How to break up tough roots ?

[bigyin]

Hi everybody,

I'm not an Arboriculturalist (at least not by profession). I live in Catalonia and earlier this year I had twenty redundant old olive trees grubbed up and stacked round the back. I've cut up most of the trunk material but I'm left with 5 - 10 tons of very tough root. This stuff burns well but because there are so many stones and stuff in amongst them, cutting them with my chainsaw means resharpening every 5 minutes. I have no tractor or similar so power splitters are out. My maul obviously just bounces off. I was wondering if anyone knows of a hand operated splitter that perhaps works on the same principle as the HyCrack for example. I know it's a tall (probably impossible) order.

Thanks,

Bigyin

[Peter]

Welcome

 

 

Do you have a pressure washer? You could clean all the soil and stones off and then saw them up.

[bigyin]

Thanks Peter. If I had something that would make a dent in your "Ass", I probably wouldn't have a problem with my roots :-)

[Mesterh]

Unless you really want to split it for firewood etc then cant you get a stumpy in to shred it to bits?

[b101uk]

why not use a drill to bore a hole then use black-powder/ cordite/ explosive

[bigyin]

Unless you really want to split it for firewood etc then cant you get a stumpy in to shred it to bits?

Yes, I would like to use it for firewood and also I need to get rid of it as it's gonna be in the way soon.

[treedave]

why not use a drill to bore a hole then use black-powder/ cordite/ explosive

 

If we're going down that road surely a 12 gauge with a solid slug should do it:001_tongue:

[bigyin]

why not use a drill to bore a hole then use black-powder/ cordite/ explosive

I note you put a smiley on the end but that may be the only way around it. I can drill holes but not sure about obtaining or using explosive. I could probably buy some shotgun shells

I had wondered if once having drilled strategically placed holes (say working from the outside in) whether I could get something in the hole to apply LOTS of lateral pressure. I already use concrete blocks and a car scissor jack to raise logs for sawing so it would have to be something I could operate manually that supplied a lot of mechanical advantage.

[bigyin]

If we're going down that road surely a 12 gauge with a solid slug should do it:001_tongue:

 

I think I'd better post some piccy's so we can get a feel for the size of the challenge

[treedave]

Sensible head on now - air compressor with a fine nozzle and jet them off - sandblasting / air pick style. Anyway you slice it, it sounds like a PITA way of getting firewood without a machine.