Welcome to the club. We split by hand until about '99 and dad bought a used 25 ton Yard Machine splitter from my FIL. Still use it today.
I think I see the bottom of a ladder at bottom right of photo. Awesome pic, awesome grandpa, hard to believe he hand split that much.
Well, if a splitter happens to fall out of the sky on our property I'd probably try it. Till then, I'll be out there with my maul and axe.
I have 33 cord cut, split, and mostly stacked. All done by hand. If the wood i acquired was knotty, gnarly and/or twisty grained Manuel then id get a splitter. Luckily 95% of it isnt so until then or the day hand splitting becomes physically difficult, one is not in my future. My landlords son has a friend who left his hydro splitter here and offered it to me to use, which i declined
