I don't bother with hydraulics with straight grained red oak. That stuff is fast and fun to split with a maul.
vertical splitter must be nice ... sure must beat quartering them, lifting them onto a hor splitter turning your legs black and blue and then having them fall back off crushing your toes. Just saying ' ... No bark on the rounds is nice too.
Love big red oak rounds. Once they're quartered they split like butter with the fiskars Most splits I've gotten out of a round was 60+. It was a HUGE round of red oak
after hefting a couple of these on the splitter beam I decided to quarter them with a wedge and maul. I used to like splitting red oak by hand. My back can't take the shock any more. Hydraulic splitting I can do as long as I use my legs for lifting like one is supposed to. I'll probably do a "guess what these piles will stack out at" thread tomorrow, because there hasn't been one for a while.
That is sweet splitoak! Biggest ones I've worked were about 22" and they were a pita to move around.. They split like butter but it was a lot of work by hand..
That loose round to the left of me is up to my shoulders, I'm 6'2". There's still some of the biggest rounds left, I'll try to get a better pic of the round next time.
Yes, 22 ton Huskee. It didn't like some of the spots, but with a little planning it made it through everything. I tried the sledge and wedge just to get it to the splitter, but the wedge kept bouncing out. Noodling was the only way.
