BIG KNOTTY rounds by hand

[Chris-PA]

I split by hand and don't own a splitter, though I have taken to noodling nasty pieces with big knots and crotches this year. By why all the attitude? I didn't see anything in the comments to warrant that.

 

[Dalmatian90]

How do you do it?

P.S. Powered tools don't count, e.g making 1/4s via noodles

In that case...what can't be split by ax goes in the truck, gets delivered to a friend's house who has a splitter to get rid of what is waste to me, and I go cut down another tree.

Takes less time and effort then whacking away inefficiently at a crotch, and I've got plenty of trees.

If you're going to say what if gasoline ceases to exist...my answer would be about the same. I'd save the nasty pieces for use in outside fires to heat pig processing kettles and making coals for dutch ovens.

Get the impression I've come to the conclusion that I loathe wedge-n-sledge?

 

[Mad Professor]

Wow, MP, my first comment was a JOKE. EVER heard of one? Hence the smiley face thingamajig at the end.

I asked about the 038, because I have one, that I referenced your posts for to modifying into a Mag. I learned, hacked at it, took a few tries, and now I hope its ready to run. Waiting for the fall to fire it up and see what it can do. Of course, I do that because I enjoy it, not to showboat, gloat, and shoot personal attacks on others who haven't.

Splitting 8 cords by hand doesn't make you a man. I bought a splitter because it saves me time over splitting those nasty rounds by hand, saves my back, and in turn I get to enjoy life more and spend time with my family. I guess I'm not a man in your book, but then again, I couldn't care less after your tirade.

I also find it quite humorous that you have a narrow definition of hard work. You have to be a blue collar laborer in order to qualify? Sorry, but my paycheck suggests I am working hard enough for someone's liking.

Sorry I got off topic and into a rant. Hope your conversion works as good as mine have.

There was a death in the family and I medicated myself with" Vodkadin" yesterday.

I do know hard work as a farmer, logger and lumber miller. I still do all of that, but for fun now, not as a necessity. The days of stacking 6 X 8 " X 12' green hemlock, all day, are behind me..........thank God.

I'll get back to this thread, with pics, as I have some big knotty rock maple to deal with ASAP. It will require wedges and the 20 lber.

 

[Chris-PA]

I can't tell you how much I enjoy the feel of an axe cracking into a round and ripping on through. When I'm stuck in the office on a nice day I can't wait to get home and head up to the woods to do some splitting. It's great exercise and when I'm in good shape and my aim and speed are good I can crack a lot of wood in short time. I haven't the slightest interest in a splitter.

 

[bcorradi]

Sorry I got off topic and into a rant. Hope your conversion works as good as mine have.

There was a death in the family and I medicated myself with" Vodkadin" yesterday.

I do know hard work as a farmer, logger and lumber miller. I still do all of that, but for fun now, not as a necessity. The days of stacking 6 X 8 " X 12' green hemlock, all day, are behind me..........thank God.

I'll get back to this thread, with pics, as I have some big knotty rock maple to deal with ASAP. It will require wedges and the 20 lber.

I knew something was a bit off kilter in your posts. Sorry to hear about the death in your family.

 

[H 2 H]

This year it's all been done with a 3 /12lb ax and 8lb maul and maybe a little help from a saw a time or two :biggrin:

Just Alder,Maple and Fir

 

[Mad Professor]

I also have some ca. + 40' ash to deal with, some NASTY with knots, some straight grain. Rounds that would be hard to even lift for a splitter, and some splitters could not deal with.

Will do pics for that too.

Again, sorry for rants and PO people here, today is a better day.......

Best

MP

 

[thombat4]

MP you sound like a fella I wished I coulda known and learned from:msp_thumbup: And that goes for quite a few others on here ta boot!

 

[sdt7618]

having read this thread, been totaly confused as the direction it took etc, MP, Thoughts go with you.

as for splitting, don't have or have access to a spliter, sledge, wedge and 8lb maul! beats the gym any day of the week and heats the home to!

 

[Mad Professor]

Hi folks,

Sorry again if I've PO you, Any of You. Life has sucked last few days.......

This thread was about big nasty rounds, splitting by hand, not piss ants like me......

I have ca 40" large Ash and rock/hard Maple to deal with, Will try to make a pictorial as a mea culpa. Might take week or more

best ,

MP

 

[cnice_37]

Hi folks,

Sorry again if I've PO you, Any of You. Life has sucked last few days.......

This thread was about big nasty rounds, splitting by hand, not piss ants like me......

I have ca 40" large Ash and rock/hard Maple to deal with, Will try to make a pictorial as a mea culpa. Might take week or more

best ,

MP

Life is more important than words. Sorry for your loss. Now go take out that aggression on your monster rounds. I'm about to take out mine on my p.o.s. Crapsman riding mower that took another dump on me. Second time this season, grrrr.

 

[zogger]

I do not think I could swing a 20 lb sledge...I mean I only weigh between 125-130 any given time. I can do an 8lber Ok though. But I can speed blitz a 4.5 lb fiskars.

