hej hej all, How do u guys split ur wood by hand? I just use some old tires and slap the sh@t out of it. For the harder blocks i use a little splitting machine. Has anyone a tip for me to speed up the proces of splitting? Have a nice day all!
I think the tire "trick" is pretty established as the most efficient. Though I'm sure others have some ideas that will come up here. Nice maul, BTW.
I did this method not too far back Duvekot but the tire was on an uneven round so it failed after I was finished with the birch splitting. Now I just split one at a time if needed. The tire method is good when you have LARGE amounts of rounds to split at a time but now I don’t have all that much to split. So i pick the hydra to help me
I use a 20 ton splitter most all the time and have a few pickeroons and peaveys to choose from to make handling the logs and rounds a breeze. But i do use the old splitter axe once in a while. I did try the tire method and it worked awesome!!! saved me from walking all over the place picking up splits after i swung the axe lol.
Back when I split by hand I simply sat a bunch of rounds on their ends and whacked away. I never used a block to sit them on nor did I use anything to keep them upright. That just seemed to me a waste of motion, energy and time. But some seem to do well with that method. Still today if I do split some wood, and I occasionally will split just a couple blocks (body won't allow more) I'll still just stand them up and whack them. It works. Of course it works best when the ground is frozen but still works well with unfrozen ground.
When I was splitting by hand Birch split easier when green/ fresh cut Spruce split best frozen near -10°F + experience helps you read the wood for a target & split direction
Plus I don’t know if any birch really makes it for a long time whole. Unless the rounds are zipped...however i had some large rounds that the heart wood was ok but the outer sapwood was iffy. Depended on how I split them some were intact others I could smell the wet wood. Not from this recent grab back in April though. Previous summer.
I usually split 85-90% of my firewood with a hydraulic splitter. Only time I use a maul is when I know it's going to be faster, or I have a large split that I think is too big. The older I get, the smaller I split the pieces, for ease of handling. Plus my outdoor wood boiler likes very dry, small splits. I have used the tire method in the past and it works great. I have a couple of old tires sitting around and a large block of pine (3' diameter) for just that purpose. Hand splitting is good exercise and actually somewhat relaxing.
Fiskars x25, i think it is - an occasionally cut with the saw if the wood is giving me static. Will try the Tire this year i guess. 3-4 chords a year aint worth buyin a splitter ... well as long as i can hold an axe at least.
Can't beat the tire trick if splitting by hand. Not bending over to pick every split off the ground is a huge time and energy saver.
I use a very modest electric splitter and a a maul. Don't laugh... It's taken down 20 in plus Dia rounds of locust, oak, and ash. You have to know where to make your splits, but it sure gets it done. I miss the right down the center regardless aiming of using a good gas splitter, but this is so small, uses no fuel and I can just easily throw it in the back of the SUV and take it anywhere that I'm happy with the tradeoff.
Welcome to the forum! As you age or maybe have an injury, then you may re-think the hydraulics! That's what happened to me (both). I used to really enjoy splitting wood by hand but can no longer do that but fear not, I quickly learned how to love hydraulics!
