Not looking to start a debate with my question, just gather some info. So who hand splits and why, and who uses a mechanical splitter (electric or hydro) and why?
I split my wood with a fiskars x27 for about 5 years. This past year I purchased a barely used Husky 22 ton splitter. Splitting by hand was taking too much time for me and I'm not getting any younger. I could have the splitter for ten years and sell it for close to what I paid for it.
Splitter - just easier on the my body. I use hydraulics when ever I can. If I want to hand split it's usually to split bigger pieces into smaller one before they go into the house.
I had started splitting everything by hand but brought home a huge pin oak a few years ago. It was 44" on some of the rounds, and literally bounced everything out that I tried by hand. Fiskars, maul, and wedge all bounced right back out. So I bought a Huskee ton and it busted through it. Now I use that for most of my splitting as its just so much faster. I still spit some by hand, like this 2 cord load of cherry i just brought home I may split by hand just beacuse its all small stuff and it will be fun to do some by hand.
I've had hydraulics since my 2nd year of wood burning, about 16 years or more. I don't have the energy to manually split firewood.
The husky splitter comes out if I have to deal with stringy Elm or something just as difficult. Otherwise I use the 8lb maul or X27. It is a good workout to split by hand and sometimes it's easier to split by hand and not haul the splitter along with the truck and trailer. When I cut wood I like to run the saw and get everything cut up that I can. Once the saw is put away I have the sounds of the woods and the sound of the wood splitting. It is relaxing to me. I don't want to run a chainsaw then sit beside the engine on the Husky for the remainder of the day. That constant engine noise wears me out more than splitting by hand.
Everything by hand with X27 and wedge and sledge. I enjoy it, I like the exercise, I'm outside with the hounds all the time anyway, I'm far enough ahead that I don't have to hurry, all my wood is relatively small diameter spruce, birch or maple, and the kids start college next year and I need every penny.
Split by hand. I sit enough at work without doing much. Good to get moving and is satisfying work. Im still young and it doesnt bother me physically so by hand it is!
Both. I'm a scrounger and sometimes rounds are to big to lift. That's when I use my Fiskars x27. Once home I use a splitter backed up to my trucks tailgate.
When the kids were at home doing the firewood was a family thing & we all worked together splitting by hand. Once the kids went away to college, I built the hydraulic splitter & don't look back.
Slim and I are "scroungers" as well. We'll buck 'em at the chipping site, and split 'em if need be, to better fit in the ride. Get 'em home and bust 'em down some more. No X27 in the arsenal yet. 8lb. maul, Fiskars SS axe, wedges and sledges, and the Fiskars X7 hatchet.
I was raised splitting by hand. Bought a hydro when I was about 35 y/o. If a man can out split a splitter by hand, after the first 1/2 cord, he is a hell of a man. In easy splitting wood, out splitting a hydro is easy for a while. Then I get winded. For those of you that split by hand, my hat is off to you. Been there, done that.
I do both, but not for long. When I get my taxes back I will get my own splitter and I shouldn't have much call for hand splitting after that. This being our first season with the new stove, I have been having to haul out some of the bigger rounds and split them down by hand because the King's feed hole, although wider, is significantly narrower from top to bottom than the Lopi Answer was.
Changed over to a hydraulic splitter in 1984 , up until that time wood lengths were standard at 14"to16". With the purchase of the Jetstream Boiler ideal wood length became 24" hard splitting if the rounds were the slightest bit nasty . In 1984 hydraulic wood splitters were not all that common in our neck of the woods , but the product that we found we have been very happy with .
I have been very impressed with your splitter, at least what I've seen of it in your videos. It looks like it doesn't slow down for anything.
