any one still split by hand?

[ancy]

Wait a second.... Fiskars and a monster maul in the same shot, that's an oxymoron ain't it? :msp_biggrin:

Well you can see which one I like to use.

 

[branchbuzzer]

Well you can see which one I like to use.

If you put the heads of both a Fiskars and a monster maul together, they flip around so they oppose each other. Just like magnet poles. It's true!!

 

[ancy]

If you put the heads of both a Fiskars and a monster maul together, they flip around so they oppose each other. Just like magnet poles. It's true!!

?? Are you in the hooch already?

 

[Chris-PA]

100% by hand - I have no interest in a splitter. I have a variety of axes and a new 8lb maul (my 6lb broke). I think the 8lb is too heavy, but I only use it for nasty stuff - I'm definitely losing altitude when I'm swinging that thing. A 4-1/2lb axe is just right for me.

 

[jdc123]

I use a maul for most of mine, sometimes when I get together with other folks we use a tractor mounted hyro.

 

[SPDRMNKY]

by hand or noodled...to spend that kind of money on a single-use tool it has to save me lots of time

 

[genesis5521]

by hand or noodled...to spend that kind of money on a single-use tool it has to save me lots of time

Hi SPDRMNKY:

In case your interested, you can get a little Ryobi 4 ton electric splitter for $299 from Home Depot. Don't let its diminutive size fool ya. This little sucker has split virtually everything I've thrown at it, including some 25" + rounds. I made a video of my splitter which you may find interesting.

http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/191891.htm

Don <><

 

[Arbonaut]

Jeez. I thought enough people had gotten through to you to go passive. Permission granted.
Of course, one would never expect some surficial twit to understand that master craftsmen got there by building on the work of generations and demonstrate it daily. As opposed to mass-production of toys-of-the-moment.
(Dipstick. If it's okay with you, I choose my soundtrack.)

I was just kidding, Yank. Don't get your thong in a wad. I actually like classical music. Can I recommend Wagner? Remember Colonel Kilgore on Apopcalypse Now? Or how about some Celtic classics?

I still choose Council Tools though I have a Stihl Maul hanging next to the Gränfors Bruks (Check out that umlaut, man. Now that's class.) throwing axes.

In craft mastery, we have an expression, "Save where you can. Spend where you must."

Besides, if I wasn't joking around with you, CTYank, I never would have learned that new word , "surficial."

I choose to split wood by hand because I like being connected to my surroundings. The 100 year-old trees I split the hearts out of deserve respect. The Apache Indians called it, "The Spirit that Moves in All Things." Science refers to it as, "The Law of the Conservation of Energy."

I call it reverence.

 

[SFC B]

Only split a couple of cords a year for the fireplace...but it is by hand now. Tried electrics the last two years (one from HD and one from Lowes) and they both crapped out in less than a cord :msp_sneaky: Right now it is just an ax, soon to get the Fiskars :msp_biggrin:

 

[turnkey4099]

and let the chuck norris jokes begin:hmm3grin2orange:

I just stand in front of the pile and dodge the sharp looks from my wife. Those take apart the toughest round.

Harry K

 

[Preston]

Yesterday I put a stick sourwood in the splitter I can't get apart by hand. The splitter bogged down and I thought it was done. But it caught a second breath and pushed on through the knot. By ax and maul, that piece would have gone in the fireplace whole or just rotted away.

 

[kd460]

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?

I split the same way till my body says no more. The exercise is one of the reasons I got into wood burning. However, I have been getting alot of elm the past two years, so I won't even bother trying to split that by hand.

Otherwise, it is an 8lb maul for me, then when the tendonitis kicks in, I switch to the splitter for awhile, then back to the maul for another try. I like splitting with a maul more than using my splitter. KD

 

[stihlrookie]

I split 15 cords this past season with a Wesco 6# maul, pretty sure thats the brand anyway, its an old head that has seen a few handles.

 

[Preston]

I can promise all of you younger than 68, when the body says times up, that's will be exactly what it means. The ole macho brain will say yeah yeah yeah, do it. Then the body says do and I ain't helping.

