: . . .it has thorns that can be over an inch
: long and sharp as needles. It has a high oil content and is almost
: impossible to destroy once it has a foot hold. I tried to find some of it
: in long enough sections to make paddle handles, I figured it would work
: great.

With inch-long needle-sharp thorns it should make fine handles for paddles which no one will ever steal from you !

: . . .I'll let you know how the trees work out. I brought a couple lenghts
: home to try with a 10" skill saw.

If you can guide your saw in a straight line you can cut a slot in the tree which is over 4 inches deep. do that along the length of the log and it would be a good start for some wood wedges which you could drive in to split the log.

Once the logs are split in half you could run the saw up the center line of one half and use wedges to split the halves into quarters, or, you could guide the saw a few inches from an edge, squaring up a side.

If your objective it to eventually cut the wood into 1/4 inch strips you can use a circular saw and a guide to make grooves 1 inch apart, and as deep as the sawblade can cut. Then, with a chisel or wedges you can remove roughly 1 inch wide "boards" from the log, by breaking them free. These "boards" will be as wide as the depth of your cut. The further apart your cuts are, the thicker the boards will be, and the more difficult it will be to break them free. you can work your way across the log, nibbling away at it in this manner until you've removed a layer of boards and then go back and cut more grooves to remove another layer. It would be slow, but you could get roughly 1x4s, of great length, which you could plane down to size after they had dried.

Hope this helps.

PGJ