension wood cells.

Every once in a while some things are difficult to find an answer via google, which is why I started this thread. And the Treehouse came through....lots of great answers. Now if anyone ever asks 'whoa, why did your axe bounce out like that', I can actually sound smart.

To derail my own thread, who wears safety glasses when splitting wood? After getting hit in the face with a chunk, I always do now. I've read youtube comments from people claiming chunks piercing to the bone.
 
I know some people enjoy splitting wood, sort of primeval I guess.
But a petrol splitter can be had for peanuts. I'll never split by hand, done too much of that to get romantic about it.
 
One reason we make the low stumps when felling beech, is that we need the root flare on the log to keep it from splitting.
Beech veneer is peeled, so veneer grade logs that split, are no longer veneer grade= big money loss.
 
I only wear eye pro where I think I might get injuried, like looking under the truck at a mechanical repair, walking amongst brush and branches, chipping, cutting.

You're eyeball is about as poke resistant as a grape, I've been told.

I know one-eye Guy, and one-eye Bob. Everyone one else, like no-hand Stan has both eyes. All work-related accidents.
 
I was angle grinding sone rusty bolts from under the hopper of the chipper the other day, like a good boy I wore googles.
Unfortunately a red hot piece of metal found its way into my ear! Muppet!
 
Mick, I used to have a pair of ol school woven wire ear muffs for just that reason. Hot stuff in the ear sux.
 
I have a scar on my forearm from the old days of splitting wood using a steel wedge. I suppose the wedge had some mushrooming on it, and a glancing blow from the sledge shot back a piece that put a slit in my arm. I saw the red streak come back. I wouldn't have thought a piece could get red hot from that. Lucky, it could just have easily hit my eye.
 
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