any one still split by hand?

[stihly dan]

Am I the only one left splitting by hand? I love it, faster than a sigle split splitter and a great work out. My personal gym that pays me back. Some times with an aching back. I use a 20 inch tire to hold all the pieces in place. so much faster and much less bending, its amazing.
How do you do it?

 

[sbowman871]

How do you do it?

With a 27 ton Troy Built splitter.

 

[unclemoustache]

No, there are plenty of us who still split by hand, although my neighbor recently bought a pretty good splitter, so I borrow that from time to time. I like to get a few rounds in each morning, but that doesn't happen as often as I like, especially being so busy with other things.

 

[jeepmedic]

I enjoy splitting by hand. Did about 7 cords this past winter by hand with the Fiskars. Did about another 5 with the hydro splitter. Getting the splitter out is pain in the ...plus I lost 20lbs this winter splitting wood. I just felt like I accomplished something doing it by hand. Good old fashioned work

 

[TreePointer]

I split by hand if it's too much trouble to get my hydraulic splitter to the wood or if I want the exercise, but most of the time it's an hydraulic splitter.

 

[andydodgegeek]

I have been using the fiskars to make the big oak rounds more manageable. Also like to just rip them with the 064.

 

[gregfox]

I split the one's down that make my back hurt afterwards. ~24" plus hardwood, I can pick them up, but I regret it later. Bust 'em into halfs or quarters than hydraulic. Unless i'm feelin extra fiesty(ie. enough beers:hmm3grin2orange, than maybe a couple red oak rounds with ye ole maul. Otherwise I'll stand there and pull the lever. I get enough excercise cutting, carrying, loading, stacking, ect to spend my energy swingin an axe. Splitin red ok is almost fun, move on to white or burr oak or hickory... nothin fun about it, oh yea and elm forget it!

 

[Boogieman142]

I sometimes split by hand and theres 3 hydraulic splitters here to use....

 

[howard270]

I split by hand when I want exercise or if it's easy to split wood. I cut mostly hedge and elm so not much is split by hand. Plus, I dislocated my shoulder a few years ago and even swinging a shop hammer about a dozen times gets me to hurting pretty good, not to mention what an 8 lb maul does to it.

But occasionally I cut some black locust and it almost always is saved for the maul.

 

[Steve2910]

Pretty much what others have said... bust the straight stuff up w/ the Fiskars for the cardio work- out. Anything too gnarly goes through the hydraulic or is given away/ traded for favors/ burn barrel.

 

[trailmaker]

Moving heavy objects around makes me nervous about getting a back injury, so I just take my splitting axe to the round.

 

[fir]

Am I the only one left splitting by hand? I love it, faster than a sigle split splitter and a great work out. My personal gym that pays me back. Some times with an aching back. I use a 20 inch tire to hold all the pieces in place. so much faster and much less bending, its amazing.
How do you do it?

All I use for heat up here in canada
is wood, fir wood and split it all by hand. It is faster and I also use the 20 inch tire it really saves the back. I love to split the big stuff too.

 

[H 2 H]

All by hand here when the axe wont do it the 8lbs maul comes out then the wedges than the cuz words fly

 

[CTYank]

Wouldn't have it any other way. I've always found it to be a great workout.

If at all possible, I use a pickaroon to pull rounds from the pile, to place on black locust "chopping block."

I've found that 8# maul is too heavy- not a good match for the mechanism driving it. Thus 5# has been the choice here for some years. Recent epiphany (as of couple of days past) was that there are still really good mauls being made. Far better than the dept. store denizens I've been using. The particular one is a 3 kg maul from Muller (Austria). (That's about 6.6 lb.) Seems they're in great demand at ~$150 per; waiting time was 3 mos.

Lessons learned: Metallurgy matters- it holds a sharp edge, with no tendency noted to chipping; also malleability of entire head is very low- IOW, tough stuff. Shape matters- each face is a plane from the edge to the center of the eye. Simple to see from the markings that the whole of each face gets involved in the splitting. With that as an example, an upcoming project will be to take angle grinder to previous mauls for a little facial surgery- cheek trimming.

