Green horn needs some advice

For sure not Black Walnut. More like Sweet Gum.

If you live in East Texas, I will say Sweet Gum.

What kind of axe are you using to split? If its a thin felling axe, that might be part of the issue.

jackatc1 said:

New For sure not Black Walnut.

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X2 uh.....yeah, dat not be black walnut. Hickory maybe or a gum. I just bought a splitter, but used to save up all the stuff that didnt split relatively easy and rented a splitter once or twice a season. Otherwise work from the edges, taking off thin splits or chips from the edges rather than trying to crack it in half.

begreen said:

S Or get a heavy splitting maul and some wedges

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no no no . . . dude I have tried various splitting mauls/axes/sledge and wedge. . . and then this year my wife's grandmother got me a fiskars. don't fool yourself. the fiskars is the king of hand-splitting. seems like swing speed is everything. we have a homemade heavy as F*ck splitting maul at our huntin camp. then one day someone brought a fiskars back and we laughed at that little thing! well at the end of the day, the fella swinging the fiskars had split way more wood than the rest of us and wasn't half as tired. don't screw around with big heavy splitting mauls. they just make you tired and you get nothing done

I have an 8# splitting maul, a 3-1/2# double edge ax & the Fiskars X27. I just got the Fiskars a couple weeks ago. They make 6# splitting mauls also. As Lost in the Woods has said velocity is more important than weight when hand splitting. I read the science of it somewhere but can’t remember where. When you strike your round hit it more towards the edge rather than in the middle. I have no experience with sweet gum or hickory. About everything I get is Locust, Hedge, Mulberry & Elm. I did get a bit of maple today. I split everything I can by hand, toss what I can’t aside then borrow my friends splitter to clean it up, then return the splitter along with a jag of wood as thanks.

You could always noodle it.
Just make sure your chain is good and sharp.

Here’s something I posted a few days back to a member who had just picked up some cherry and some sweet gum. Just substitute some easy splitting wood for the cherry suggestion in the last paragraph.

On the gum, I’d recommend not trying to get your usual splits. Just get it small enough to fit through your stove door, then set it aside somewhere to dry. We used to get pieces that my mother couldn’t split with her hydraulic splitter (I don’t know the tonnage, but it’s smaller than a rental for sure). Our stove had a much bigger door than hers, and we could put one or two in and pack around them. They burned great but are a bear to split.

Another use for gum that I’ve heard is to leave a few rounds out for when a woodsplitting friend comes to visit. Show him your technique on your cherry. Then ask for his advice on improvements. Bring out your gum for him to demonstrate.

Otto-bot said:

be nice y’all I’m new to this splitting game but figured it would be great exercise and save money from ordering Wood I’ve already split a few loads of wood pecan and hickory that people cut down but I picked up a load of black walnut last week and I haven’t made a dent in it... im killing myself splitting a single round is taking me 20 minutes... I’ve switched to a wedge and sledge cause the axe was just making wood chips of the top any advice?

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Firstly, well done on making some moves toward self-sufficiency.

Second, I think your equipment might be holding you back. The Fisher folks made some fine stoves in times past, but their knockoffs of the famous Fiskers splitters are just not cutting it.

Finally, find some wood that's not gum or elm. That Fisher axe would probably be just fine on oak, locust, really anything but gum and elm.

;-)

I had a pretty easy time splitting sweet gum after the rounds dried for a year. Just by hand, $29 maul from the hardware store.

JimBear said:

As Lost in the Woods has said velocity is more important than weight when hand splitting. I read the science of it somewhere but can’t remember where.

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kinetic energy (energy of motion): KE = 1/2 x M x V^2

For splitting purposes, M is the mass of the maul, V is the velocity of maul at the time it hits the wood. If you double the weight (mass) of the maul and are able to keep the velocity constant, you double the amount of energy transferred to the wood. In practice, it's likely that increasing the weight of the maul will result in a decrease in velocity, so you won't actually notice a linear increase in energy produced. If you were able to maintain velocity, you're gonna wear yourself out quicker.

If you double your speed on a given maul, you'll increase the energy to the wood by 4 times. So if you go to a lighter maul and can swing harder, you likely end up with an increase in energy splitting the wood even though the weight went down.

Two take-aways: 1) a lighter maul is easier to control at a given speed so you're more likely to be more accurate in your swing. Fewer "misses" means fewer swings means more producivity. 2) a heavier maul wears a guy out exponentially, at least in my experience. I can swing a 6 pound maul almost all day. An 8 pounder...wears me out pretty quickly. Again, lighter maul means more productivity.

I love splitting by hand. I borrow a splitter when I need to work fast. But for the most part, it's just me, my trusty maul, and the wood. Bottom line, it's easy to see that a lighter tool will yield more split wood on any given day.

JimBear said:

...I split everything I can by hand, toss what I can’t aside then borrow my friends splitter to clean it up, then return the splitter along with a jag of wood as thanks.

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+1

At some point, I reach diminishing returns for my effort trying to split tough rounds by hand. That's when the hydraulic splitter takes over.