Santa brought me a Fiskars X27

[turnkey4099]

I have one, and I like it. It's lighter than a 6lb maul, but splits about as well. If you have oddball or hard to split stuff, it's not the best thing to use. For reasonably straight pieces, it's great.

Like any tool it has it's advantages and drawbacks. Keep both around, and switch off as needed. You won't be working so hard with the Friskars around, but keep it out of the dirt.

Exactly! It isn't a maul and it isn't a replacement for one. My splitting block has the Fiskars, 6lb maul, 10lb sledge and wedge leaning right by the splitting block. Big blocks get the wedge/sledge to bust in half then the fiskars. Maul hardly ever get used except to tap the fiskars when the split doesn't go all the way.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

I appreciate all the input. I am thinking bar oil but will probably use whatever is handy. I split with a maul, several steel wedges, and a sledghammer for about 8 years before I built my splitter. That been almost 25 years ago. I have split very very little by hand sence then. I have read a lot about Fiskers on AS. Splitting by hand is gonna be a new thing for me. It will need to be small and straight grain for me to split by hand. The hydraulic splitter will still split most of my wood. I can see where splitting by hand can be quicker with the right kind of wood, and good to keep the old hart pumping. that's what I am shooting for.

I'm 78 and split almost everything by hand - got 80+ cord black locust harvested in 5 years in the stacks, 90% split by hand . the splitter gets drug out maybe a couple times a year to do up the pile of rejects from the splitting block. An hour splitting for the exercise beats the pee out of paying a gym membership!

Harry K

 

[dancan]

fwiw, and this may only benefit the Canadians here but Canadian Tire has Fiskars on sale for 20% off till Jan 2. Plan to hit the local store and grab one. and if you haven't tried one yet, their brush cutter/axe is the cat's arse. love it for hacking away at the undergrowth

Thanks for the heads up !
I went down today and got me an X25
I split a couple of rounds tonight , -8 with a windchill of -27 but I had to try it LOL , sure works a lot better than a regular axe .

 

[zogger]

I'm 78 and split almost everything by hand - got 80+ cord black locust harvested in 5 years in the stacks, 90% split by hand . the splitter gets drug out maybe a couple times a year to do up the pile of rejects from the splitting block. An hour splitting for the exercise beats the pee out of paying a gym membership!

Harry K

Arrgh, you're shaming this young pup of 62 here *bad*! HAHAHAHAHA

OK OK, out in the frozen sludge mud splitting tomorrow....

 

[JPopp]

I've had mine for about 3 years and always use WD-40. Of course it gets some rust on it, but it is still in really good shape for the amount that I use it. The Fiskars sharpening looks crappy, but it truly works great.

 

[mn woodcutter]

78 and still splitting wood?? by Hand?? I'm impressed. Can't say I know anyone over 65 that could do that on a consistent basis.