I split everything, even elm, by hand and I am too lazy and spindly to fight harder than I have to. A round that big is staying on the ground, not a chopping block, and gets split around the edges. Bending at the knees on the downstroke adds power and a safety margin (you cannot hit yourself if the tool doesn't get lower than your wrists). Have to swing with the whole body, not just the arms. At the end of the upstroke for difficult wood, I'm up on my tip toes and I use every bit of that to drive the maul on the way down if its a tough log. If a couple hits with the maul doesn't break anything, at least it puts some grooves in to start the wedges. If it doesn't come apart at the edges with a maul, it is time to wedge it. I'd try to half it just to see if I could, but if it doesn't go fairly easily, I'd piece it from the edges with the wedge. Starting the first wedge on a radius a few inches in from the side gives you the option of continuing across the middle if things are going well, or putting in a second wedge on a tangent to bust out a chunk to get things started. Two wedges is the bare minimum to have on hand. There is a world of difference between a good wedge (Helko, Granfors, etc) and the Made-in-India crap sold at the Home Depot. The Gransfors is a fairly slim wedge that might get in easier than the Helko. The Helko is ultimately going to push the parts farther apart, but it may have to go in after the Gransfors creates some space for it. Depending on how ambitious you are with the splitting, it may take several wedges. A few crude wedges cut out of branch wood may come into play for rescuing a stuck steel wedge. An 8 pound sledge hits harder than a 6 pound maul when pounding wedges. A 12 pound sledge hits a lot harder. Thats about all I can handle, and I prefer to save the 12 pounder for a place in the season when I've been splitting frequently for a while and have some strength built up. There's no way in hell I'd be able to lift that onto a splitter even if I wanted to use one, so it would have to be vertical or have a lift on it if I did decide to rent one.
Sure does , makes a big Difference , I use the sledge side of my 8 pound isocore maul now and the large face on it is great
I hand split everything for years, but alas, started getting old & "tennis elbow" from the pounding. I'll still split down the big stuff in the woods to a point where I can handle it if I have to hand carry. Still enjoy it too. Your splitting methods look very similar to mine & many others, & they work well. Some wood just doesn't split well, fence row trees that grow in the wind will have a twist to the grain that makes even Oak split poorly. At that point it gets this.
Ok folks I added the Isocore to the family last night. I call him Fat B4$t4rd. So far I’m fairly impressed. It needs a different technique to the X27, less swing, more bending the knees, flick with the wrist to get head speed. Three things impress me: 1) You can take bigger lumps out the edges of the round, which can be broken up by the X27. 2) It can split 30” outright with a few taps. 3) I was able to split a lot more wood than with the X27 alone. It makes the first few tough splits much less stressful, so I break the round into 50lb splits, and then break them up with the X27. This definitely isn’t the only axe I could own - I far prefer the X27 when the splits are manageable, but it’s a good tool. Oh also, as someone mentioned, having a #8 sledge is very helpful. It does serious damage with a wedge.
Looks like you have some good splitters there! In the end, if you have enough wedges and even just a single jack, you can split just about anything!
I Figured you would be happy with it , so , What else can we help you spend your money on How about a LogOx
Chipmunks. Look cute, destroy houses. Unfortunately the local raccoon would come in each night, eat all the bait, and walk off in the trap. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks for all the advice. The wood is all cut up now which is great. One thing I hadn’t realized is that not every piece of wood can be usefully split. In some cases there just isn’t a directional grain. Sure, you can hit it hard enough that it breaks in two... And so for the last few impossibly stubborn pieces, I broke out the chainsaw and cut up some blocks. There’s enough for a few solid oak side tables. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That is quite an accomplishment, splitting all that by hand. Shirt sleeves feel a little tighter now?
Thanks - it surprised me how much work chopping up one tree could be. In the meantime another (regular sized tree) fell down and I had it sliced, chopped and stacked in a half day. And yeah you’re right, jackets don’t quite fit on the chest any more. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I grew up hand splitting all of our wood, using the same technique as you described, using only an axe, got a 8# maul probably '88-89 from Walmart, took my grinder and thinned down cutting edge, worked a lot better. Finally got hydraulics in '98-99.
If you can wait for a check to start in the end grain, that’s the spot to pound in a wedge. Then, start working around the edges with a Sotz Monster Maul! Best maul I ever used, since the ‘ 70’s
Welcome to the club. O think you will like it here. Great group of folks, willing to share knowledge and even help you out in a bind.
Midwinter those are some delicious looking axes.Thanks for the info.I also like splitting by hand.I like the Oregon splitting grenade.They don't make them anymore but they can be had on ebay.They work like no other wedge I've ever used.Also I found it best to split elm when it's good and cold out.Knocking off the edges of elm rounds also works well.
One of these? I found this at my mom's place in Maine, when I was emptying it out. I haven't used it. What kind of wood does it work best on? Any tips about getting it started in a round?
That is more pointed than is the Helko twisted wedge that I use, but the technique is more or less the same: Hit the round with a maul, decide that the maul isn't cutting it, put the wedge in the dent you just made with the maul, choke up on the maul and tap the wedge in until it sticks well, bash hell out of the wedge until the round splits.
