The HARDEST WOOD to SPLIT 

#1 tip for splitting euc! Split the straight bits first. Give the rest to your neighbors🖒

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Like everything, there is a "trick to it". Being an Australian, I've split a lot of eucalyptus by hand with an axe (both dry and wet) and it can be really easy. Basically, You need to go with the rings. Cutting across the rings will result in a lot of effort with the axe getting stuck. You can see how stringy it is when cutting across the rings, but when you go with the rings, you get nice neat splits. Hope that helps.

I’ve been cutting, splitting, and heating with Blue Gum since ’72. It’s the best. Almost no ash, no creosote, chimney stays clean, and the fire hot. A big back log might smolder and glow for a couple of days (in the fireplace). I feed smaller pieces at the front for a hot fire or let it set for a cooler one. I don’t mind the splitting. Here’s what I do. The larger straight grained pieces are my favorites. The crotches either become the back log or I might hit ‘em with the chainsaw. I’m pushing 80 so I go at it easy. I sit on a low stool, and swing a four-pound rock driller’s hammer into a similar weight wedge. Stay parallel with the rings. Pieces will peel away like rings of an onion. I only split a few days at a time. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s green or dry except the wedge (and axe) will bounce back at ya if it’s really fresh cut (the first few days after felling). A plus for manually splitting, just as I need the wood is that when I’m starting a new fire I custom split just right smaller sized pieces to quickly get the fire going.

No need to apologize for your videos. They're all well-done and informative. Just keep them coming.

I'm smiling and nodding my head from experience. Where I live in northern NZ, gum trees are common, used both as shelter belts and for firewood. Please tell your customers that although it burns hot and long, it sparks like the devil, so have a good fire screen or use it in an enclosed burner. It splits more easily if dealt with before it dries out. I have had a heavy splitting maul bounce back at me as well as getting stuck in random-grained wheels. NZ native puriri is harder and burns hotter than gum, but its use as firewood is now rare. Cheers.

here in australia mulitek bring there machines here and they put 60 to 100 ton kit in then to handle the aussie hardwood and will only handle a 6 way wedge and most is only 12 inches long most spliter are 40 ton and only split 1 piece at a time

Brings to mind a 70 ft dead elm I cut down years ago that if it fell the wrong way would've taken out the house I was living in, I got lucky, that smelled like cat piss when it was burned. Stringy isn't the word for it. I never worked so hard on splitting wood as I did with that elm. I NEVER cut down another, needless to say. Nice attachment! Thanks for the video.

I've always heard to split euc green. All varieties. I'm interested in the method one man spoke of, to split it sideways, with the rings. But I wonder how well that would work with your Bobcat attachment? My brother in the Northwest has a Bobcat with a few attachments. So I sent this to him.

As an Aussie it's always a pleasure to see Americans complaining about how hard our wood is. As an Aussie it's also frustrating to hear Eucalyptus used as a description for the wood. There are maybe 700 different eucalypt species and maybe 100 of those get used as firewood. The 2 most common eucalyptus varieties seen in the US are blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) which is common in Florida and redgum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) which is common in California. Both of these are actually fairly easy to split as far as Aussie firewoods go. The ironbark (Eucalyptus sideroxylon) is 1 of the harder woods to split when dry which takes years and is indicated when the bark has completely fallen off. Greybox and yellowbox are at least 50% harder to split when dry than bluegum and redgum.

Like the tool Blair. I'm wondering how it works as a hardwood in the shop?

I continue to learn so much from watching your videos

Hi that a grate tool to have it dose a good job nice video buddy

It appears the slide stops 3 or 4 inches short of the splitting wedge, if when fully extended it finished 1/2" from the wedge, it may perform better. just an observation.

Hi Blair, thanks for posting this intersting video. I came across while searching for informaiton about Yellow Gumn (E. leucoxylon). Is that one being cut down at the beginning of the video (the "Cupertino crane job")? I'm a wood turner, mostly making bowls and platters in Portola Valley, CA. Over the last couple of months, this wood has become one of my favorites to turn. I can confirm that it is as tough as you say! But the end results are spectacular.

Have never split euc but we have arbutus here and it can be challenging but is great firewood .

So Funny, you live right down the street from me. i saw your hoop shelter and was like wait a minute!! i know that yard lol great video

That's beautiful wood.

Hard, Heavy! Burns NICE and hot though but a Pain to Split by Hand!!! Ive had my Battles with Eucalyptus! Cool Splitter! Wish i had one of those! Lol

Got to agree with elm .we took thousands down it was so hard but a really nice wood . It all got burnt with little used for anything not even logs .

