Splitting by hand

Eric Schaefer said:

I do all mine by hand, too cheap for a splitter. Wedge and sledge for what I can't do with my splitting axe (not maul, looking at some though). You know what they say, firewood warms you twice, when you split, and when you burn.

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One might argue you get three heats from firewood, cutting, splitting and piling.
There's no other workout like it, go outside, turn your brain off and split until your back says you're done.
I too love this time of year.

See, there are numerous uses for the milk crate!

Backwoods Savage said:

See, there are numerous uses for the milk crate!

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lol, we have a green milk crate, holds the 1gal of mix, 1gal bar oil, my chain file, bar greaser, rags, gloves and extra chains perfectly.

That's funny Eric. I use a milk crate for that too but it is wire instead of plastic.

I also use a milk crate to hold my gas jug, chain oil and fire extinguisher.
Here in my area of BC you are suppose to have a fire extinguisher and a shovel with you on site to comply with the BC firewood cutting permit. It's a good rule actually, as things can get real dry here.

I plan to continue hand splitting, especially when needing to reduce the weight of rounds so I can pick them up. But I'm not all that big, and I'm getting old enough to be losing some strength. I just bought a little 5 ton electric splitter. That's going to keep me in wood burning, but I still welcome the exercise I get from hand splitting. Just a matter of pacing oneself and accepting that one is no longer 20 years old. Gratefully, no major back problems so far...

Another hand splitter here. I usually take the dog out and throw his ball and whack a log while he is looking for it. I usually do this for an hour or so. We both get out workouts in this way. When you are a year ahead on wood you can split it at your leisure so it doesn't seem like too much work at one time.

I split by hand. I cut my trees on my brother's property and I try to cut and split the wood the day I drop it so it doesn't get in his way. I cant run a chainsaw for more than an hour cutting the trees to length without my back bothering me, so I alternate the cutting with splitting. It works pretty well with mostly red maple and birch. Beech on the other hand is not so pleasant. I do have a pile of "ugly wood" that sits around until I finally decide to take out some frustration. Unfortunately its tough getting a year ahead.

The 10 ton DR electric splitter looks interesting, I have surplus power from my PV system so it would cheaper and a lot quieter to run than a gas splitter.