A word about splitting large firewood rounds by hand

[Streblerm]

I totally agree with your assessment.
I have an arsenal of tools for my firewood job.
The Fiskars is a great tool but it is not the almighty tool that alot of people make them to be.
I think everybody should have a Fiskars but don't count on it to be your only splitting axe.

If it wont split with the Fiskars then it gets noodled and/or thrown into the splitter pile.

 

[fearofpavement]

If by the big red triangle head shaped maul you are talking about the monster maul or its equivalent, that is what I use to split about 85% of my wood. I have other tools up to and including a very powerful gas engined hydraulic splitter but use the monster maul because it is faster than other methods I've tried and gives a good workout. It will split all but the most stubborn chunks and they get tossed in a pile that I attend to about once a year with the power splitter.

It takes a while to acquire the technique of these monster mauls but long story short it is all or nothing. ie, a bunch of little taps does nothing, it is go for broke on every swing. Overall I feel it is the least amount of "work" to split the wood. I split pieces on the ground, ie, with this tool the sharpness doesn't matter and I hit dirt on every swing. So I go around the pile and stand up and split pieces where they are. When I get a few split I stack those while panting and then I am ready for a few more swings. I like to do a little at a time in the evening as my "workout".

I have a little Fiskars axe I picked up yesterday at a flea market for $10 but I don't think it is one of the splitting axes. More like a camp axe? I guess I'll have to compare it with some online photos and see what model it is.

 

[Cantdog]

If by the big red triangle head shaped maul you are talking about the monster maul or its equivalent, that is what I use to split about 85% of my wood. I have other tools up to and including a very powerful gas engined hydraulic splitter but use the monster maul because it is faster than other methods I've tried and gives a good workout. It will split all but the most stubborn chunks and they get tossed in a pile that I attend to about once a year with the power splitter.

It takes a while to acquire the technique of these monster mauls but long story short it is all or nothing. ie, a bunch of little taps does nothing, it is go for broke on every swing. Overall I feel it is the least amount of "work" to split the wood. I split pieces on the ground, ie, with this tool the sharpness doesn't matter and I hit dirt on every swing. So I go around the pile and stand up and split pieces where they are. When I get a few split I stack those while panting and then I am ready for a few more swings. I like to do a little at a time in the evening as my "workout".

I have a little Fiskars axe I picked up yesterday at a flea market for $10 but I don't think it is one of the splitting axes. More like a camp axe? I guess I'll have to compare it with some online photos and see what model it is.

Well Lad..... good for you...glad you can use this item...you're the only person I've ever heard of that enjoyed these tools....I despise them myself... but thats just me......Bravo I say!!!

 

[spacemule]

Well Lad..... good for you...glad you can use this item...you're the only person I've ever heard of that enjoyed these tools....I despise them myself... but thats just me......Bravo I say!!!

In my experience, the young and foolhardy think they're faster. The older and experienced know they get increased speed with a properly shaped 5 to 6 pound splitter.

 

[Denis Gionet]

A whole lot easier to saw that way to.If I get hold of a bad knot,i noodle it about half way through till the maul will bust it.One more note.I hate the big red triangle shaped mauls.That round handle will turn in your hands,and when you hit the block of wood with the side of that pos,it will vibrate your teeth out

Monster Maul ? The expression "Anvil on a stick" comes to mind.... I can swing my neighbors' 14t hydraulic splitter twice as hard as that anchor. At least the splitter has more grab on it.

 

[Cantdog]

LOL!!!!! If the man can get good results from this poorly designed chunk of welded plate steel...just think of what he could achieve with a real spliting maul!!! If I owned a "Monster Maul" I would gladly send it to him for a spare...if he paid shipping....but alas.... I don't......

 

[El Quachito]

I have a monster maul and I try not to use it. but it does work good on wood that my regular maul bounces off of. as mentioned you do have to hone the proper technique with a monster maul, i think. it sure sends the pieces flying though.

 

[watsonr]

I have a monster maul and I try not to use it. but it does work good on wood that my regular maul bounces off of. as mentioned you do have to hone the proper technique with a monster maul, i think. it sure sends the pieces flying though.

Yea, but swinging an 8lb maul will flat wear you out really quick. Us smaller guys enjoy the 4.5lb head of the Fiskars, I can swing it all day long!! No problem going through the whole load in one sitting..... big, little don't matter. Those that I can't split with it get the saw and then that has only happened on BIG gnarly pieces.

I gave all my mauls away and have never even pondered if I did the right thing... not once! Everybody that tries my X27 buys one... period!

 

[Mastermind]

This thread has cost me money....

I ordered a Fiskars splitting ax today. :msp_wink:

 

[fearofpavement]

While I don't have one of the Fiskars splitting axes, I do have 4 other mauls plus some axes and have tried splitting wood with all of them. Hit an ordinary maul on a freshly cut round of sweetgum and it'll come right back at your forehead!

