Holy crap is this a seriously stubborn hunk of wood. I have been splitting more wood and the rounds I have been working on today have had a number of branches. A few have broken but this one is a pain in the ass, well back more so. I went at it with the wedge and drove it all the way through wood and AROUND the stupid branch!
Now, I am no slouch with a maul or sledge so I was majorly pounding on it, but this just irks me. Not even half way through the round and I hit the road block.
After a break to go pick up my oldest from the bus stop I returned and decided to use a second wedge, on the other side. This worked wonders and after 4 hits of the maul the wood split in 2. It was well over 20 hits on the wedges to get the split.
That is a very excessive amount of energy to expend for 2 pieces of fire wood, but damnit I'm stubborn. Though when you look at the size of the branch in the wood it makes a bit more sense.
None the less I got it. Now on to the next knotty piece of wood in the same round (there are 2 more branches), hopefully using this lesson I just learned to make it go a bit smoother.
