I appreciate the advice from someone with a lot more experience! It’s good to see so many people interested in splitting wood and giving advice! Thank you!
I will take your all’s advice! I am still young in the firewood business world and still young at age, so maybe that’s where’s I’m coming from. I definitely plan to keep hand splitting til I’m Ann old man if I’m blessed to get there’s but I do agree with everyone that a splitter is definitely something to have if I want to grow!
Just wanted to say I’m new to forums and I’m very happily surprised at all the positive feedback and advice I got through this one! Thank you all very much and hope to keep in touch as I try to grow my business!
Great to have you. In the year and a half ive been a member of FHC ive learned a lot and made some great friends as well.
It’s great to be around and speak to positive people with good intentions and I feel like I’ve seen a lot of that here!
Since I started splitting by hand since Oct-2019 the following has happened: 1. When I started I was swinging way too hard and not accurately enough. 2. I thought working harder was more important than working smarter. I have since edumacated myself. 3. I split 90% by hand and use the hydro splitter for the knotty/crotchy/spruce/pine pieces. I caved in when my pile of rejects starting getting enormous. Pin oak and green spruce are nasty to try and split by hand. Beech, birch as well. 4. I hurt my back twice from overdoing it and couldn't walk for a week. Excruciating pain, couldn't even get out of bed or even sit up in bed. Had to use a cane to shuffle to the restroom. I'm 44. 5. Since I hurt my back, I've learned to work smarter - I learned about a hookaroon and now have 2. I learned how to swing an axe more accurately. I've learned to pace myself. 6. I've found that I've lost several inches in my waist (I need to lose more), gained a ton of muscle I never knew I could have, and have been feeling unbelievably better since I started getting a regular workout working with wood. 7. I don't just stand there and split for 9 hours straight like I did in the beginning. Now I mix it up quite often - I'll split some rounds, then shift to making some kindling with the shorties, then do some clean up and whip out the chipper and make some mulch/compost, sharpen a chainsaw chain or two, etc. 8. When I ran out of wood to process this past June, I started sitting at my desk for many hours a day and my back started killing me again. I decided I needed more wood to work on and so more wood I procured. Now my back is feeling great again. 9. An old lady walked up to me and asked me if I sell wood. Chatted with her for a little bit and asked her how much she needed. She spread her arms apart and said "About that much".....I said "How about a 44 gallon garbage can full?" and she thought that was too much! I offered to deliver it to her and give it to her for free. My point is that it's not just about the $$$ all the time. $$$ is nice.......but so is being nice. Now I know I need wood in my life, in one form or another. I even went as far as to offer to help my neighbor split wood.......just so I can get the workout....but at the same time help him out. I drove 50 miles roundtrip twice last week.......to give away black locust (much to the shock of many on the forum!) because I have enough.....and my buddy doesn't. Anyways, I guess I said all that because I firmly believe that splitting by hand can be beneficial to the body.......as long as you don't overdo it.....and you'll figure that out for yourself........sometimes the hard way. I don't get the same satisfaction when using the splitter as I do by hand - that's for sure. Sure, sometimes when you wake up and the back may be barking a little......sure it's a little easier....but I still really prefer splitting by hand. I'd even argue that on straight, no-knot rounds splitting by hand with a tire on a stump is faster than using a hydro splitter.
I agree very much and loved to read the experience you’ve had and how you’ve grown as well. I’ve had my sore days too but I agree that it makes me feel a lot better after splitting by hand regularly and it’s hard to put in words how much I enjoy it. You did a great job just now though! I agree log splitters are great and I have used them but I enjoy hand splitting a lot better myself! Keep up the good work and God bless! And it’s great that you like helping people out as well!
Welcome to the forum fourwinds. For your first foray into Internet forums you lucked out. Friendly environment here. I’ll tell you what I’ve learned over the years. Did 40 years of masonry where the only tool is your body. Seen lots of bodies come and go. Very few make it to the finish line in good shape. I certainly didn’t. Youthful invincibility got the best of me. Warnings issued by older folks went unheeded. I’m paying for it now. Exercise is a good thing for sure. Some human genetic makeups are much better at it than others, no doubt. Repetitious hard work outs will eventually take their toll. We are machines in a sense and all machines wear out eventually wether they are maintained well or not. By all means keep yourself in shape. Hand split when and however you want. IMO that back pain you feel is a warning tho. It’s like running your car low on oil and the light comes on. The engine may not blow this time but it has a cumulative effect. Very few understand how important that spine is until it gives out. Take care and good luck with your endeavors. We like pics
You'll soon find out this forum is "different"...in a good way. We have this thing called Get ToGether's (GTG) all over the country. I've met about 100 or so members and consider them as family. And I'm glad to call them brothers and sisters. There hasn't been many GTG's this year, but You'll have to attend one and see for yourself the family atmosphere.
Put on a helmet, hearing protection, gloves and chaps! Put some hearing protection on your son. Safety first!
I know people including....family members, friends, acquaintances, etc who I know for certain are very lazy and never did any physical work in their life that have all sorts of health issues and broken bodies. Bad backs, hip replacements, arthritis, bad knees, elbow inflammation, swollen ankles, etc, etc. With that being said listen to the older crowd. They’ve been there done that. I’d recommend being healthy in general. Good diet, and regular excercise. I think you need to look at this from a productivity point of view though. If it’s a business you want to be as efficient and profitable as possible while providing good service and/or product. A wood splitter will save you a lot of time to focus on other tasks. The customers aren’t going to pay more if it’s hand split or care if it’s hand split. You can always split a cord or two by hand if the desire arises. Once you get a splitter, I doubt you’ll feel like going back though.
