Never again

[dodge man]

Instead of rounds you can call them cookies.

 

[WinterDeere]

Instead of rounds you can call them cookies.

Cookies are short rounds.

 

[BnRidge]

I used to log professionally.
I wouldn’t think of cutting with anything but sharp.
I find noodling a giant pain.
What works better is to index the round on the edges with a chainsaw cut to hold a wedge. Make the cuts across from each other and insert the wedges then pound away.
Much faster than noodling.
I was just too stubborn today.
If I got this new fangled splitter designed to wack a round vertically, then by golly, that what it had to do
Also, my chainsaw is too small for this work. I could have used my 272 that was stolen years ago.

Been there. Sharp chain, check. Noodling a pain, takes forever. Stubborn, check. New splitter, make it work. I remember trying to split a large white oak round. Splitting white oak leaves stringy flakes that still hold together, so I split, rotated, split, again until the entire round was split into pie pcs, except the center was still holding it all together. Pfft. Chainsaw at the time was too small. Splitter at the time was too small. 32in rounds were annoying - productive, but tough to handle and time consuming.
Fast forward to now. Stihl 462, slices same rounds into halves or quarters in about a minute. Home built splitter with side lift, and extendable blade. The blade will raise up to cut the million nibs holding on. In the last several years here dozens of the older white oaks died from oak wilt. The splitter was made specifically to handle those large rounds. Without it - all those nibs holding everything together just made it frustrating.

 

[4570Man]

Been there. Sharp chain, check. Noodling a pain, takes forever. Stubborn, check. New splitter, make it work. I remember trying to split a large white oak round. Splitting white oak leaves stringy flakes that still hold together, so I split, rotated, split, again until the entire round was split into pie pcs, except the center was still holding it all together. Pfft. Chainsaw at the time was too small. Splitter at the time was too small. 32in rounds were annoying - productive, but tough to handle and time consuming.
Fast forward to now. Stihl 462, slices same rounds into halves or quarters in about a minute. Home built splitter with side lift, and extendable blade. The blade will raise up to cut the million nibs holding on. In the last several years here dozens of the older white oaks died from oak wilt. The splitter was made specifically to handle those large rounds. Without it - all those nibs holding everything together just made it frustrating.

Even if I’m loading them whole and not noodling them all the way I like to put a saw cut in the opposite side as the splitter. They pretty much always crack all the way in half the first time that way instead of having to rotate it around and splitting it again. This one has a saw cut in it.

 

[arrow]

Cookies are short rounds.

View attachment 4189536

Isn’t it funny how a 16” round cut from say a 12” stem seems so much longer than a 16” round cut from a 34” stem.
They do look like cookies in one instance and rounds in another

 

[arrow]

Been there. Sharp chain, check. Noodling a pain, takes forever. Stubborn, check. New splitter, make it work. I remember trying to split a large white oak round. Splitting white oak leaves stringy flakes that still hold together, so I split, rotated, split, again until the entire round was split into pie pcs, except the center was still holding it all together. Pfft. Chainsaw at the time was too small. Splitter at the time was too small. 32in rounds were annoying - productive, but tough to handle and time consuming.
Fast forward to now. Stihl 462, slices same rounds into halves or quarters in about a minute. Home built splitter with side lift, and extendable blade. The blade will raise up to cut the million nibs holding on. In the last several years here dozens of the older white oaks died from oak wilt. The splitter was made specifically to handle those large rounds. Without it - all those nibs holding everything together just made it frustrating.

A 70cc or over saw makes all the difference.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Arrow, maybe you could fasten a rough platform or piece of plywood on the end of your forks to make moving the big blocks around and positioning them on the vertical splitter shoe easier. Sort of like this..

gg

 

[arrow]

Arrow, maybe you could fasten a rough platform or piece of plywood on the end of your forks to make moving the big blocks around and positioning them on the vertical splitter shoe easier. Sort of like this..

View attachment 4193260


gg

Good idea Gordon
Will try it
Thanks for the tip as I have 8 more “cookies” this size to deal with.

 

[Lena]

Been cutting wood for 60 years.
I tried something new today.
Had a load of stems delivered and the driver asked if he could bring me a 40” wide stem, 15’ long and tapering to 32”. I said “sure” since I got this new Champion vert/*** splitter.
So I take to it with my 20” bar and my tried and true Husky 257 and 3 cuts into this thing and I’m out of fuel. Now I have these 3 cookies averaging 36” wide and 16” long and they weigh at least 250 lbs per.
I try to stand them on end so I can roll them to the splitter and have to use a 4’ peavy to get them up.
I get them to the splitter and push them up the splitter foot w the tractor.
The 27 ton splitter easily splits this wood but to wrangle the splits is back breaking.
4 hrs later including bringing these splits to the woodshed to be stacked, I got the stem half done.
Yes it produces a lot of wood but it’s way too much work so, I won’t be doing that again.

