Broke the cheap Lowes maul I have had forever. Used it more as a sledge than to split wood, until this year. First broke about a month ago and I epoxied it. Didn't last too long.....Elm and Sassy did it in.
Post your thoughts after putting the Fiskars to work. I have one of those red handled units. Rusting away in the corner!!
The Isocore doubles nicely as a sledge. Great warranty from Fiskars. I've broken two Isocores and two X27 axes. All were replaced. Youre a brave man and I salute you for hand splitting elm.
I broke down and bought an Isocore not long ago. Don’t use it often but when I need it, I really like it.
Ag Agree with buZZsaw BRAD . I hate elm, luckily we have an abundance of the different oaks and Hickory. Also plenty of ash and other species that are good firewood.
I remember your thread about the warranty and customer service you got from them on the last one you broke. Part of the reason I looked into them first. Last time I ever take elm. Thought it would be easy. It was at the neighbors where I got some red maple...it was standing dead, barkless, no knots or branches, 8-12" diameter. Quarter or half the rounds...yeah, no problem. Wrong!
Update...got an Isocore a few weeks back. It made short work of the sassafras. Took some time getting used to swinging it, as the weight distribution is different than my old one. Hickory came down across the road last week, county pushed it off to the side. I cut it up and brought it home. Super busy with projects at the house, getting ready for my daughters graduation party, but I was itching to see how the isocore would do. So I gave it a try, man, was I impressed. Took about 25mins to get this much split...and I was not pushing it. I was surprised at how easily this hickory split. Very straight grained. 11-17" rounds. Only a few pieces with small knots were a little stringy. So far, the isocore gets 2 thumbs up
That's great. I was impressed with one when I first bought it. Mostly used for sectioning rounds up for ease of handling now although I did use the sledge feature for breaking up some concrete last month.
I have been splitting sassafras because they are all dead and with my splitter, they split about as easy as wood can split. I get no more than 3-4 inches in and it pops. As for elm, I didn't have much trouble splitting it with my splitter; the logs were barkless, had been left to 'age' for one year. There were some stringy splits but no big deal. I will take it again with that method. Or find standing dead, barkless.
It is vastly different to split standing dead barkless than fresh cut live or even recently dead. But I’ve always had a hydraulic splitter. I’ve never really tried to hand split the stuff. If that was my only option, I might very well freeze to death because elm is the vast majority of what I burn.
On green oak and (out of habit I guess) even red maple I've used a splitting maul and wedges and a sledge. I have a bunch of oak rounds I kinda forgot about and they're taking a light tap from a new-found X27. A few years ago I would have said the wedges, splitting maul and sledge were all I needed but it's kinda nice having a few extra tools.