I use the monster maul because it works well for me on the wood I split. (mostly red and white oak with some other misc mixed in)

If I have really straight grained wood, I use a lighter maul but most everything has knots in it (as Zogger stated) and an ordinary maul just won't do the job as well.

Guess different strokes for different folks. I have a good friend that also uses the same type of maul and he is 65 yrs old and a retired airline pilot so he could afford any maul or axe he wanted. He also uses it because it works well.

And they never stick in the wood. I don't sell these or own stock. Don't even know if they are still available new. I've had mine for a couple decades. I just happen to like it.

 

[zogger]

This thread has cost me money....

I ordered a Fiskars splitting ax today. :msp_wink:

Spend some more! A few bucks. The factory teflon coating is REAL nice and greatly improves the splittability, BUT it wears off. You can really tell, too, then it is not so nice (I am at a little over 16 cords done with my original supersplitter). IF I had it to do over again I would get a can of spray on teflon lube and lube that bad boy up right over the factory coating before the first swing. And use it every session.

I am going to drop serious hints for the upcoming binge buying season and hopefully garden goddess will get me an x27 (or I will gift myself) and I plan on doing the teflon spray.

I tried the spray on let it sit for a day graphite treatment, and although it worked, it wears off fast (about two sessions for me and back to sticking in the wood worse) so heck with it, cheaper teflon spray, spray and swing. I think if you did it immediately over the factory coating and kept it up, it would work out real well.

 

[Cantdog]

This is all very complicated....to complicated for me.....I have a gray milk crate I sit on....within reach of my lever...pull it down to split...up to return....listen to the diesel.....I can do this all day long.....really...... even at my age...no ****....for days on end if necessary.......What's even better is I move the splitter rather than the wood...I told ya earlier...I'm a lazy sob..it's taken an entire lifetime to get to this stage of wood processing because I've always burned wood as the only heat source....if I could make it more efficient without paying someone else I would ....but besides being lazy.... I am also cheep...LOL!!!



Edit....Do NOT take offence but I have to smile when listening to southern folks talk seriously about spiltting wood..sorry guys.... my fires runs nonstop 8-9 months a yr..usually starts the end of Sept with the cookstove and ends early May....wood is not for fun for me...it's just part of the lifestyle living here.....I have... different requirements....and have done it all by hand even without a chainsaw..just a bucksaw....yrs ago....that sucked..even then...carry on.... as I said no offence intended...your requirements may differ.....

 

[Officer's Match]

This thread has cost me money....

I ordered a Fiskars splitting ax today. :msp_wink:

I think you'll love it Randy. It is a speed swing that works best with these, not a power swing. Sometimes when I'm unloading at a customers they'll ask me how I split it. I grab the X27 out of the back of my truck and usually get an incredulous look (I'm 5'9" 175lbs).

 

[watsonr]

Edit....Do NOT take offence but I have to smile when listening to southern folks talk seriously about spiltting wood..sorry guys.... my fires runs nonstop 8-9 months a yr..usually starts the end of Sept with the cookstove and ends early May....wood is not for fun for me...it's just part of the lifestyle living here.....I have... different requirements....and have done it all by hand even without a chainsaw..just a bucksaw....yrs ago....that sucked..even then...carry on.... as I said no offence intended...your requirements may differ.....

....Born and raised in Idaho, burned 15 cord a year and sold about 100 more each year and split by hand every one of them that needed it. Couldn't afford a gas powered splitter and now that I can, don't feel I'm ready to give up just yet. Take it as you may, the Super splitter, in my personal opinion is the best splitter ever made for hand splitting.

I do agree, a chainsaw is better than a bucksaw or a two-man cross-cut... done that before... guess you could say a chainsaw is the lazy way too! Different strokes for different folks, just like you said....... :msp_wink:

 

[fearofpavement]

Edit....Do NOT take offence but I have to smile when listening to southern folks talk seriously about spiltting wood..sorry guys.... my fires runs nonstop 8-9 months a yr..usually starts the end of Sept with the cookstove and ends early May....wood is not for fun for me...it's just part of the lifestyle living here.....I have... different requirements....and have done it all by hand even without a chainsaw..just a bucksaw....yrs ago....that sucked..even then...carry on.... as I said no offence intended...your requirements may differ.....[/QUOTE]

No offense taken but you have a common misconception that it doesn't get cold in the south. I live about 50 miles south of Atlanta and we burn about four cords of wood per year to heat our house. We have a continuous fire going from about the later part of October until early March. We don't get snow here, not because it isn't cold but because it isn't cloudy. I'm from Michigan and there the sky was gray for months at a time. Here it is sunny almost every day in the winter. A January morning is typically 20 degrees F give or take a few. It usually gets above freezing in the afternoon. Parts of Florida are warm all year long but most places not so much. In Michigan, we got a lot of snow due to lake effect but we didn't get the cold temps like they do farther west where it's 30 below and 40 mph winds. That would be rough... If I had to cut wood by hand, I would be heating with electric.

