When Using Your Splitter

Hurricane said:

When you are using your splitter do you aim to split the round in half with the first split or do you attack the round with a plan on what pieces you want. I used my splitter for my wood for the first time today and was just wondering if splitting in half was always right.
I have split by hand all of my life and can get the feel by looking at the round and it's size and type of wood. But with a splitter the size and type of wood sort of comes out of the equation.

Click to expand...

I try to take small pieces, unless i need to drop weight on a big round quick.

Is anything always right? I almost always split in half. Less mass to deal with and gives you better control of the shape of the splits.

On 8-10" rounds I split in three, try to take off one side first and then split the big piece that's left in two. Anything smaller and I split in two. Anything bigger and I split in half and then split those in half again. On huge ones I split in half, drop one big half and split the other from the edge(4-6" at a time,from the outside in)I keep holding the big piece and peel off the splits from the back.I like my splits 3-4" on hard wood or 6" on soft wood if i can, so my wife and kids can lift them.

On smaller splits I go 1/2 if it's one to split into 2 or 4 splits. On the larger ones I will take the outside 1/3 then take the 2/3 piece and rotate it to split off one sized split at a time so the only piece I pick up to split is the first cut the 1/3 piece the rest are sized to throw on the pile. That's just my method to try and keep dropping and picking up the same wood to a minimum it's similar in some ways to the way I hand split.
The other thing I have found is the huge rounds that I would take a side off of by hand I do the same with the splitter a result of having to use a logging chain to pull stuck rounds off the splitter blade a few too times.
There are alot of options the best ones are the ones that suit you the best

Really depends on what I want from the rounds.. Generally with the bigger rounds I'll shave off flat pieces that will be used for cross
stacking the ends.. Works out really well for that especially with wood that once it starts to go splits nice and straight (Ash).

Just like putting pieces of a puzzle together.

It depends on the size . if the log is 18" across or less I would split it in half .
If the log is much bigger i will try to split 1/3 off and drop it to the ground and leave the larger piece on the table .
If its 30" i just try to get it in half .
I like to split my wood square 2/4" thick 4/6" wide I like to stack it in the stove .
I cut my wood 24" long for years but now I'm switching to 18" splits it much easier to split and it fits in the new stove North and south .

Depends on the diameter of the round. Everything up to 6 inches just gets split in half. 7 to 12 get split into quarters (half and halve the halves). Over 12 I split them into 9 pieces like tic-tac-toe (#). Really big rounds I slab this way and that. Some wood tends to shake off tapered slabs so I try to split down the middle and then keep halving them until I have the size I want.

Split in half and hold the far side.
Let the near side fall next to you
so you're not walking around the
splitter all the time.

kenny chaos said:

Split in half and hold the far side.
Let the near side fall next to you
so you're not walking around the
splitter all the time.

Click to expand...

I don't let either half fall. The far side goes on my makeshift table. I also park a large round next to me so I can set a split on it that needs resplitting.

I split so as to produce squares and rectangles and half moons.

I try not to make triangles.

That's just me.

I like the way the square/rectangle splits load in my stove.

I got an old splitter hooked up to a 3pt. hitch on a tractor, so any old way will do to split, unless there's a really twisted/forked round to do.

kenny chaos said:

Split in half and hold the far side.
Let the near side fall next to you
so you're not walking around the
splitter all the time.

Click to expand...

Put a decent sized round just to your left on your side of the splitter, and you can let that half round 'fall', guided, onto that round. Now you don't have to bend over as far when it's time to get it back up on the splitter.

Hurricane said:

When you are using your splitter do you aim to split the round in half with the first split or do you attack the round with a plan on what pieces you want. I used my splitter for my wood for the first time today and was just wondering if splitting in half was always right.
I have split by hand all of my life and can get the feel by looking at the round and it's size and type of wood. But with a splitter the size and type of wood sort of comes out of the equation.

Click to expand...

I split mine in half then split the half into 3 smaller splits. So it all depends on the size your splitting.
Zap

LL,

that is a kool setup you have.

herman

do you aim to split the round in half with the first split

Now that I think of it, yeah, I start with everything split in half. The only exception i when I'm splitting Elm... Elm is special.

Most I will split in half and work from there. I like to end up with a lot of square or rectangle pieces because they work so good for building the ends of the stacks. Other than that, I really don't take much pains so end up with triangled pieces too.

kenny chaos said:

Split in half and hold the far side.
Let the near side fall next to you so you're not walking around the splitter all the time.

Click to expand...

Why on God's Green Earth would you be walking around the splitter all the time? Talk about a waste of energy. I use as little energy as possible (no choice when you don't have much to start with) so that means I sit while splitting. No bending, no lifting, no walking around the splitter. Makes for less than half the work others feel they must do.

I split the wood so that it is small enough to easily fit into my woodstove . . . I don't really care how I accomplish that goal as there is no right or wrong way to get a large round into small-enough-to-fit-into-the woodstove size.

However, in general, if the round is very large and heavy I will split it in half and toss one half to the ground and work on splitting the other half into smaller pieces -- I guess most of the time I end up with triangles and some squares or rectangles. Again, the shapes don't really matter to me so much as the size of the splits matter.

When working with smaller rounds 10-14 inchers I will slab them . . . and if the round is really small 8 inches or less I'll just halve them and throw them on the waiting-to-be-stacked pile.

derecskey said:

Put a decent sized round just to your left on your side of the splitter, and you can let that half round 'fall', guided, onto that round. Now you don't have to bend over as far when it's time to get it back up on the splitter.

Click to expand...

That's a great idea! Not matter how careful I am, it seems I'm always dropping a few half rounds on my feet.

Dean

Hurricane said:

When you are using your splitter do you aim to split the round in half with the first split or do you attack the round with a plan on what pieces you want. I used my splitter for my wood for the first time today and was just wondering if splitting in half was always right.
I have split by hand all of my life and can get the feel by looking at the round and it's size and type of wood. But with a splitter the size and type of wood sort of comes out of the equation.

Click to expand...

Here is a example of splitting wood and taking the wedge off.

Zap

With some of the really large rounds the splitter I use can't just break them in half; usually it'll go through and break along the round a bit, but then I just rotate it 90 degrees and take off a quarter, then another 90 degrees, etc, and get the large rounds into quarters.

zapny said:

Here is a example of splitting wood and taking the wedge off.

Zap

Click to expand...

When working with straight grain rounds that produce that many splits, I've started taking as many 6x6s out of the middle as possible and then the rest is what it is.

LLigetfa said:

Depends on the diameter of the round. Everything up to 6 inches just gets split in half. 7 to 12 get split into quarters (half and halve the halves). Over 12 I split them into 9 pieces like tic-tac-toe (#). Really big rounds I slab this way and that. Some wood tends to shake off tapered slabs so I try to split down the middle and then keep halving them until I have the size I want.

Click to expand...

Mostly what I do, too. For the bigger rounds I split off 4 in. slabs and then resplit them into squares. I try for squares as much as possible but don't go out of my way.

The only stuff I split in half is the stuff that is going to end up in 2 or 4 pieces.

BACKWOODS,

nice job on stacking the wood very neat .

herman