How much do you spilt with an AXE

[svk]

That gal makes my elbows hurt just watching her

For me it’s my feet lol

 

[stihlaficionado]

From 6 years of hand splitting I can pretty much tell if the wood is going to split with an axe or a wedge. The x27 is a decent axe and the stuff it wont split is usually twisted or knotty. I would buy a fiskars maul but it doesn't make sence because if it wont split with a x27 then it needs a wedge or a saw cut and a wedge to "pop" it.

I went from an 8lb sledge to a 10lb sledge and it's a work out. Well the wife thought it looked easy. She found out swinging a 10lb sledge and splitting with a wedge is not easy at all. That being said I'd rather swing a x27 than a isocore maul for an hour.

I bought an IsoCore just to see if it worked as well as many said it did. It was less than $50
so I'm not out much

For 10 years I've used a friend's Built Rite & I'd rather use that over hand splitting any day. But over the last 5 years the splitters availability
has been so-so & I don't want to wait until it's 90 plus outside to split wood, so I've been using the X27. I can spend a lot more for a splitting axe, but
I'm very happy with the X 27. At 6'6" tall I can put a lot of speed into the swing.

My pet peeve with axes is the short handles. If the $150 plus axes offered a handle longer than 31 or 32 inches I'd look into them.
A 40-42 inch handle would be great.

 

[Mustang71]

I had been using an axe for a few years and it did the job but I'd swing it real hard to split them. I got the x27 and buried it into my wood block the first swing because I swung to hard. Lol. I would not spend more money on a better axe the fiskars works great. My only issue with the x27 is the edge chips on it in wood.

I like long handle axes. Keep it away from the toes and at 5'6 it should hit the ground before my legs.

 

[muddstopper]

I bought an axe once. Took a flapper disc and made it razor sharp. Used it for the first time this week. I broke the cable on my skidding winch and I used the axe to cut the rope.

 

[Cody]

How much? Not enough, maybe 1.5-2 cord each spring. I've made mention in other threads though that I'd like to change that. Looking at maybe getting one of those fancy isocore's if I hear enough good things about them. The oak I burn splits pretty easy but I still like something in the 8# area. For the most part I can split the oak faster by hand than I can with the splitter. Line em up and wack em down, toss aside what's good, take a breather, stand them back up if necessary and go for another round.

 

[DSW]

I burn a lot of poplar, soft maple, sassafras, pin and red oak. They're all easily doable with a splitting axe. On something like a big red oak round it wouldn't even be easier to do with a splitter unless you were using equipment or a log lift.

And when the weather is cool it's quite enjoyable.

Of course if you're getting a lot of elm, gum, white oak, etc....and have a log lift or tractor it would make no sense to split by hand solely.

 

[DFK]

We are feeding a Lopi Freedom so our wood is split quite small.
This year I split 4 - full 4'x4'x8' cords of wood. Three cords of Red and White Oak and one cord half Ash and half Hackberry.
99 percent of it was split with a axe. I have a large, 5 pound head, single bit axe that I use for almost all my splitting.
The remaining 1 percent was split with either a 5 pound maul, or on very rare occasions, an 8 pound maul.

At one time everything was split with the 8 pounder.... now, at 53 years young that thing is hard to swing for any amount of time.
Should have started using the Axe years ago. The five pound maul works very well but the balance seems to be off just a little.

David