Eucalyptus is so darn tough Australian Buloke : he he he he

have you made boards out of it? Up in Benicia I've always heard it's not good for lumber because it grows too fast in cali but it seems strong as a bear to me.

Glad you shared that. I did not know something like that existed. It certainly makes sense. Can they attach to smaller tractors?

Great to watch. As someone who did a lot of wood splitting with wedges driven with an 8 pound sledge, a 20 pound wedge maul and various other hand tools, watching a machine do the splitting is always fascinating. The only machine splitter I ever used was a AC 933 skip loader with ripper teeth. I used it to put an initial crack in sections of a 30" log. The loader was great for loading the too. Some of the toughest splitting I've ever done was live oak from the San Gabriel Mountains. Slow growing, twisted grain so tough you had to use an axe to cut them after driving in a large wedge or wedges, it just would not let go. Lack of knowledge was the funniest splitting problem for a pin oak I cut down to build a cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains. I tried to split it when it green, like live oak I had split before. I'll never forget the giving that wedge a good hit and watching theology spit that wedge two feet into the air. About a year later those sections split easily with an axe.

hey blair, long time listener first time caller.. can i come down from berkeley and score some wood for turning? looks like you got some good stuff there

6:13 Looks like Ironbark. Thanks for that mate.

Do you have any experience splitting Boxelder? How would the 2 compare? That is the worst stuff that I have ever split?

Hardest wood to split I know of is live oak here in the States. Shipyards that used to build wooden ships used live oak to make the keels and side bulwarks.

Do they make one where you can see what your doing... like the splitter on the side of the beam?

Started watching this video and thought oh this is in Australia then I heard your accent and said no this is America. Man we got millions and millions of eucalyptus trees here in Australia, we also have a timber that's even more tougher than eucalyptus, it's called ironbark. They used ironbark to support train tracks on. Burns beautifuly in my slow combustion fireplace, thank you for a great video and greetings from across the pond Australia.oh and your videos are very relaxing to watch. Cheers. Out of curiosity where abouts in the states are you situated, many thanks and I have just scribed

What would you say your fuel cost would be splitting it like that? I'm considering a skid steer + processor set up but I think this could work better since the upfront costs are a good bit lower.

I used to heat with wood and just loved eucalyptus. Hard to find but well worth the effort. I'd get a nice log in there at bedtime and I'd be warm all night with beautiful chunks left at dawn to start my morning fire.

Thats euc maniffra. Should try euc meliadora (yellow box 1.4-1.6 times water density) makes maniffra seem like a kid can karate chop it. Best wood for burning. 1 block keeps your house warm all day

I am currently splitting 4 cords of eucalyptus with a DR k10 ten ton electric splitter. The rounds are 23 inches in diameter and smaller and about 17 inches long. The kinetic splitter is doing a great job. Beats my old 22 ton Duer by a mile and is about 4-6 times faster.

There is no Eucalyptus around here so that was interesting to watch...and listen to...the wood 'creaking' as it split was neat.

Yup, it's a tough one alright. Unfortunately for me, I've only ever split it with an axe.. another good video!

what is the wood that you split at @6:06? I think i have come upon that wood sometimes and not understood what it was

I'm a woodworker who loves Trees, but when a huge Eucalyptus branch fell in my back yard, I asked the landscapers to save me the larger end of it. But even after drying for a year, I noticed it loved to split and bow so much. Would that be because they dried out too quickly?

Never really messed around with eucalyptus besides small Australian burl pieces. Looks like it has wicked interlocking grain and like it really doesnt slide across the wedge easily at all (in terms of friction) Interesting stuff

would have killed for that machine back in the day. my first Boise de arc? after knocking it down, the job was to split the wood as well. during the takedown this tree destroyed me AND my powersaw. no way would I want to split that bugger! here comes an oldtimer with a maul. he asked for some wood, and I was happy to oblige. that cat had SO MUCH wood split by the time I got down I was incredulous??! turns out when it's green, THAT'S the time to get at it!

One of my regular clients has Eucalyptus here in Cornwall UK , and splitting it with an axe is a real pleasure compared to some other woods.

A few ?s. Do they make anything from it? Wild grains usually means beautiful wood. Depending on how its milled or turned. Split a pile of elm by hand when Dutch Elm Disease took the last of them around here. 2 and a half feet or better at base. Best and quickest way was to walk around slabbing pieces off the side . Grain so twisted. If you tried to split conventional youd bury wedges. (When kids were or say Gnarly, I think of elm. Lol). Worse than elm? Last is how many ton is your splitter. Know alot of it depends on your skid steer?