I made a crane with a winch on it to lift the chunks of wood up on the splitter. Too old to wrestle chunks around on the ground to get them into the splitter stand up position anymore.

 

[homey53]

A sharp saw would go a long way toward making your day easier. And you can noodle them into 1/4s pretty easily which makes getting them in the splitter a lot easier.

Noodling? Never heard that term in processing firewood?

 

[TIMMYDUCK]

Been feeding wood stoves for over 5 decades.

I love the big rounds and the yields they produce.

 

[JimR]

Been cutting wood for 60 years.
I tried something new today.
Had a load of stems delivered and the driver asked if he could bring me a 40” wide stem, 15’ long and tapering to 32”. I said “sure” since I got this new Champion vert/*** splitter.
So I take to it with my 20” bar and my tried and true Husky 257 and 3 cuts into this thing and I’m out of fuel. Now I have these 3 cookies averaging 36” wide and 16” long and they weigh at least 250 lbs per.
I try to stand them on end so I can roll them to the splitter and have to use a 4’ peavy to get them up.
I get them to the splitter and push them up the splitter foot w the tractor.
The 27 ton splitter easily splits this wood but to wrangle the splits is back breaking.
4 hrs later including bringing these splits to the woodshed to be stacked, I got the stem half done.
Yes it produces a lot of wood but it’s way too much work so, I won’t be doing that again.

You should have quartered them with your chainsaw to make them much more manageable to move around. It saves your back from a lot of undo stress.

 

[Rick Sladewski]

Been cutting wood for 60 years.
I tried something new today.
Had a load of stems delivered and the driver asked if he could bring me a 40” wide stem, 15’ long and tapering to 32”. I said “sure” since I got this new Champion vert/*** splitter.
So I take to it with my 20” bar and my tried and true Husky 257 and 3 cuts into this thing and I’m out of fuel. Now I have these 3 cookies averaging 36” wide and 16” long and they weigh at least 250 lbs per.
I try to stand them on end so I can roll them to the splitter and have to use a 4’ peavy to get them up.
I get them to the splitter and push them up the splitter foot w the tractor.
The 27 ton splitter easily splits this wood but to wrangle the splits is back breaking.
4 hrs later including bringing these splits to the woodshed to be stacked, I got the stem half done.
Yes it produces a lot of wood but it’s way too much work so, I won’t be doing that again.

I use my bucket to gently set the big stuff on the splinter. Either vert or ***. I am to old to pick up that much. Work smarter not dumber

 

[walnutman]

Cookies are short rounds.

View attachment 4189536

And stems LOL. In the US a stem is a stick. We call the big stuff logs.
The different terms among countries is interesting.

 

[RB5]

Been cutting wood for 60 years.
I tried something new today.
Had a load of stems delivered and the driver asked if he could bring me a 40” wide stem, 15’ long and tapering to 32”. I said “sure” since I got this new Champion vert/*** splitter.
So I take to it with my 20” bar and my tried and true Husky 257 and 3 cuts into this thing and I’m out of fuel. Now I have these 3 cookies averaging 36” wide and 16” long and they weigh at least 250 lbs per.
I try to stand them on end so I can roll them to the splitter and have to use a 4’ peavy to get them up.
I get them to the splitter and push them up the splitter foot w the tractor.
The 27 ton splitter easily splits this wood but to wrangle the splits is back breaking.
4 hrs later including bringing these splits to the woodshed to be stacked, I got the stem half done.
Yes it produces a lot of wood but it’s way too much work so, I won’t be doing that again.

This is exactly why I usually cut smaller trees that are manageable. Any trunks that size should probably go to the mill if there is one close enough. I have some old oaks that are more than 4 or 5' across. I would not try to cut those on my own with the equipment I have. I learned the hard way when I was cutting firewood to sell as a teen that I didn't want to deal with the bigger logs.

 

[walnutman]

My back has paid the price.

 

[charlessenf]

"Much faster than noodling."

What is 'noodling?'

"I could have used my 272 that was stolen years ago."

Right, but even if you could find him after all this time, what makes you think he would lend it to you?

 

[WinterDeere]

What is 'noodling?'

Cutting with the grain. Saw will spit out long streams of linguini-like "noodles". It's an extremely fast way to halve or quarter a round, many times faster than traditional rip cutting.

 

[charlessenf]

Mama said "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach," and while you ain't eatin' logs . . .

Geeze she was smart as a whip - and never logged a tree in her 91 years.

 

[charlessenf]

Cutting with the grain. Saw will spit out long streams of linguini-like "noodles". It's an extremely fast way to halve or quarter a round, many times faster than traditional rip cutting.

Thank you - I've done it! But just called it ripping. And on much smaller 'stems' (that I've always called logs - but I get the logic).

We've heated with our own logs for twenty some years now and I still don't know what what I've been doing's called!

Imagine that!