Stax said:
First question is...What type of round were you trying to bust? I find that larger diameter rounds are usually better suited with the maul. Once I quarter rounds, I then switch to the Fiskars because of its weight.
The one I tackled was a white ash, 16" in length and probably 18" diameter. Other splits were with white ash, some with small knots and some with no knots. Not much difference. Also those were of various sizes. Moving on to cherry, a 16" length and about 8" diameter. Oak (pin) the same. The smallest we tried was probably 6" diameter and the largest was the first one listed.
Please understand I am not trying to put down the tool but just stating my observation. Like clemsonfor, I too question the price for what you get because one can go to any hardware store to get a simple splitting maul for much, much less and it will work much better. I also do not understand why folks consider this tool superior when we now see that they don't work as well on larger rounds and something with knots. A superior tool it seems would work well with all rounds you need split.
Again, I go back many, many moons and consider all the wood I have split in my lifetime and I just don't yet see why the Fiskars is praised so highly. Perhaps I expected too much and when it did not live up to those expectations it was a big letdown.