I am doing the math and this makes sense.

Free BTUs said:

Are you guys really talking about splitting 4-6 full cords (not face cords) in 2 hours??? I can't see how you can do it. If the logs are easy to work with (not too big) it takes me a couple hours to split 1 cord with my hydraulic splitter. I've cut, split, and stacked 14 cords in the last year. I move at a solid pace and I have no idea how you could come close to splitting 4-6 cords in 2 hours.

Click to expand...

I give up ... By your logic all splitters have the split at the same rate? And having two extra sets of hands will not speed up the time ..and stop with the face cord bs... I know what a cord is in one previous post a guy tells me he split 10 cords by hand, now your telling me its impossible to for 3 guys to do 2 in an hour???

You guys are all correct I am going to buy a splitter, and a truck to get it home , and for good measure a tractor to move the wood and grade the area where I removed trees , when I'm done grading ill put in a new garage for the truck,tractor and splitter. And since money is no object I'll quit my job to free up time.

I bought a stove because I have over 100 trees to take down and the cost of removing the wood was insane, I figured I'd burn . I don't want to turn my house into green acres, and spend thousands on equiptment.

My math was this ... 1 day, spend say 150for 3 hours of labor, with the 2 cords I already split lets say the can do 5 ... That's about $22 a cord and I'll I have to do to get ready is fell and buck trees that need to come down.

maple1 said:

$150/5 cords = $30/cord.

I'm guessing you'll be 4 hours for the 5 cords, or $40/cord.

Be sure to post the results (pictures would be nice too) - someone should get a pool going....

Click to expand...

I was counting the two I already had... Thus 150 divided by 7... I am just frustrated that most people here don't read a whole thread before responding ... And yes I think two cords an hour is a little unlikely . my problem is without heavy machines I will have to split some of the large rounds just to get them in my cart. And if I star splitting it I might as well finish.

So I have been talking with the guy with the splitter, and he called me today to say he was going to be in the area . It was raining and I was working on my wood shed project. He said he could stop by for an hour or two if I needed him, but he did not have his helper. I decided to try him out. I wasn't really prepared and did not have enough rounds in the yard they were littered throughout the woods. So after talking to him I tried to carry out as many as possible.
His splitter was fairly large with a 14 horse Honda engine and he had multiple blades for splitting, but he mainly used a 4 way. It was fast if I had enough rounds I think we could of done 1.5 to 1.75 cords in an hour, but 2 was never going to happen. in 45 min we did about 1.25 cords, and I ran out of close by wood. What slowed it down were the really large rounds over 30", the 4 way splitter made a mess of them, it actually slowed it down the process. They just didn't split clean, and there was a lot of man handling. We agreed to $60 for his time and we were both happy.
So what did I learn? If I was ever going to do this again I would wait until I had more rounds in one area. The 4 way splitter is awesome on logs 12-18 inches in diameter, one push 4 split pieces. And mostly I learned that I probably will not buy a splitter until I can't swing an axe. For 3 reasons.

1. It's a lot of work to get rounds into my cart and move them to the driveway to be split. It's easier to split them by hand and load a cart and go right to the wood pile.
2. I would need a garden tractor or owning the splitter would not make sense. To save real time I would either need to bring the splitter into the woods or something that could carry the wood out quickly. But a small cart loaded with rounds wants to flip, so a bigger trailer would be needed. The other option would be a small light splitter that I could wheel around the property, but that would get old quickly.
3. This is where my OCD kicks in, hand split wood looks better, and I have more control over the size and shape of splits. I have not stacked the wood we split today yet but I have a feeling the fiskars will be re- shaping splits for stacking.

So next topic I need a good hand cart