In my personal opinion... 28 years as an Arborist... Australian pine takes the cake as the hardest tree in the US, the hardest to cut down.... it grows up 150+ feet in and if you cut a dry one, it feels like cutting concrete, sparks from the chain would come out when cutting...great for fire wood, super heavy wood..

methodical is how would describe splitting Eucy wood, would also say bloody hard when swinging an axe. Great camera placement.

that must be a good smelling fire..:)

I split a lot of this as a kid in Australia. I am sure you would know but, split it green. A lot easier to split and it will dry a lot quicker.

I'm purchasing my first log splitter (37 ton). Do you think I'd be able to use a 4 way splitter with it or just stick with the single blade?

Split a piece cross-grain and look at the sheared face, you'll see that it's stuck together like velcro or like staples have been driven through it. Split it along the grain and it's smooth and slippery. If you're doing a whole round with a splitting axe you pretty much just pick a spot where the wood has cracked cross-grain and spiral your way inside from there. Make sure you've got room to dance your way around the log because you can get over-excited with how quickly it goes. Or you can try cross-grain like most people and bounce your maul off of it for 15 minutes before you get a crack started.

is it the density, or is it the grain that makes it difficult? also, when you burn it, is it aromatic?

I think the rest of the world really underestimate Australian Hardwoods and how hard they are. the rest of the worlds hardest wood should be called medium wood in comparison. Straya

Does it's hardness affect the way that it burns?

How many tons of pressure does the ram exert?

Is it easier to split whilst is is still green?

If I recall correctly, eucalyptus was planted extensively in California but it turned out to be worthless as lumber because it splits.

Made the number 3 thumbs up!!! Tough wood! I give it 5 bacon strips for hard to split!😉👏👍🏻

How does Eucalyptus burn? Does it produce much creosote? You would think so.

Got to split eucalyptus and gum before it dries. A week or two after felling. Much easier plus will dry much quicker too

You should check out silky saws, really great saws. I own one and it is the best

Haha most Aussies would try to split it green. It splits easily and beautifully giving a real satisfying crack, unless it's very knotted. If you mill the ironbark the timber lasts a lifetime, even in marine conditions. Good to see them growing so well in California

I would like to suggest Montery Cypress... I had no idea it spiraled.... It was my first splitting work. It took me awhile to figure it out. You don't split it. not by hand.....

My least favorite hardwoods for splitting for fire wood are elm -- 'cause it's stringy with cross grain *AND* it stinks. But my least favorite by far is river birch. It is so stringy that it absolutely will not "Pop" until you run the ram down to the very bitter end of each and every piece. I won't split it any more. Too dang frustrating.

Funny, the river red gum practically splits itself. Must be the white gum. Funny, since I found out about the red gum, seems like the lady across the street from us, has a red gum, at least 60 feet high. Yes, I have volunteered to remove it. (4 foot diameter logs, are whetting my appetite!) Brother is taking an adult ed class, for woodworking, and there is a LT15 Woodmizer there. We are the only ones using it. Teacher gets a few slabs, when we cut stuff up. Every Thursday morning, I wake up SEVERELY sore! I'd almost like to send friends up to Saratoga to get some lumber steve

How is Eucalyptus to burn? Seems like dense wood would burn a long time.

You should split it before it dry up, much easier

I Live in Queensland Australia and split wood for a pizza oven or two. its tough stuff all right. Some species are better than others. There are about 900 species of eucalyptus. I split some over the weekend called stringybark. huge tree but straight grain not to bad at all. some species like the one you showed there are the harder ones to split as they have an intertwined grain. some are dam near impossible. Almost not worth the effort with an axe. Its very hard to be totally accurate identifying some of the species. looking at the bark leaves flours and seeds is the only way. I found a variety out west that the aboriginals call Dead Finish. they called it that because they say if that tree dies you are dead finished. in other words it can stand extreme hot and dry conditions. it cuts almost like stone. it shines off the saw. great for knife handles. The hardest wood is know to grow in the driest conditions. like the previous bloke said some is ok to split if you work it with the radial cracking and growth rings. Some is near impossible

why not use it for flooring as its so hard

With Eucalyptus being such a hard wood does that make it a good long lasting firewood?

Let thenext piece that you split push the previous piece on through the wedges.

Glad we don't have that exotic wood here in Appalachia. Sycamore is the equivalent here. One end of the splitter rig needs a turntable disc to let the wood turn to match the curly grain of the wood. Then it splits much better but it is still what I would call a trash wood. I would never buy it as a firewood. You can't make any money with wood like that and it is just too stressful on your splitter..

