Wood is one of the oldest and most versatile building materials known to man. It has been used for everything from spears and arrows to houses and furniture. Wood is strong, durable, and easy to work with, which makes it an ideal material for a variety of applications.
However, not all wood is created equal. Some woods are simply tougher to split than others. The hardest woods tend to be those that are dense and have a high silica content. These include species such as oak, hickory, walnut, and maple. Splitters may find these woods more difficult to penetrate and may need to use more force or use a different tool altogether.
While the hardest woods may be the toughest to split, that doesn’t mean they’re impossible to work with. With the right tools and some patience, even the most stubborn piece of wood can be conquered.
Lignum vitae 4,500 IBF
Lignum vitae is a very dense wood that is difficult to split. It is also one of the hardest woods, so it takes a lot of force to break it apart. The best way to split lignum vitae is with a hydraulic or pneumatic splitter, which can exert up to 4,500 pounds of force. This will easily break the wood apart without damaging the tools or harming the person using them.
Piptadenia Macrocarpa 3,840 IBF
Piptadenia macrocarpa, commonly known as jacaranda, is a species of flowering tree in the family Fabaceae, native to South America. It grows to a height of 20 30 m (66–98 ft) with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in). The leaves are pinnate, with 3-7 pairs of oval-shaped leaflets. The flowers are blue or purple, and the fruit is a black or brown seedpod.
Jacaranda is widely cultivated as an ornamental tree and has been introduced to many tropical and subtropical regions around the world. It is considered one of the most beautiful trees in the world due to its showy flowers which bloom in spring and summer. Unfortunately, jacaranda is also one of the most difficult trees to split due to its extremely hard wood. In fact, it has been rated as one of the three hardest woods in the world! This makes it extremely difficult for even experienced log splitters to break apart jacaranda logs without special equipment or techniques.
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If you’re lucky enough to have access to jacaranda wood, here are some tips on how best to split it:
1) Use an axe or hatchet: If you’re using an axe or hatchet, try angling your blade so that it wedges into the wood rather than trying to chop straight through it. This will help prevent your blade from getting stuck in the tough wood fibers.
2) Use a sledgehammer: If you have access to a sledgehammer, you can use this tool to drive wedges into the log before splitting it apart with an axe or hatchet (as described above). This method can be quite effective if done correctly but be warned – if you don’t hit your wedges squarely they may fly out of the log and cause serious injury!
3) Use a hydraulic log splitter: Hydraulic log splitters are designed specifically for tough woods like jacaranda and can make quick work of even large logs. If you have access to this type of equipment then we highly recommend using it – just be sure that you follow all safety instructions carefully!
Brazilian Olivewood 3,700 IBF
Brazilian olivewood is one of the hardest woods to split. It is a very dense wood, and it is very difficult to split by hand. The best way to split this wood is with a hydraulic log splitter. This type of splitter uses pressure to split the wood, and it can be very effective at splitting Brazilian olivewood.
Brazilian Ebony 3,692 IBF
Brazilian ebony is one of the most difficult woods to split. It is extremely dense and hard, making it difficult to penetrate with a wedge or other tool. The wood is also very oily, which can make it slippery and difficult to grip. Because of its density, Brazilian ebony is often used for turning and carving, as well as for making furniture and flooring.
Brazilian Walnut 3,684 IBF
Brazilian Walnut, also known as Ipe, is one of the hardest woods in the world. It is native to South America and grows in tropical regions. Ipe is a very dense wood with a high weight-to-strength ratio. This makes it difficult to split by hand or with conventional tools. In order to split Brazilian Walnut, you will need a special tool called an Ipe Ripper.
The Ipe Ripper is a handheld tool that looks like a large chisel with teeth on the blade. It is used to score or notch the wood along the grain so that it can be broken apart more easily. The teeth on the blade help grip the wood and prevent it from slipping while you are working.
Ipe is an extremely hard wood, so it takes some practice to get good at using an Ipe Ripper. You will also need to use more force than you would for other woods. Start by scoring or notching the wood along one side of the grain line. Then, place your foot on top of the board and apply pressure as you push down on the handle of the tool. The board should snap in half along the scored line. Repeat this process until all of your pieces are successfully split apart.
African Pearwood 3,680 IBF
African pear wood (Pteleopsis anisoptera) is a tropical hardwood tree native to Africa. It is also known as African teak, African walnut, or false mahogany. The tree grows up to 30 m (98 ft) tall and 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in trunk diameter, with a dense, pyramidal crown. The leaves are alternate, simple, oblong-elliptical to oblanceolate, 10 25 cm (3.9–9.8 in) long and 3 8 cm (1.2–3.1 in) wide, with an entire margined or slightly toothed leaf margin and an acute to shortly acuminate leaf apex. The flowers are small and greenish-white, borne in axillary panicles of 3-flowered cymes. The fruit is an elliptical drupe 6 15 mm (0.24–0.59 in) long containing one seed.
African pear wood is widely distributed throughout tropical Africa, from Senegal east to Ethiopia and south to Angola, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia. It occurs mostly in lowland rainforests on deep well-drained soils derived from metamorphic rocks. It also occurs on seasonally flooded sites along rivers and lakes. In Ethiopia it occurs at elevations of 1120-2700 m above sea level.
The wood is heavy, hard and strong with a density of 730 kg/m3 at 15% moisture content. It air dries slowly with little degrade but can be kiln dried rapidly without risk of checking or collapse if proper schedules are followed. Once dry it is very stable even in service environments where there are large changes in temperature or humidity.
The heartwood is dark brown or blackish brown, sometimes with a purplish tinge; sapwood pale yellowish brown or pinkish brown. Both surfaces may have a lustrous sheen due largely to the high density of fine pores which give the wood its characteristic grain pattern known as chatoyancy. Grain can be straight but is usually interlocked giving rise to an attractive figure on quarter sawn surfaces known as fiddleback. Curly figuring can also occur producing birdseye which when present can be quite pronounced.