 

[TreePointer]

I can promise all of you younger than 68, when the body says times up, that's will be exactly what it means. The ole macho brain will say yeah yeah yeah, do it. Then the body says do and I ain't helping.

Amen!
A few years ago I still thought I was still Superman, but my body finally told me I wasn't even Clark Kent. That's when I bought the hydraulic splitter.

 

[zogger]

I split the same way till my body says no more. The exercise is one of the reasons I got into wood burning. However, I have been getting alot of elm the past two years, so I won't even bother trying to split that by hand.

Otherwise, it is an 8lb maul for me, then when the tendonitis kicks in, I switch to the splitter for awhile, then back to the maul for another try. I like splitting with a maul more than using my splitter. KD

After the dozens of threads here, I am surprised you haven't gone to a fiskars. It's night and day over the old anvil on a stick and MUCH less beating on the hands/arms/shoulders/body in general.

I am 60 and a small human, five five and 130 with my clothes and boots on, meaning actually less. I am basically half the size of most of the regular guys here in other words, because I've looked at all the pitchers guys post. I still have to do the same work, so all my life I have had to learn to work smarter, right then, or I couldn'[t do "it" whatever "it" was for manual labor.

My 8lb maul stays in the shed/wellhouse unless ABSOLUTELY necessary now. It's just slap nuts to run that thing compared to a fiskars for most wood I see and have to whack on, which is every species that grows around here. I can run a fiskars for hours and not be whipped, I can run that 8lb chunk of stupid crap for around 15 minutes and I'm whipped.

My only regret with the fiskars is I didn't get one years earlier, thanks all the hardware stores out there for only selling 17th century designed crap! That's all regular mauls are, 17th century (whatever) crap designs.

I had to find this site, read up about fiskars, then order one online, just to get one. It's the BEST hand tool I have gotten myself in decades, for what it replaced.

 

[Preston]

I have found out Sears sell Fiskars.

 

[Chris-PA]

After the dozens of threads here, I am surprised you haven't gone to a fiskars. It's night and day over the old anvil on a stick and MUCH less beating on the hands/arms/shoulders/body in general.

I am 60 and a small human, five five and 130 with my clothes and boots on, meaning actually less. I am basically half the size of most of the regular guys here in other words, because I've looked at all the pitchers guys post. I still have to do the same work, so all my life I have had to learn to work smarter, right then, or I couldn'[t do "it" whatever "it" was for manual labor.

My 8lb maul stays in the shed/wellhouse unless ABSOLUTELY necessary now. It's just slap nuts to run that thing compared to a fiskars for most wood I see and have to whack on, which is every species that grows around here. I can run a fiskars for hours and not be whipped, I can run that 8lb chunk of stupid crap for around 15 minutes and I'm whipped.

My only regret with the fiskars is I didn't get one years earlier, thanks all the hardware stores out there for only selling 17th century designed crap! That's all regular mauls are, 17th century (whatever) crap designs.

I had to find this site, read up about fiskars, then order one online, just to get one. It's the BEST hand tool I have gotten myself in decades, for what it replaced.

Guys didn't use mauls in the 17th century - they used axes because they knew what they were doing, and because iron was expensive thanks to the energy needed to make it. One good axe will do everything from felling to splitting.

 

[benp]

By hand or noodled. I picked up an X27 yesterday and I like it alot. I am floored my how little vibration/shock is transmitted to your hands and wrists. The handle is very effective.

Hi SPDRMNKY:

In case your interested, you can get a little Ryobi 4 ton electric splitter for $299 from Home Depot. Don't let its diminutive size fool ya. This little sucker has split virtually everything I've thrown at it, including some 25" + rounds. I made a video of my splitter which you may find interesting.

http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/191891.htm

Don <><

Nice video Don. Its looks like you have a really good setup working there for you!:msp_thumbup:

 

[EXCALIBER]

Those of you splitting by hand are all invited over to my house where you can show me how good your axe's, mauls, ect are in my cottonwood and elm. Cottonwood is so soft it just absorbs the axes impact, and elm is so tough after 20 swings and its still laughing at you, I think you will see the light and get your revenge by placing the round on my hydro.

I split by hand when I had pine to split as it, like many other woods you guys split, is so easy to split you could split it just by farting hard!