On Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:53:59 +0000 (UTC), Steve Firth
wrote:

T i m wrote:
[snip]
Anyone know if fairly green ash is particularly hard to split

I used to turn "quite a bit" of ash into firewood using a bow saw and
splitting wedges. It was an easy task, it's my experience that green ash is
particularly easy to split.

Daughter (tree surgeon) had a look at the bit I was battling with just
now and she suggests it might be the section of the trunk where it was
about to split into two. Therefore, there were all sorts of convolute
grain paths running through it that probably go a long way to explain
why I had so much trouble (especially considering your experiences
etc).

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5772409/Knotty%20ash.jpg

As I mentioned previously, the smaller diameter sections were spilt in
two quite easily with a good blow from a decent splitting axe (not
even a maul) so it does point to this particular bit being an awkward
one.

There are probably another 10 similarly sized chogs so it will be
interesting to see if they respond similarly.

Cheers, T i m