Hey folks - first time poster here! I chop a lot of wood with a Fiskars X27. It’s easy going on the arms and pretty effective for small-mid size wood. I had a 100’ 54” pin oak taken down and have been slowly slicing it up with my chainsaw and chopping it up. As I’m getting closer to the base it’s getting progressively harder. I’m past 36” now and the X27 makes really hard work. My friend brought a maul around, a real beast, guessing a 11-12lb head, and we chopped up a round pretty easily. Does anyone have advice? I’d hate to buy a maul and not be able to finish the job. If so I’d just go and rent a gas splitter. What’s the most powerful maul out there? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
By hand I would go with at least 2 if not 3 wedges, a medium and large sledge, a couple of mauls, and noodle a couple if needed. If you don't have a gas spliter you can borrow you might want to wait on renting one til you get a bunch of rounds that ya want to split up, might be more cost effective for you and help your production if you get more big rounds.
Calling Midwinter She does a lot of hand splitting and will pop in with some good advise... Welcome to the forum jma24 !!!!
shack pretty much has it covered! Cut them short, noodle a couple inches in, set a big wedge in the groove, and bang away! I find the generic hardware-store mauls pretty useless. I use a German-made Helko Vario 2000 heavy splitting axe. Helko North America: Vario 2000 Axes It's pricey, but if you plan on splitting wood regularly it's worth it. If you just want to get your pin oak split and be done with it, rent a splitter or use your chainsaw, sledge, and wedges, depending on how stubborn you are. Hope you stick around, this is a great community!
Get the Fiskars x27’s big brother the Fiskars ISO Core. Start splitting around the outside of the rounds only about 2” from the outside and work your way around. BTW are you measure the rounds in circumference or diameter?
I’m guessing we are talking about diameter since a 54” circumference tree would be about 18” in diameter... that would be skinny for a 100’ tree (assuming the height estimate/measurement is correct... in the picture, the rounds actually make the tools look like children’s play toys... jma24 do you have any pics of the stump?
Thanks - the pic in the post is the last of the oak I need to split. It seems unlikely I will need to take down a tree > 24” in the next few years. I’ve got a X27, 8lb maul, 2 Estwing wedges and a sledge... they all bounce off the bigger rounds! For now, I’m making progress, will also try borrowing my friend’s 12lb maul and see if that helps. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Those are some nice axes. Something to add to the Christmas list for next year... this year Santa brought tree climbing equipment - we have lots of tall trees that need pruning! Really appreciate the warm welcome, you folks seem really nice. 23 rounds to go after today. Will report back and see how stubborn I am... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wait until it's very cold. Never had pin oak but the red and white oak up here splits like a dream when frozen. Wack away around the edges. I only swing an 8# maul or 8# sledge if the x27 doesn't get it. If all else fails, it gets the hydraulics.
Will see who has it local to me and go take a look at it. I think the X27 is amazing - it outsplits most 8lb mauls. If the ISO Core is like a big brother I could do serious damage. Diameter. It was 130’ tall, here’s a mid-size round next to my cant hook for scale. Some of the bigger rounds I was struggling to get my 28” chain to touch in the middle on both sides... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yeah the rounds make the tools look like play toys and can only be moved with steel toe boots and a cant hook! Here you go... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Use wedges , a pry bar helps too, Cut a kerf in the top if you need to , To get them started , Once you get them a little bit smaller an isocore 8# should do it
Thank you for sharing the Helko North America Vario 2000 Axes. I went to the site to learn that the heads are made in Wuppertal, Germany. That is where my grandfather is from. Rather interesting. Jason from RI
Boogeyman has a good tutorial on how split the ever tough elm but this is a good method to use with big rounds and an X27 too. Works for me with big red oak rounds. Hand splitting Elm, the easy way
Nice. Will watch and try tomorrow, if it doesn’t flood too bad here. Here’s the wood from a single round today, what I normally do is to chip around the edges: Then tap around radially until I find a weak spot, and whack it 8-10 times until it splits. From there the pieces are small enough to lever onto another block of wood (200-250lb)which massively speeds progress! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Nice advice. There’s a few things I’d add for the really big stuff. Sometimes flipping the round will gain you access to some weaker fibers. Sometimes I flip it multiple times. On some rounds it’s good to take out the heart early and then the rest of the round will go fast. Since the heart holds all the fibers together, once it’s gone, it’s easy. And when the going gets really tough, I feel around the round for where the axe hits with a lower tone, and then hit there until it splits. If you are getting a dull thud then the round is being weakened. It could take 10-15 hits for a split. I also have an axe swinging technique I learned in Europe as a child which holders the left arm at the butt, the right hand at the axe end, then slide the right arm down as the axe swings and follow through with both arms at the butt. You can get the axe head moving with serious speed which turns the X27 into a missile. Most people here seem to let gravity do its job. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
