City boys splitting wood...

Two of my wife's cousins joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner they were feeling a little full and wanted to work some of it off. They offered to help me, the old man, by splitting some of the Sandy wood stacked in my yard. I've passed sixty, they are 22 & 24. I lined up a couple of 12" diameter, 18" long red oak rounds and offered them either a 6 or 8 pound maul. Asked them if they wanted me to show them how to split. They declined saying it looked pretty easy. They took the 8 pounder and after a few minutes they were totally frustrated and worn out from the heavy maul. Nothing was split yet. I took the maul and quartered two rounds showing them how to swing the maul and where to hit the round. Then I took the six pounder and finished splitting one of the rounds. They tried again and after a little while were able to split a couple of quarters.

I hope they think twice before calling me an "old man" again...

KaptJaq

Thats right ol Man

It's all technique. They were probably pulling up before the maul hit the wood. And red oak splits like a dream.

Matt

WHAT these were red oak rounds and they could not split them?

They could not hit the same spot on the round twice in a row and did not follow through on their swing...

It really annoyed them when I hit it once or twice and with a loud crack it split apart.

KaptJaq

I once split red oak by hand. Literally with my hand as it splits so easy.

At least they went home with all their toes. Right???

I grew up in a city, but nobody that meets me today knows it!! I can pretttty much do anything, maintain and can fix my own stuff, hunt fish cut wood, grow a garden, make the most of what I have and I don't throw away anything that I think I may use one day. Oh and I live in the country in a small town don't like the city for anything other than a place to get stuff. I own a tractor and multiple vehicles. Am I still a city boy....to some yes, to me I don't call myself one anymore.

You could always show the young ones new tricks. Hats off to you. I have a lot of respect for any older guys then myself that do hard labor.....

I've been using saws & splitting manually for 32 yrs,since I was 17.My youngest nephew is 21, 6 foot 2,300 lbs & holds several state & 1 regional record in powerlifting & National Strongman competitions.

He wanted to help me one day last summer split some large gnarly Red/White Oak. That wasnt near as easy as he thought. Its all about technique & experience,not just 'strength'.He's almost twice my weight & towers over me lol.He did have fun moving & lifting those beasts around though.

I could see it being tough to use a maul if you've never swung a sledge, an axe or even a hammer. At least they were hitting the round, lol.
I distinctly remember my Grandpa getting frustrated with me one day fixing fences when I couldn't drive a wire staple into a post straight, of course I was all of about 11 years old.
Some things if you don't learn early you've got to learn later & it's not much easier.

Took me a while before I got good at it so Im not gonna laugh at these city boys, once you get the technique and timing down you can make it look easy.

Splitting, easy, push lever forward while listening to steady put put put, and then Crack, repeat. ( ya I know just being a wise ass) Swung my share of mauls, mangled my share of handles. My back enjoys the lever push function much more.

We were enjoying turkey at the BIL house, after dinner I was itching to get outside. So I wandered over to a pile of big ask rounds from a tree he had just taken down. Grabbed the 16lb maul and started busting up a couple rounds. One of my daughters see's me and says "dad, thats not your wood - leave the fun to uncle Scott". The kids know I look at a pile of wood like a play ground! Man that ask sure split like butter.

KaptJaq, it's not fair filling those scrappin boys to the brim with turkey and pie and then taking them out to split.

It would have been really cool if one (or both) of the young men had taken the challenge, stuck with it and kept trying, learning the technique and had to finally get pulled off the task against their wishes. As in - future wood burners in the making. And you would have had some more splitting done. If only, huh?

I would have had some fun with that "You boys need to hit the gym" "I am almost 3 times your age..." Then do the one handed split.

And hopefully you then gave them some pointers on the right way to split. Still a bit of fun showing up the young guys every now and then.

What? A 16 pound maul? That sounds like a great tool to have leaning against a wall somewhere rather than in anybody's hands! Makes my back hurt just thinking about it. And what is an ask round?

My sledge and wedges would come out long before I gave a 16lb maul a sideways glance. That thing sounds scary.

Matt

no substitute for experience...

I hear ya, I never swing a 16lb maul on my own but that is what was next to the pile so I just grabbed it. as for the "ask" - is there a spell check on this site? Thought I typed "ash"

The fellow that owns the ranch were I cut most of my wood has a 16 year old son. Fine strapping lad and a good hand to work with. He usually tags along when I show up to cut. Lots of enthusiasm but no technique. He'd be wailing away on a big oak round and see me have the same size round split up like a pie by the time he had is halved. I gave him the same pointer my grand dad gave me. He's got it now.

Nah, piece of cake with my Sotz maul, it's 23+ lb with the handle.. I'm 57, and hand split, it's my go-to maul for about 35 years. We're poppin notty twisty pignut. The 6 lb on the trailer won't touch it. Sometimes it will go right through the top one and split the one underneath. I'm always showing up the young bucks at the county fair game ringing the bell and winning the big stuffed toys for my teenage daughters since they were little kids. All technique and experience, not brute strength.

I'm with you Dennis and I am quite a bit younger than you.