..so far, where I live now, everything has gotten split, eventually, or noodled. I don't fool with real nasty ones past a few times. Try to split, if it doesn't, back in the pile to dry some more. Wait.......try it again, still don't split, back in the pile. Third wait and no split, noodle.

I have let some rounds sit for three years and then they finally split, sledge/wedge/maul, but mostly I just noodle now. Most of my wood splits easy to moderate with the fiskars, around 90% or so. 5% sledge/wedge/maul, 5% noodle. Rough estimates. Just depends, I cut a wide variety of wood.

Funny, lately it is this rubber pine that is giving me fits. It is in no hurry to check, and anything just bounces off, doesn't matter, fiskars or maul. And it is really knotty, them dang knots stop a good split.

That's more extra bonus wood for me though, I don't really *need* it, I just have it, and by golly eventually it WILL all get split. I am patient, once it dries enough and checks it will split.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Mad Prof, sorry for your loss. After the first page, I was ready to light you up verbally and with some neg rep. After the explanation, you get a pass, and some good rep. Been there, been in the same foul mood where even my best friends didn't want much to do with me.

I keep the Fiskars around for two reasons: In case the splitter goes down, and probably more importantly, for those times I just need to blow off some steam from a bad day. Putting some muscle to work and watching rounds fly apart is great therapy, at least for me.

I have a lot of respect for those that split everything by hand, but given the choice, I'll let Bubba do the work, and spend the extra time and energy on other projects, or splitting more. I can go all day with the hydraulic, but an hour of swingin hard and I've had enough. I'm getting soft, and I admit it.

 

[Whitespider]

In the past, back-in-the-day, I split with wedge, sledge and maul. If I have a small pile, or need to make a few smaller splits from larger for a cookin' fire I'll still grab the maul (or lately the Fiskars for some stuff)...

But I'm done with the sledge and wedge... again, back-in-the-day one time I cut a nasty elm and near killed myself getting it split. After that I said to myself, "Self, ya' ain't never gonna' do that again"... I've used power for most splitting ever since. Yeah, it feels good to swing the maul a few times once-in-a-while... but this is 2012 after-all, and I've developed a "work smarter, not harder" attitude towards life.

Don't get me wrong, I ain't puttin' anyone down that chooses to split all by hand, and I have a certain respect for someone who does... but... personally... I'm done with that. I conserve my energy whenever possible, which allows me to work longer and get more done in the end. One thing you'll learn if you ever take a wilderness survival course... "if you don't need to stand, sit... if you don't need to sit, lay down... if you don't need to be awake, sleep... conserve energy whenever possible." Now splittin' wood at home ain't anything near a survival situation... but I find conserving energy whenever possible fits well with my "work smarter, not harder" outlook.

 

[rmount]

Hey MP,
sorry to hear about the death in your family, somedays life really is is crap

The days of stacking 6 X 8 " X 12' green hemlock, all day, are behind me..........thank God.

Earlier this summer I milled up some 8x8x10' hemlock to replace the posts holding up the sleeper girts in our old barn. I don't ever want to be doing that for a whole day!

About splitting, I do about 8 - 10 cord a year with a 6# maul, anything too knotty or too elmy I put in a pile for my nephew's wood furnace - he's 30 years younger than me so if it won't fit whole he's welcome to split it! I can't be bothered these days.

 

[griffonks]

I like the feel of the ax smacking thru the round too, I always split pine by hand. However I like the efficiency of a hydraulic splitter for Cottonwood or elm. The main thing that I dislike about the splitter is the noise of the engine. I hate listening to the drone for hours.....

 

[Mad Professor]

Thank you folks for not grinding me a new........

I do have some hard maple and ash that are in the 40" range. Will get the camera for those, wedges, 20 lber, mauls, maybe the little axe too.

best

MP

P.S. must be some other retro spliters? Add to arm split here , thanks.

 

[zogger]

Thank you folks for not grinding me a new........

I do have some hard maple and ash that are in the 40" range. Will get the camera for those, wedges, 20 lber, mauls, maybe the little axe too.

best

MP

P.S. must be some other retro spliters? Add to arm split here , thanks.

Even SMALL real knotty rounds just suck. I got one here, a pine, I got smashed--I mean smashed, nothing elegant about it-- down to a size I can drop in the top of the stove. I was determined to do it with an axe or maul and sledge and wedge. It kicked my butt. Got a nice sweaty workout though.

The onliest old timey doesn't fail trick I know for splitting wood is..don't! If you can get saplings and tops, this is all you need. I'm serious, don't cut anything so large as it needs splitting, and cut down to one inch branches. One inch to twelve inches, or whatever you can fit into the stove, then let it sit long enough to season. When I was cutting all my personal wood with a bowsaw and splitting with a regular light chopping axe I learned this.

I do this now with all the sweetgum I get, cut to size, that's it. Let it sit for two years, it is real dry and burns well. Eventually I'll have a larger truck and some way to load it and cut some more big ones and SELL the big logs to the sawmill. I'll burn all the branches and tops though, it is OK wood.