This thing is so simply and brutally efficient, that it makes splitting big oak & maple rounds fun. It's going to greatly shorten the time required to bust up the piles of rounds here, at least by half. Wish I'd gotten it years back. Seems also that Gransfors (Sweden) is building a fan-base too for hand-forging.

Forks and knots succumb easily after noodling a groove.

 

[H 2 H]

I had a choice of mauls to use a 10 pounder or a 8 pounder forgot to mention that :msp_tongue:

 

[turnkey4099]

Everything by hand except the knots/crotchs get fed to the splitter. What it doesn't handle then goes on to the "noodling" pile.

Harry K

 

[zogger]

100% by hand. there was a splitter here my boss made (it is as old as me in years actually), then delivered after he upgraded the engine to some expensive kohler unit. That broke at around 20 hours, plus the hydraulics broke as well, started leaking all over. I hauled it off and stuck it by his shed. I never asked for it in the first place, always enjoyed hand splitting. About the only thing I liked with the hydraulic is the log lifter for those 300 lb mambo chunks..

There's a thought, not a full splitter, but just a powered lifter for hand splitting big stuff.....hmmmmm

The bulk of my wood is done with the fiskars now, sometimes I have to use a BFH and a wedge, but since I got the hang of effective fiskars use, that rarely happens anymore. From 6" to over 30", most any species now. Some I do green, some semi dry, some I leave until the rounds are real dry and fully cracked, just depends.

I have enough wood I don't fool with it, if it doesn't show signs of splitting easy, I throw it back on the "to be tried again pile" and I let them dry more. Eventually they all split.

I take the harder to split stuff as a challenge, try to figure out a diff technique for them, adjust my swing and angles, etc. Most stuff splits easy though, or "easy enough".

It's faster too, for most wood. If you had a splitter that cycled as fast as I can swing and reswing, that would be one freeking dangerous splitter.

Hand splitting is half and half, reading the wood is as important as your tool selection and use (speed and aiming).

If I was doing commercial quantities, 100s of cords a year, sure, some powered splitter or processor unit with the multiple wedges, but I am not at this time, so hand splitting it is.

 

[genesis5521]

I haven't split with a maul in years, but I'm going backwards from an electric splitter to hand splitting. I wanna get a Fiskars X27 so I can get a bit of a workout.

Don <><

 

[Arbonaut]

Will Somebody Embed Some Classical Music For This Guy?!

Wouldn't have it any other way. I've always found it to be a great workout.

If at all possible, I use a pickaroon to pull rounds from the pile, to place on black locust "chopping block."

I've found that 8# maul is too heavy- not a good match for the mechanism driving it. Thus 5# has been the choice here for some years. Recent epiphany (as of couple of days past) was that there are still really good mauls being made. Far better than the dept. store denizens I've been using. The particular one is a 3 kg maul from Muller (Austria). (That's about 6.6 lb.) Seems they're in great demand at ~$150 per; waiting time was 3 mos.

Lessons learned: Metallurgy matters- it holds a sharp edge, with no tendency noted to chipping; also malleability of entire head is very low- IOW, tough stuff. Shape matters- each face is a plane from the edge to the center of the eye. Simple to see from the markings that the whole of each face gets involved in the splitting. With that as an example, an upcoming project will be to take angle grinder to previous mauls for a little facial surgery- cheek trimming.

This thing is so simply and brutally efficient, that it makes splitting big oak & maple rounds fun. It's going to greatly shorten the time required to bust up the piles of rounds here, at least by half. Wish I'd gotten it years back. Seems also that Gransfors (Sweden) is building a fan-base too for hand-forging.

Forks and knots succumb easily after noodling a groove.

I traded my 34 ton Swisher for a Case skidsteer after a short time. I prefer an 8# Council maul. Except on Elm, there I prefer to let the next guy share in Bountificus Deciduous Multitude.

 

[carguy]

I have never used a hydraulic splitter but the maul I like best is the Husqvarna 5 lb. which is more of a cross between a maul and an axe. I have never tried a Fiskers so I don't know which one is better although the Husky is a little more at $75. The ergonomics on the Husky are excellent and the hand forged head is almost a work of art. I do have to admit that I am partial to Husky from my dirt bike days when you would truly feel part of the machine compared to other makes. I have also found that Husky sporting rifles point very well.