Splitting a 10 Foot Oak Log the Old Fashion Way

Every woodworker has seen it happen, a beautiful straight clean log that was growing on someones yard gets turned into fire wood.  It hurts to see big old trees to see their demise so unceremoniously and with such lack of appreciation for there usefulness.  I recently moved to a small log cabin my wife and I are renting with our 4 month old baby girl Pearl.  The log was as nice as it gets, 26 inches wide at the fat end, ten feet long and straight as an arrow.  The problem is I have no way to get it milled.  I do not have any way to get it into my tuck to bring it to a mill, its not worth the money to rent a woodmizer, and my chainsaw mill can not handle its bulk.  So what I decided to do is split it lengthwise and then stand the half up and use my chainsaw mill to convert it to lumber.  All you need to split the tree is at least 5 wedges, a sledge hammer, about 45 minutes of time and a pint of beer to as a reward upon finishing the task to keep you motivated.  Here are the steps I took to accomplish the task.

First I drove 3 wedges into the end of the log as shown.  I started at the fat end because I figured I would beat up the tough job while I had the most energy.  Anyway I put the pint glass in front of the log to give a size scale of the tree i was working on.  The hardest part was getting them to take purchase in the log but once they were good and stuck into the wood it was easy to split it a fair distance down its length.

 

 Next take a couple wedges and put them in the crack that has formed and  drive them in to spread the crack even further

Now that you are working the crack further down the log the end should have opened up enough that you can remove the original three wedges and use them to split the log further.  Continue opening the log and taking the earlier wedges out and moving down the log.  It is helpful to take a piece of wood and jam it in the opening at the end of the log to keep it open so the wedges will come out more freely.

 

Work you way down the log until you reach the other end.  At this point you may have some fibers still holding it together so while it is still propped open with the last few wedges and the blocks of wood at the end run your chainsaw down the middle and sever and remaining wood fibers holding the to halves together.  At this point you can separate the two halves and sit back and pat yourself on the back for being so darn clever and resourceful.

On last picture showing my ear protection on the logs for size perspective.

  

All that's left is to mill it up with my chainsaw.