"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

JM2 said:
Thanks. I was planning to wait till fall to split it. Then use it next year at the earliest. I did a hickory a few years ago, and I waited about 4 or 5 months then too, til it started checking. I’ve never tried to split hickory that was old seasoned. I thought last time it split easier after waiting a while. It seemed the axe bounced off. I will give it a go again and see.

I use a fiskars splitting axe with 36” handle.

I’ve split some maple and I thought it split easier after it’d been seasoned a while. Same for river birch. Is it a species to species thing or is there a general rule?

I didn’t grow up harvesting wood and everyone I know buys it, so Im learning as I go.
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Green or seasoned doesn't make much difference when splitting soft wood like birch.
For hard dense woods like horbeam or alder it does matter and it's much easier to split them when still green. Not to mention that the wood will dry better when split.

Dan.
 
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dantzk8 said:
Green or seasoned doesn't make much difference when splitting soft wood like birch.
For hard dense woods like horbeam or alder it does matter and it's much easier to split them when still green. Not to mention that the wood will dry better when split.

Dan.
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Thanks. Why does it seem easier for hickory then? Does it make a difference in using a fiskars splitting axe instead of a maul? I don’t have any seasoned hickory to compare to the green I just got, but memory of the one I did before, it started splitting good after it had seasoned 6 months or more.

I burnt a sycamore once. The electric company cut it, so it was handy. It was full of water. I cut it and let it dry a fairly long time before I could split it. I had to elevate it off the ground, and cover it with a tarp to get it to dry out, or the axe would bounce off. I finally got some of it split enough to move and I stacked it by the stove to dry out. It burned fast. Wouldn’t have been worth the trouble except it was right here on my land. Not my preferred wood.
 
JM2 said:
Why does it seem easier for hickory then?
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I've never handled a piece of hickory. All i know is it makes great axe handles which makes me think it's a moderatly dense and lightweigth wood with good mechanical characteristics as is the ash we use in Europe. When it comes to splitting ash, green or seasoned doesn't make any noticeable difference.

JM2 said:
Does it make a difference in using a fiskars splitting axe instead of a maul?
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I don't use a splitting axe or a maul. I do prefer to use my Basque felling axe. Its convexed bevels (longitudinaly and transversely) make it nice and efficient for splitting.

Dan.
 
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I would describe hickory as moderately dense, but it is a heavy wood. It’s very flexible and resistant to shock. We use ash here as a utility wood. I’ve never cut it, but burned a lot of the offal from the shop. It burns hot and moderate length.
 
My favorite wood to burn is cherry, because of the smell of the smoke. It’s faint, and sweet. Cherry don’t put off a real high heat, so it’s great for a chilly day where you might be in and out (chopping wood) and just need a little fire.
 
JM2 said:
I would describe hickory as moderately dense, but it is a heavy wood. It’s very flexible and resistant to shock. We use ash here as a utility wood. I’ve never cut it, but burned a lot of the offal from the shop. It burns hot and moderate length.
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Density is the ratio of weight to volume. So if hickory is moderately dense then it's moderately heavy.
From what i've read there are many kinds of hickory. Bitternut, nutmeg, pecan, water, mockernut, pignut, shagbark, shellbark. With densities from 0.600 (Netmug) to 0.750 (Pignut) and bending strength from 94 NPa (Pecan) to 139 NPa (Pignut and Shagbark). It's not a flexible wood, few woods are upon 100.
For comparaison the european ash has a density of 0.680 and bending strength of 113NPa thus the use we have of it for striking tools.
Fascinating stuff.

Dan.
 
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I forgot i've said, in a previous post, alder is a hard wood. It’s a soft and lightweigth wood when green which becomes hard when seasoned exposed to water. What we call a "water wood".

Dan.
 
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joeradza said:
Speeding? I figure he’s doing 40.9mph.
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That's what I get, too, Alan; around here, he'd be very unlikely to get "pulled over" for speeding, even though he's over the speed limit.
(Kind of interesting to me that I didn't calculate his actual speed until after I saw your post.
My first solution was to reason that 60mph = 88 ft/sec, a "useless fact" that has stuck in my head since driver's ed in 1967.
And 40mph is 2/3 of 60mph, so 40mph = (2/3)(88ft/sec) = (176/3) ft/sec = 58 2/3 ft/sec.
So the driver going 60 ft/sec is obviously above the speed limit of 58 2/3 ft/sec.)
No slide rules were used in the preceding computations.
pruner.mark.closed.jpg

- GT
 
5K Qs said:
That's what I get, too, Alan; around here, he'd be very unlikely to get "pulled over" for speeding, even though he's over the speed limit.
(Kind of interesting to me that I didn't calculate his actual speed until after I saw your post.
My first solution was to reason that 60mph = 88 ft/sec, a "useless fact" that has stuck in my head since driver's ed in 1967.
And 40mph is 2/3 of 60mph, so 40mph = (2/3)(88ft/sec) = (176/3) ft/sec = 58 2/3 ft/sec.
So the driver going 60 ft/sec is obviously above the speed limit of 58 2/3 ft/sec.)
No slide rules were used in the preceding computations.
View attachment 1890037

- GT
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Interesting approach. I multiplied 60 x 3600 to get the number of feet traveled in an hour, then divided by 5280 to get the mph.
 
mbkr said:
Interesting approach. I multiplied 60 x 3600 to get the number of feet traveled in an hour, then divided by 5280 to get the mph.
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That was my second approach, and I suspect that's similar to what Alan did.
It wasn't my first approach because I couldn't do the divide by 5280 in my head. o_O 🤓

- GT
 
5K Qs said:
That was my second approach, and I suspect that's similar to what Alan did.
It wasn't my first approach because I couldn't do the divide by 5280 in my head. o_O 🤓

- GT
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JohnDF said:
I call it quits if it's harder than dividing by 2 in my head. 🤣
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When I was working, especially out in the field on an early site investigation, I did all kinds of math in my head. Generally estimating how much dirt needed to be moved for a given design. The key word is "estimating". There was a lot of rounding off involved ;) Anything requiring accuracy involved a calculator :)
 
mbkr said:
When I was working, especially out in the field on an early site investigation, I did all kinds of math in my head. Generally estimating how much dirt needed to be moved for a given design. The key word is "estimating". There was a lot of rounding off involved ;) Anything requiring accuracy involved a calculator :)
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It's a real skill to be able to do that. 🤠:thumbsup:
 
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