I would not want the logs at chest height. Less danger if the log is on the ground. One more good point about vertical splitting.
Enjoy it while you can. I did and still would enjoy splitting by hand, if I could. Unfortunately, life sometimes gets in the way of wants.
That's what I'm talking about! There are good women out there but men have become too accepting of bad behaviors and traits from women. It's different for the older generations I'm sure, but then again henpecked husbands have been around for years and years. I hear it all the time. Women saying they let their husband play golf, they let them go shooting, let them go fishing. It's utterly ridiculous. If you do some research you will find that women are in control of something like 80% of the spending of a household. When I think about it I'd bet that overall the men on this type of forum have much better wives than the average. I think that the types of men that voluntarily heat their houses with wood are different than your average guy. A more independent, and strong personality. That type of man doesn't deal with a woman's crap and will show her the door if she's not a quality woman.
Thing is, you have it, you can save your back when you are worn out, or not feeling well. You are ok as long as you use good body mechanics and pace yourself. There are a lot of us to find out that we are hurting after the fact.
That's where I'm at. Splitting wood was my favorite part of the process. I really enjoyed it, whereas using the splitter is more like a chore. Once I am ahead, I'll still split with the X-27 on occasion. That doesn't hurt me like the maul does. That will be retired to scrounging duty when the rounds are too big to get in the truck.