 

[Cantdog]

Edit....Do NOT take offence but I have to smile when listening to southern folks talk seriously about spiltting wood..sorry guys.... my fires runs nonstop 8-9 months a yr..usually starts the end of Sept with the cookstove and ends early May....wood is not for fun for me...it's just part of the lifestyle living here.....I have... different requirements....and have done it all by hand even without a chainsaw..just a bucksaw....yrs ago....that sucked..even then...carry on.... as I said no offence intended...your requirements may differ.....

No offense taken but you have a common misconception that it doesn't get cold in the south. I live about 50 miles south of Atlanta and we burn about four cords of wood per year to heat our house. We have a continuous fire going from about the later part of October until early March. We don't get snow here, not because it isn't cold but because it isn't cloudy. I'm from Michigan and there the sky was gray for months at a time. Here it is sunny almost every day in the winter. A January morning is typically 20 degrees F give or take a few. It usually gets above freezing in the afternoon. Parts of Florida are warm all year long but most places not so much. In Michigan, we got a lot of snow due to lake effect but we didn't get the cold temps like they do farther west where it's 30 below and 40 mph winds. That would be rough... If I had to cut wood by hand, I would be heating with electric.[/QUOTE]

Yes Fear.... I understand.....used to go to Daytona the end of Feb for yrs and yrs....Georgia was where I could start to roll down the window and ride with my arm out.......I had left here in a snow bank and more likely than not the snowbank would be 14-16 inches deeper when I returned in 2-3 weeks......cold here is -20 and warms to 0...that may go on from Dec to the end of Feb you never know.....as I said requirements may differ...Are you burning/splitting hardwood or soft wood down there?

 

[watsonr]

If it's like Virginia, all hardwood and an occasional pine for kindling. Mostly red and white oak with white being my favorite because I like the smell.

 

[Incomplete]

Monster Maul ? The expression "Anvil on a stick" comes to mind.... I can swing my neighbors' 14t hydraulic splitter twice as hard as that anchor. At least the splitter has more grab on it.

I haven't laughed this hard in a couple of days: thanks!

Rural King sells these Anvil's on a stick: I never thought they were meant for swinging (you gotta be an ox with lots of testosterone or something to prove to swing those). I thought it was a wedge with a handle, for two man spitting with a sledge. Thanks for the heads up, I was thinking about getting one.

I use an 8 lb maul and a 3 lb single bit axe: drive the maul and if it binds, rotate the long on the block, and strike the back of the log with the axe in line with the maul. This usally pops the maul out, rotate the long up onto its end and strike the virgin end with the maul and it usally pops right apart. I cut my firewood at 20 inches so it usually needs a little more work, and I've been cutting some gnarly stuff too: sycs the worse. I got a 6 lb maul for the small stuff but I over-struck it on the third swing I was mad. We'll see how long the ductape lasts. Of course this is the Collin's axe maul made in mexico with a a cutting face wider than the back of the maul :msp_angry:

I'm gonna get a friskee's. I love axes :msp_wub:

 

[Whitespider]

The Fiskars is a great tool but it is not the almighty tool that alot of people make them to be. ...don't count on it to be your only splitting axe.

I agree.

I have a Fiskars X27, and while it's a great tool for the right wood, it ain't the holy grail of splitting tools that some make it out to be. Yeah, I can swing the X27 about twice as long as I can swing the 8# maul... but if I have to swing the X27 two, three, or four times to split the same piece that the maul would handle with one swing... where am I saving time, or energy?

Seriously though, I do the vast majority of my splitting with hydraulics. When I decide it's a splittin' day... well then, that means all day. I'll start at sun-up and work until mid-afternoon or so... and swinging anything, even a relatively light Fiskars, for 8-10 hours just ain't gonna' happen. Yeah, fresh out of the gate hand splittin' is faster, but coming down the stretch hydraulics will pass you while your leaning on the handle... tongue hanging out.

About the only time I hand split is when I'm cleaning up after a storm or some such... when there's just a small pile to be split, not worth dragging out the splitter. Red Oak, soft maple, pine or fir and I'll grab the Fiskars... White or Burr Oak, hard maple, elm or Hackberry I'll grab the 8# every time... And with ash, cherry and walnut I'll carry them both to the pile, sometimes, depending on the tree, even those need the extra oooomph that only the 8-pounder can deliver. I don't get stuck in a rut thinkin' I have to modify my technique so the Fiskars can get the job done, like walkin' around the log "slabbing" pieces off, I know right after the first couple swings when it ain't the right tool for the job... I toss it to the side and grab the correct tool.

 

[Cantdog]

Did 'ja ever have fun splitting wood.....Looks like this guy does!!!!!

Black Powder Log Splitting - YouTube