Tips and tricks for splitting firewood

thomas rubino wrote:A truck tire bolted to a chopping block.
Fiskars 36" X-27 splitting axe

John F Dean wrote:Split wood on the coldest days.  In MN I found at 40 below the wood would virtually explode when struck.

I always swore I would never buy a wood splitter.  Well sometime after I hit 70 I found one significantly marked down and I had money in my pocket.  I hauled it home where it sat in the box for many months.  I finally put it together.  My views are similar to Michael Cox’s.   In less than a hour I split up more wood in an hour that I could have in a day by hand….maybe 2 days.

Dc Stewart wrote:You still get a good workout from endlessly lifting rounds onto the cradle, without having to wonder if your shoulder joints will be functional tomorrow. The scary gnarly rounds where big branches enter the trunk no longer go onto a "we'll deal with you someday" pile.

Mike Haasl wrote:

thomas rubino wrote:A truck tire bolted to a chopping block.
Fiskars 36" X-27 splitting axe

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

One subtlety, if you raise the tire off the chopping block a few inches it's much better (see pic).  The firewood doesn't tip over as much and the chips/chunks can be swept out easier.  I really love my tire splitting block.  It cuts my time by more than half and I have to bend over multitudes fewer times.

Other tricks:
- Set up your stump to be slightly not level.  That way the non-square firewood will stand up decently if you orient it one way or another.  The tire really helps keep the pieces standing up.
- I've heard if you orient the chunk of wood upside down to how it grew on the tree, it will split easier.  Not positive but I think it works.
- Focus on where you want to hit it exactly.  Don't just hope to hit the middle.  After a cord or two you should be able to hit a pencil width target pretty reliably.
- Big Y's are easier to split than you think.  First put it Y upright (ignoring my second bullet above) and split off half of each of the branches.  Then flip it over and hit the trunk dead center and 90 degrees from your previous splits.  You'll end up with 4 pieces that aren't too wonky to stack

Richard Henry wrote:Although I rather enjoy hand splitting with a maul...

Dad built a homemade hydraulic splitter from spare parts.  We ran the hydraulic pump from the tractor PTO with the splitter on a three point hitch.  It was built to run horizontal, which is nice when pieces exceed 150 lbs.  You just drop the bar and roll the beast into position.  He also ran the spitting wedge on the far end of his beam (two heavy angles welded together) so that the hydraulic push plate never tried to spin.  I have seen iron wood that would spin the grain over 180 degrees from top to bottom of the piece.  That can mess with your seals and hydraulic ram.  It mattered not to our wedge orientation, that was locked down to the beam (placing the wedge on a bolt base that holds the beam allows use of a splitter for both firewood and fence posts). The flat push plate allowed the wood to turn as it wished although once the wedge ate deep enough, it would slice through the wood, knots and all."

I am happy to see at least one person who enjoys hand splitting with a maul.  Splitting wood has always been one of my favorite activities.  For me it was a meditiation, focusing on the wood, no other thoughts, and the dance of swing, rise, and fall.  Since arthritis and joint degeneration though, I cannot do it any more and really miss it.

I do have a good tractor and would like to make something like you describe your dad doing but I can't picture it from just text.  Would you consider maybe drawing a schematic of it? I can't picture how it works horizontally. It would be particularly useful for the splitting fenceposts and rails.

thanks for your post!

Mike Barkley wrote:I found that using splitting wedges help a lot. Stand the log up on a flat rock (or stump for thinner diameter logs) & whack it with an axe. Remove the axe & insert a wedge into the crack. Then whack the wedge with a sledge hammer. Use a 2nd wedge from the side if the axe &/or the first wedge is stuck.

thomas rubino wrote:

EDIT)   Hire a teenager...

Mike Haasl wrote:

thomas rubino wrote:A truck tire bolted to a chopping block.
Fiskars 36" X-27 splitting axe

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

One subtlety, if you raise the tire off the chopping block a few inches it's much better (see pic).  The firewood doesn't tip over as much and the chips/chunks can be swept out easier.  I really love my tire splitting block.  It cuts my time by more than half and I have to bend over multitudes fewer times.

Mike Haasl wrote:To clarify, is the issue that since you don't have big logs, you can't make a chopping block?  Or since you have small pieces you need something other than a chopping block?

Richard Henry wrote:Although I rather enjoy hand splitting with a maul, since my wife came down with asthma and no longer can tolerate wood smoke, that has gone by the wayside.  Of course I had about 60 years experience prior to that.  My father used to swear by an axe rather than a maul.  He was better at reading the grain than I, but I think the velocity was the key aspect.  Energy is the square of the velocity while mass is linear in that equation.  A fast axe, properly placed is very efficient.  I, unfortunately, broke handles too often to not use a splitting maul.  It is important to read the grain.  Most large wood will have primary cracks and I have found the cracks allow ready splitting, often of pieces one would swear would not budge - they can.  I agree with the freezing temperatures assisting.  A nice add to that is to ensure your most brutal pieces have been sitting upright in the cold.  Turn them over and pop the bottom.  They split really easily.  

Ela La Salle wrote:As one ages...one learns it's O.K. to rely on some help from machines however un-permaculture it may be

Kelly Craig wrote: but the mallets are big, round aluminum cylinders. Heavier, so more effective, and aluminum and iron froes play well together.