george [dicegeorge] wrote:

I'm told that the trees I felled a few years ago
will now be too dry and hard
and would blunt my chainsaw
so how to cut them?

They may be a bit harder but the chainsaw will cut them. They needn't
necessarily blunt the saw more except wood that has been lying around often
gets contaminated with soil.

I'm cutting up Ash and Sycamore today into one foot lengths.

Bot good firewood, ash because it has a low moisture content when green and
sycamore , whilst still having a low mc, dries fast when split.

But will the opposite apply to splitting-
will it be easier to split it in a few months?

No, some woods, particularly elm in the past, are harder to split dry.

And how best to split it - a 'grenade'?

I still prefer a felling axe, not sharp as that is more liable to stick but
not badly blunt either. For awkward stuff I have a splitting axle
with "wings" on the cheeks to widen the split. I find mauls and sledge
hammer+wedge too heavy and will crosscut to smaller lengths to avoid having
to use them. If it takes more than 3 axe blows I'll rip with a chainsaw.

AJH