Holly firewood

[Gav73]

Bit of a strange thing happened today, I was bringing in some firewood to fill the baskets indoors before the next cold spell starts and noticed the holly, that I split and stacked in October last year, in the next log store bay was full of shakes. I grabbed a couple of pieces to tap together and got the sharp ding. To make sure I got the moisture meter out, split a piece in half, and got a reading of 15%!

 

It was probably the worst thing I’ve ever had to split - the base of the trunk was over 18” in diameter, biggest holly tree I’ve ever heard of. Manhandling it was horrible, chainsawing it up into firewood size rounds was horrible and splitting was bloody hard work - tried the axe first, three massive swings before it would start cracking! Moved only my kinetic splitter and it took a couple of hits before it started to crack and finally got the 20t venom on it which managed it well.

 

The tree surgeons who took it down and gave it to me were cursing it as it knackered up their chipper!

 

I was expecting this to take well over 12 months to get anywhere near dry enough to burn.

 

Anyone else experienced anything like this or it this some kind of freak phenomenon?

 

 

[Haironyourchest]

Seen this before in Ireland...that holly was a fayrie tree.

 

Just be glad you're not the guy who felled it.

[djbobbins]

I felled and split a holly years ago; I seem to remember it split okay - was only about 9” diameter though. Burnt well too [emoji91]

[neiln]

I love Holly, burns very hot.