Splitting bracewood -- from the top or bottom of the tree?

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Bryan Bear
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Splitting bracewood -- from the top or bottom of the tree?

Post by Bryan Bear »

This question periodically bounces through my brain. I should probably be embarrassed to admit that I don't know this already but. . .

When splitting soft woods, there is usually one direction that is much easier to split from. If you are not getting the results you want, turning the bolt over and splitting from the other side is usually much better. Some time ago I sat with a bunch of softwood scraps and just made a ton of splits to help me get a feel for this. I actually still enjoy doing it; sometimes I'll have a chunk 2X4 or something and grab a chisel and split it into smaller pieces of scrap before it goes in the firewood box. Working with wood already sawn, I can't tell which end of a board came from the top of the tree and which from the bottom. I assume that the easier splitting is always from one or the other direction (and would guess bottom to top being easier), but I just don't know. . . Any one want to weigh in?
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David King
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Re: Splitting bracewood -- from the top or bottom of the tree?

Post by David King »

I recently had the opportunity to watch someone on youtube splitting cedar shingles with a froe (they alternate from one end of the log and then the other) and I couldn't say from memory whether one way was easier but that's where I'd start looking. I've split a lot of cordwood by hand with an axe, a maul and wedges and the only thing that seemed to make any difference was the moisture content and the temperature of the wood. Wet wood on a very cold morning almost splits itself. Splitting dry elm on a warm afternoon is not much fun.
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Bryan Bear
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Re: Splitting bracewood -- from the top or bottom of the tree?

Post by Bryan Bear »

I've pondered the firewood splitting analogy myself but I'm not sure if it might be different with hardwoods (not a lot of softwood firewood in my part of the country). I have had some sections of log be easier to split with the axe than others but can't say that I ever tried flipping one over.

The cedar shingles is probably a good thing to look at. I knew they split from both ends and get good control but cedar is really happy to split so that might be a best case scenario. If I'm not mistaken, they intentionally split the shakes into a taper and can control that with pressure on the froe. I wonder if it is a little different from one side to the other.

I remember reading something in cumpiano's book about trying to split your bracewood from the other side of you have trouble but it didn't say anything about why. I suppose the best person to ask is someone who cuts and splits spruce logs for guitar tops to see if they care what direction they work from.
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Michael Lewis
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Re: Splitting bracewood -- from the top or bottom of the tree?

Post by Michael Lewis »

As one who uses wood for heat for more than 30 years and I cut and split it all, I can say it is easier to split wood from the root end of the log. This is mostly important when encountering knots and branches. As to splitting spruce it may or may not be of much importance depending on the piece of wood you are working. I tried splitting some large bolts of sitka spruce and found that those particular pieces did not split well. The grain seems to run in a mild spiral for a few rings and then starts going back the other way for a while much like mahogany, and this causes a lot of waste as it makes very uneven surface that needs to be planed flat to get rid of the rough ridges and ruts. Split the first time to find the direction of the grain, and from there resaw the wood to dimension.

Your best and most even splitting is by cutting the piece in half. If you try to split off a smaller (off center) portion than half it will tend to taper smaller as it is split off the larger piece. So, for those of you that feel it best to only split braces and not saw them remember that when splitting your brace wood split it in half to get the straightest and most even results, and then those pieces in half, and so on until you get close to the size you need.
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Bryan Bear
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Re: Splitting bracewood -- from the top or bottom of the tree?

Post by Bryan Bear »

Thanks Michael, that is exactly what I was asking. I suspected that splitting from the root would be easier, otherwise trees would be more probed to split from stresses while alive.
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Alan Carruth
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Re: Splitting bracewood -- from the top or bottom of the tree?

Post by Alan Carruth »

Whatever else you do, ALWAYS split the piece in the middle. The split will run toward the narrow side.
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Bryan Bear
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Re: Splitting bracewood -- from the top or bottom of the tree?

Post by Bryan Bear »

Thanks Alan. Yes, I do always split in halves. Really I just split in half to judge runnout then saw along that line for everything else. . . I was really asking out of a long held curiosity. Well that and I got a chunk of log from a pine tree that was cut down from the back yard of my childhood home. It is not much of a tree for instrument making but I have been kicking around the idea of trying to see if I can split some book-matched uke tops from it someday.
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