Anyone know if there's a lump charcoal being made with Eucalyptus?

A couple years ago I cut down some big eucalyptus branches and I just couldn't get them to split with a 8lb splitting maul so I ripped them with a chainsaw to firewood sized pieces. I also milled some of the logs with my homemade chainsaw mill and I actually found out that it turns surprisingly well on the lathe...

👍👍

Splitting Poplar is no easy job either . . Majy years ago a relative used a powder wedge to try and split a poplar tree into fence length s and had the tree launch 30 ft into the air taking down a 30kv power line! Wedges and mails failed prior to the powder wedges. Let's be carefull out there!

It’s called in-law wood. That’s the stuff you give your in-laws here in Australia anyway.

I just imagine that all that wood splitting being so aromatic because of the eucalyptus

Hows it compared to sycamore? Almost looks alike

And I thought Hickory was hard to split which it is because it's so far verse but this eucalyptus is even worse instead of splitting and wants to chew the stuff up tears the wood up says splitting it

euc is butter green

And this type of Eucalypt is not the hardest type of Euc in Oz. I have layed into a block of fire wood with a big block splitter and it has bounced off. I have broken hydraulic block spitters too. the forks are the worst. You have to chip away at the outsides working your way into the fork. Don't even bother trying to split right in the fork. Keep those bits for the bonfire at Christmas time. Then there is Brigalow and Gidgee from out in the desert. Man oh man is that stuff hard. A stump of that chucked in the slow combustion heater will go all night. I remember as a kid having to predrill a nail hole so that I could get a nail into one piece of timber on the verandah the old man was doing up at the time. Burnt the drill bit too, after I'd drilled the hole I had to sharpen the drill bit. True story. Yep, we have the hardest timber in the world but it doesn't stop those pesky termites from eating it. Oh yes, we also have a Euc called Turpentine or Satinay. One has to use tungsten tipped blades to mill it. It is also used in marina applications because marine borers do not touch the stuff. Has a high silica content which makes it about as durable as any timber species around.

American elm pretty hard to split too

10* Make a timberjockey drool with jealousy. (----) Wood up here, these must be the blue gums (softer wood cousins), snapping limbs and falling all the time, little pyramid nuts. Could do some excellent steam-distillation of that euce and have some great essential oils for all those tree aches and pains, with willow and wintergreen (both natural aspirin) for that bengay spa smell.

You definitely don't wanna wait a year before splitting the wood it's only gonna get harder to split with time

I’ve heard you got to split as soon as it’s down

In my opinion, you should split it when it was green....otherwise, it is like steel

Interlocked fibers. Letting it dry won’t make it easier.

the lower quality wood can be used to make paper.

I would have guessed elm.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironbark

G'day Blair, from Downunder. Here's a bloke trying to split some typical Australian hardwood ... by hand. That splitter is bouncing off the timber. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-p5LDFzgmLBI.html We Aussies usually have a bit of a chuckle about the ease with which the majority of your American timers both cut and split, we can only dream about such ease. In the old days when house frames were made of hardwood and only hand tools were used, the timber had to be wet and green, otherwise, once cured, it couldn't be nailed unless pre-drilled and sawing was hard yakka indeed. Praise to chainsaws, hydraulic splitters and tungsten tipped saws! Best to split it green and go around the outside gradually reducing the size. If it's seasoned and you sink an axe into the middle, the chances of recovering the axe are fairly low ... 🤣🦘

These tree are even harder than gold and silver

The hardest wood to split is by hand ;p

The sound it makes when splitting is like ear sex

Interesting to split is Madrone. If you cut the tree and buck it up and split it at the same time, you can split it with a hatchet while sitting in a chaise lounge and drinking a mint julep. But if you let that round sit for 24 hours, your maul will bounce right back over your head. Hilarious.

Red elm all day long.Especially,dead standing,bark fallen off and diameter that doesn't need splitting-----

Eculyptus isn’t as hard as our buloke. Buloke is rated as the hardest

I find it ironic that the video opens with a sky filled with chemtrails!

Why is it not financially interesting to sell it to a sawmill? Those logs look really nice to the untrained eye, would make for some nice lumber.

ok we split yellow box with a axe here

yeah its a shocker to split even by hand, i could use more explicit words but its a bitch. you get to know how to work with it buy exploiting cracks but if you hit heartwood with sap near a fork forget it just throw it in the wood heater and it will burn for days....

Yup, it's a tough one alright. Unfortunately for me, I've only ever split it with an axe.. another good video!