Personally, I think Ash is one of the easiest to split. It is also one of the fastest drying. It is also weighing less than oak which makes it easier to handle throughout the whole process. Perhaps the difficulty in splitting comes from where you get the tree? A tree that comes from the forest grows straight with less branches and twisted wood. A tree that comes from the open like a city, will be shorter and have more branches/twisted wood.
Ok, so it's easier on the guy selling firewood because it's lighter and cuts easier than oak, but won't burn nearly as long. The heavier the piece when seasoned the longer the burn. There's always a trade-off, just be sure to know that if you are buying firewood by the rick or cord; what kind of wood it is, and make sure it's priced a-cord-ingly, no pun intended. 😋
Ash is the firewood for kings. Great stuff. However I disagree with your video bc Ash is a joy to split. Easy, straight grain, excellent to work with. I enjoy your videos. Keep them coming.
Hey Joe - yep, you're right. Ash is one of the best firewoods for sure. Also, regarding your point about splitting Ash, I went back and looked at the video and I probably overstated the splitting difficulty a bit. In my mind, Ash is in the middle somewhere. I wouldn't call it the easiest to split, but I definitely don't think it's the hardest either. I'd say the most difficult type of wood to split (at least where I'm from) is probably Elm because the grains of the wood are so stringy. Anyway, thanks for the comment, and glad to have you on the channel!
Good points. I think a lot of people only split wood periodically so it becomes difficult to say what splits best or worst. A tree that got pruned often in full sun will be much harder to split than trees which grew up tall in a pine or poplar forest. The time of the year/growth cycle the tree was cut AND when it's split also can make a huge difference. I've never cut or split wood before, but I know because I've watched plenty of RU-vid videos like this one😉👍
Hi John, thanks for the wood ID videos. I think ash splits fairly easily and it certainly dries quickly. I’m not so crazy for using it for the fire pit or fireplace though. It burns slowly with an uninteresting flame. Much prefer maple, cherry or apple for the fireplace. It’s a shame because I have 3 acre lot with mostly ash which are mostly dead now.
Hey David - thanks for the comment. I’d probably take Ash over Maple, and maybe Cherry if I’m burning it in a wood stove. But I agree, Apple would be nicer all around, and Id prefer Cherry over Ash for an outdoor campfire.
I sell a ton of ash!! Especially in the middle of winter because it dries so quick😀 but my top three firewood to heat the home is red oak, black locusts and ash.
Hey Chris - thanks for the comment. Ash is definitely one of the best. For my personal top 3, I'd probably agree with Oak and Black Locust, but I'd pull-in Hickory to round out the top.
Hey there - yeah, those are my Dad’s wood piles. The circular style of stacking is called a Holz Hausen. I believe it’s the German method. If you Google Holz Hausen, there’s a couple of good tutorials for how to set them up. I hope that helps for now!
In defense, the stacked wood does tend to collect ants, but if you broom and blow them off regularly, it works well. Tis' the nature of the beast. We tend to check on our covered split wood to help eliminate these pesky pests. Should never be a reason to not purchase ashwood! It's a good burning wood. 👍
New sub here ash is the main wood i go after because it dont require much time to season and burns great I also like black locust I have about a chord of that ready to go and a bunch of cherry and maple and oak
Hey Matt - welcome to the channel. Ash is great, Black Locust is like a furnace, and Cherry is what I’ve been burning (at least partially) in my fire pit in the back yard. Good to have you here.
I always felt like ash was very easy to split, more of a straight grain and pops open. Cherry on the other hand, all the ones i spit it's always so twisty and never seems to grow straight, i can end up with like half moon shaped firewood at times lol, at least that is what it seems in NY state. In my area it seems most of the downed tree's to cut and split of course is ash, then also yellow locus as well. For some reason i feel like locus in my area is in abundance, at least in terms of dead tree's like ash etc. It's also more difficult to split and is kinda stringy, but it burns to a fine ash and seems like a very clean burning wood, probably because it burns pretty hot. It's rare for me but i was able to get some black walnut this year, i suspect it will be great for burning as well.