splitting wood

[fenderjaguar]

hi.

does anyone know or have seen an online guide for splitting wood for fencing rails and posts? i cut down this dead coniferous tree yesterday. and i was able to split it easily using 2 small stakes (or chisels, whatever), a large axe and a sledge hammer. today i cut down a live birch tree. i had a hell of a time trying to split it. the split kept veering off to one side and everything. do you have to wait for it to dry out? i really am learning from mister nobody here...

 

[andyn]

I think it is more to do with the fibres, so different species will behave differently. I think most pines are easy split when they are dry, compared to say oak which is a pain in the backside to split once dry and best to split into rounds when green and left to dry out.

I've not had that much experience with splitting up many types of wood, but I think Birch is another of those woods that is best split when seasoned as the fibres have "let go" of one another as certainly for cutting up for firewood - I have found it less work when it is dried out nicely. I'm sure there is a table out there that will tell you the ideal time to do different types but i'm not aware of one - would be interested to see one if anyone does know of one though.

 

[British Red]

For precision shaping for rails etc. you are best to use a froe. Its a bit hard to explain, perhaps Eric is the best to explain it, but imagine a long knife blade with a handle at 90 degrees - by "levering" and twisting you can control the run of the split. Power splitting for firewood is different - use a maul, splitting wedges and a wood grenade. You certainly can slit and shape green wood, but I'd be worried about using green wood in a post and rail as it may well warp and split as it dries.

Red

 

[fenderjaguar]

thanks guys. the froe looks like a good idea. the coniferous tree from the other day never wavered from the original grain of where i had started. this obviously gave me the illusion that splitting wood would be much easier than it really is. there's some oak down in the valley too. i'll try one of those. and i'll let the birch tree dry out some. thanks

 

[bambodoggy]

Birch can be a bit of a pain to split neatly....chances are that's why you had a hard time and not because of anything you did.

Also, birch doesn't last amazingly well outside unless very well treated....and even then it's not great.

Now if you can get hold of some chestnut....that splits like a dream and due to it's high tannin content rotts very slowly and so has a great history of being used for fencing.

Hope that helps,

Bam.

 

[bent-stick]

If you are looking for a froe I can recommend the Ray Iles one from here:

http://www.woodlandcraftsupplies.co.uk/

Just a satisfied customer etc...

 

[Exbomz]

Hi

My knowledge came initially from this book - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Green-Woodw...5993516?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177003523&sr=8-1 - and now lots of experience.

Try and keep even amounts of wood on either side of the wedge. So if starting the first split, do it right across the middle (through the pith) so when done, the two halves will be equal size. Same if you want to split each half down again.

Uneven amounts of wood will cause the crack to run off - that is where a froe would come in as you can use that to direct the split but if it is just for fence posts, quarters (depending on the size of the tree) will be OK and can be done with wedges. I confess I have not tried birch but every other species I have tried, it works.

If you want to trim something down, perhaps to square up the sides, you can use the wedges, knowing that the split will run off, but if done from either end, they may meet in the middle or only leave a slightly thicker middle.

I hope that helps.

 

[lupus]

birch is not realy any good for spliting down to be used outside.the best woods are chestnut and oak,i have made thousands of chestnut stakes,best split when still green i use an old axe ,sledghammer and two metal wedges.dont use the bottom of the tree as the grain runs out to the edge,make sure the axe is dead center when you start the split.you can use a froe but you need a frame or something to leaver against to direct the split.

 

[Eric_Methven]

A froe is the best way to split wood for fence rails, bow staves and the like. But it's only part of the equation. To help leverage with the froe you ned to make a cleaving brake. This helps you jam the wood between two offset poles so you can get maximum pressure on the froe to force the split.

Here's some photos from a course a couple of years ago. Paula is the one doing the splitting here. You can see poles in the background that have already been split.

Paula using the froe to split section of a log. It starts off as a whole log, then it's split in half, then again in quarters, then down to eighths, then, if the log was large enough, down to sixteenths.

Here she's checking to see which way the split is running.

Here she's stopping the split from running out to one side by turning it over and applying pressure to the thick part so the split runs back into the middle again.

Here she is really chuffed that the split ran neatly down the whole log.

These rails were made from ash wood and were for making a cleft ash gate.

Hope this info is of some use.

Eric

 

[twisted firestarter]

you can make a froe from a car leaf spring by cutting off one end and sharpening the long edge. Then find a suitable length wooden pole and whittle the end until it only just fits the leaf spring hole. Bash it on firmly with a wooden mallet and off you go.

 

[Exbomz]

Before you go making cleaving breaks and froes, just for two trees, remember, you can achieve your aim with wedges.

 

[pierre girard]

hi.

does anyone know or have seen an online guide for splitting wood for fencing rails and posts? i cut down this dead coniferous tree yesterday. and i was able to split it easily using 2 small stakes (or chisels, whatever), a large axe and a sledge hammer. today i cut down a live birch tree. i had a hell of a time trying to split it. the split kept veering off to one side and everything. do you have to wait for it to dry out? i really am learning from mister nobody here...

Birch always do this. Even when splitting fire wood (I would never try to do a rail out of birch) you have to hit the birch piece dead center - or it will split off to the side.

Locally, rails are split from cedar, hackamatack, or ash. Pine works - but doesn't last. Oak works and lasts but is worth much more as a saw log. Hackamatack (tamerack or larch) lasts longer than anything else, but has terrible splinters. I use gloves with hackamatack.

I've split thousands of shingles with a froe. The first house I built had hand split wood shingles on the walls (2 1/2 stories) and the roof. I've never used a froe for rails. For a rail, I use wedges, but the sticks I've split into rails were much larger (usually about 12 to 16 inch thick) than those shown in the photos above.

 

[fenderjaguar]

wow thanks for all the replies, folks!

i did try it with some oak today. and i had reasonable success even with my axe, stakes and sledge hammer. i'm looking out for a froe too. there probably is some chestnut in the valley (that's the stuff you get conkers off, right?). but i doubt there is very much of it. it's mainly birch and oak.

i thing i can't understand, is why birch is so different to oak? i thought they were pretty much the same family...

thanks again

 

[leon-b]

there probably is some chestnut in the valley (that's the stuff you get conkers off, right?

there is two types of chestnut
horse chestnut - the one with conkers on, not sure if it lasts or not
sweet chestnut - has a high tannin level so rots slowly

leon

 

[Ogri the trog]

sweet chestnut - has a high tannin level so rots slowly

leon

Some Google images of Sweet Chestnut,

and....
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Chestnut048.jpg

Hmmm tried doing the hyperlink thingy but I'm not too Au fait with it....

Ogri the trog

 

[fenderjaguar]

ah right, i get it now. heh, there's actually a sweet chestnut in my back garden, but that's got a preservation order on it