A word about splitting large firewood rounds by hand

[Mastermind]

I'm fat and lazy.......

I noodle up the big chunks so I can lift em to the splitter with ease...... :msp_unsure:

 

[zogger]

I'm fat and lazy.......

I noodle up the big chunks so I can lift em to the splitter with ease...... :msp_unsure:

If I wanted to, around here.. I could be lazier than that, hahahaha! Several years when we first came here I had so many fencelines to clear of saplings and big privet and multiflora, I didn't split a stick, everything I cut fit in the stove as-is. Cut, bring home, stack, that was it. And yep, I cut up the base thick pieces of the privet and the rose and burned them, they work fine.

I could still do that too, just scrounging deadfall branches and small saplings and small standing dead.

The only reason I am cutting big stuff now is it either came from the yard here from those three big trees, dead trees that would fall on something like a fence, or fall or has fallen into the pasture. So it is more big mess defense and cleanup than anything else. I have WAY more potential then what I cut now, could cut by myself every day hard forever and not run out.

I am going over tomorrow to work on a decent hickory that almost hit one of the broiler houses, and it is laying across an access area. I didn't fell it, the lightning and windstorm did. Just has to be cleaned up anyway, might as well bring it home! Most of it will require splitting.

 

[Cantdog]

I'm fat and lazy.......

I noodle up the big chunks so I can lift em to the splitter with ease...... :msp_unsure:

LOL Not to stihl your thunder Randy but I'm even lazier still......my splitter is vertical and mounted on the three point hitch of my tractor.....I just lay the block/cant/wheel down on a of junk of 2x...let the splitter all the way down and simply back the anvil under...get off the tractor sit down on my milk crate and split till it gone and then back under the next one.......almost as easy as oil heat...LOL!!!

 

[Mastermind]

LOL Not to stihl your thunder Randy but I'm even lazier still......my splitter is vertical and mounted on the three point hitch of my tractor.....I just lay the block/cant/wheel down on a of junk of 2x...let the splitter all the way down and simply back the anvil under...get off the tractor sit down on my milk crate and split till it gone and then back under the next one.......almost as easy as oil heat...LOL!!!

Should I start a "Who's The Laziest" thread?????? Complete with a poll?????

Or......or.......how about a "How To Process Firewood While Never Breaking A Sweat" thread????

:msp_biggrin::msp_biggrin::msp_biggrin:

 

[Mastermind]

Should I start a "Who's The Laziest" thread?????? Complete with a poll?????

Or......or.......how about a "How To Process Firewood While Never Breaking A Sweat" thread????

:msp_biggrin::msp_biggrin::msp_biggrin:

Crap......I need to do some work.

Laters :msp_unsure:

 

[Cantdog]

Crap......I need to do some work.

Laters :msp_unsure:

Me too I got 24 hardwood trees to drop this afternoon......now that I've had lunch and corrected a carb problem on the 61/268XP......

 

[clayman]

I don't own a Fiskars splitting axe, but based on all the rave reviews I have read, and not just in this thread, but over the years, I think I will get one. Looks like if they work good this would be a good time to get one. I know they are not cheap, but I suppose if it does the job it will be worth the money. If it doesn't - I ain't going to be happy.

I went out this morning and slot cut all the big rounds and split about 50% of them in half.

BTW How hard is it to clean out the bar oil tank on the 346XP. I'm pretty sure I have some trash in mine. Don't ask me how.

 

[zogger]

I don't own a Fiskars splitting axe, but based on all the rave reviews I have read, and not just in this thread, but over the years, I think I will get one. Looks like if they work good this would be a good time to get one. I know they are not cheap, but I suppose if it does the job it will be worth the money. If it doesn't - I ain't going to be happy.

I went out this morning and slot cut all the big rounds and split about 50% of them in half.

BTW How hard is it to clean out the bar oil tank on the 346XP. I'm pretty sure I have some trash in mine. Don't ask me how.

Just use some of your fuel mix. dump it in, slosh it around good, dump it out. Repeat as necessary.

The fiskars shines in regular "fair" to split or easy wood. Gnarly stuff is gnarly stuff, sucks with mauls wedges or even hydraulics. On fair to easy, it is faster than using most hydraulics I would guess, for most chunks. My timed record is 15 very good splits ffrom a red oak round in 40 seconds. That is straight grained, a nice fat round, easy to split. You can go wicked fast in wood like that.

I *wouldn't* buy or use a Fiskars JUST to do hard pieces and crotches, etc. Wrong tool.

I use fiskars, maul, sledge & wedge, and final resort straight noodling. All have their place. The fiskars does the bulk of it though.

 

[El Quachito]

Yessir. The modern maul at the hardware store is far to blunt. I filed the head on my Chinese made maul and it has a better taper than it did before. It flared up right past the "cutting" edge so I filed that down, easily done by hand when filing Chinese pot metal. Fiskars sounds like a good idea, might be trying one of those.

I have never split with a wedge, for no particular reason, but I do often rip down an inch or two or 1/2 way so that i can pop a 36" + round of doug fir.

 

[cheeves]

You are a better man than me for that is exactly what I am trying to avoid, but not too long ago I did the same thing. 74 years of walking under the sun forces one to find an easier way.

Clayman, you're my hero!!! Splitting by hand at 74!! I have you to look up to! Just touched up my two favorite splitting mauls yesterday!

 

[Officer's Match]

Just use some of your fuel mix. dump it in, slosh it around good, dump it out. Repeat as necessary.

The fiskars shines in regular "fair" to split or easy wood. Gnarly stuff is gnarly stuff, sucks with mauls wedges or even hydraulics. On fair to easy, it is faster than using most hydraulics I would guess, for most chunks. My timed record is 15 very good splits ffrom a red oak round in 40 seconds. That is straight grained, a nice fat round, easy to split. You can go wicked fast in wood like that.

I *wouldn't* buy or use a Fiskars JUST to do hard pieces and crotches, etc. Wrong tool.

I use fiskars, maul, sledge & wedge, and final resort straight noodling. All have their place. The fiskars does the bulk of it though.

With you for the most part, but often skip from X27 straight to M-Tronic just 'cause she sounds so sweet.

 

[clayman]

Clayman, you're my hero!!! Splitting by hand at 74!! I have you to look up to! Just touched up my two favorite splitting mauls yesterday!

Years ago, after a period of health problems, and being badly overweight, I went on a diet and started working out. Since then God has been good to me. At the gym I tried to think about what I wanted to do, and what exercises would aid me in doing the things I wanted to do. One of those things was splitting wood, because I love having a fire on a cold winter night. Goes back to my childhood I guess when we had an old Warm Morning stove in the living room to scooch up to when the frost was on the pumpkins.

 

[ZeroJunk]

The straight grain oaks that grow in the woods are usually fairly easy to split. But, the large trees I run in to are usually around old home places where they were never timbered, grew in the open, and usaully you only have maybe 15 or twenty feet before they have limbs coming out bigger around than I am.

You can beat on that part until you are blue in the face. Even puttin it on a splitter you spend half your time trying to get the splitter loose after it grunts a little and stops.

Noodling is your friend.

 

[SilverKing]

Or you could lay them horizontal on 2 other pieces off of the ground and noodle them with the saw........Saves wear and tear on the body of whipping an axe/sledge/maul around.:msp_thumbup: That's what I do for the real big stuff.

I dont have a mechanical splitter either plus it can be done in the field..

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

 

[Officer's Match]

.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

Ouch! :censored:

 

[1ruralmailman]

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

been there,done that.and yes it do vibrate like a bugger.

 

[Iron Head]

Just use some of your fuel mix. dump it in, slosh it around good, dump it out. Repeat as necessary.

The fiskars shines in regular "fair" to split or easy wood. Gnarly stuff is gnarly stuff, sucks with mauls wedges or even hydraulics. On fair to easy, it is faster than using most hydraulics I would guess, for most chunks. My timed record is 15 very good splits ffrom a red oak round in 40 seconds. That is straight grained, a nice fat round, easy to split. You can go wicked fast in wood like that.

I *wouldn't* buy or use a Fiskars JUST to do hard pieces and crotches, etc. Wrong tool.

I use fiskars, maul, sledge & wedge, and final resort straight noodling. All have their place. The fiskars does the bulk of it though.

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.

 

[BarkBuster20]

idk, fiskars are pretty great, can easily take many duties that were once reserved for the maul. sometimes you just need a wedge and maul though. unless it needs to be wedged ill stick with fiskars.

 

[Cantdog]

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

Very true...haven't seen one of those for a long time...they truely sucked...who ever came with that idea needs a slap in the back of the head....

 

[Joe Kidd]

Very true...haven't seen one of those for a long time...they truely sucked...who ever came with that idea needs a slap in the back of the head....

+1 Gibbs style, only harder!