Hands or Hydraulics?

[Stax]

As a greenhorn to splitting wood, how long did it take you to go from hand tool to hydraulic splitter? If you haven't gone the hydraulic route, please reply with your tool of choice and splitting method/s.

 

[KarlP]

It the wood supply is straight grained 8-14" diameter rounds stick with the hand tools. You'll split quicker and cheaper with a maul.

If your wood supply includes a lot of twists, knots, crotches, and large diameter wood invest in hydraulic. Better to wear out an engine in 20 years of splitting than your body.

 

[Wood Duck]

I split by hand. I stand a round on a short, wide round that I use as a splitting block, stand with my feet side by side so neither foot is close to the round I want to split, and deftly land the sharp edge of either my 2.5 lb Fiskar's splitting Ax or my 8 lb maul on the end of the round I want to split. Sometimes it splits, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes I wasn't as deft as I planned to be. I repeat as necessary. I find it very enjoyable and good exercise. I see no need for hydraulics until I get a whole lot older or start splitting a whole lot more firewood.

 

[cygnus]

I split by hand. I stand a round on a short, wide round that I use as a splitting block, stand with my feet side by side so neither foot is close to the round I want to split, and deftly land the sharp edge of either my 2.5 lb Fiskar's splitting Ax or my 8 lb maul on the end of the round I want to split. Sometimes it splits, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes I wasn't as deft as I planned to be. I repeat as necessary. I find it very enjoyable and good exercise. I see no need for hydraulics until I get a whole lot older or start splitting a whole lot more firewood.

+1

I don't really have much room to store a splitter either. Same reason I shovel snow instead of using a blower. It's all good exercise and I'm better off for it.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

If I have a half cord to do- hand is usually faster. If I have a lot to do, with big or ugly ones- hydro is the way to go. I bought a hydro after having my own house with a stove for maybe 4 years- I split a lot of wood now, and this will save my body over time.

 

[lukem]

I don't have one and don't really plan on getting one. My body can take the "abuse" of splitting 6-8 cord per year. It feels good and is good exercise. May not be able to say the same thing in 25-30 years.

I can be pretty picky about what wood I get. I leave the ugly stuff lay. Most of what I split is oak, cherry, and ash. I get some elm too, but it's all long dead and splits pretty easily. If I was splitting hickory and/or knotty stuff I would get the hydraulics.

Probably most of all is...I'm cheap.

 

[Corey]

I split about 1/2 cord of elm and ~3 of twisted up hedge before I threw in the towel and started welding up a splitter. If I was keeping only the choice cuts of oak. maple or other easy splitting wood I'd probably try to keep up with it by hand. But burning all sorts of knots, twists, crotches, etc, the splitter is almost a requirement. Leave no wood behind!

 

[bucketboy]

takes a little getting motovated to split by hand, once your over IT IS COLD OUT the task of splitting by hand goes pretty fast. the family and i cut , split and stacked 2 bush cords of red oak for 12/13 winter in half a day. good team work keeps everyone occupied and the task goes pretty good. i do not care for the noise of the gas motor roaring continously. just my thoughts

 

[firefighterjake]

Grew up using a hydraulic splitter . . . and never even considered splitting by hand.

 

[basswidow]

I started out renting a hydraulic splitter, but so far this year - everything has been split by hand. Last year everything except the maple I got was split by hand.

I find the hand splitting to be easier and faster. I enjoy it. I'm turning 50 and it's no effort at all.

A Fiskars SS axe is a must. I have a maul, wedges & sledge, and another axe.

What I can split with the Fiskars gets noodled.

 

[Flatbedford]

I split by hand. I enjoy the work. I use a good tool (Fiskars). I am picky and only take what I can split easily by hand. I am too cheap to buy a hydro splitter, I have no place to store it, and I don't think I could bear the noise of it. I am 41 now. I may change my mind in the future.

 

[CTYank]

I still use a 6 lb maul circa '75, and a few later ones. (2) 6 lb, (1) 8 lb.

At one time I used, and was a dealer for, hydraulics. Found that overall, for the wood I was splitting, it was faster by hand. Also, splitting by hand involves excellent exercise for the "abs" whereas the hydraulic involved lots of back stress. (We were not designed for the latter.)

If a piece is really nasty: forked, knotty, a quick rip or partway noodle with a chainsaw, and it parts for the maul.

Never did like large doses of CO, and wouldn't like being bathed in diesel exhaust either.

If I ever did accumulate lots of big uglies, I'd rent a hydraulic for the day. Hasn't happened yet.

 

[quads]

I have been splitting by hand my whole life, have used the same maul for over 30 years, and one handle lasted me over 25 years. I use a good tool (antique 6# maul). Splitting firewood is one of my favorite things to do. Years ago, I used to help an old uncle with his firewood and he insisted we had to use his hydraulic splitter, year after year. I didn't like it. One more thing to drag around the woods, put gas in, change the oil in, couldn't hear the birds singing, and I got a sore back and knees rolling around on the ground with the rounds while he sat on a milk-crate smoking a cigar and running the lever. As long as I am able to, I will keep swinging my beloved old maul and avoid hydraulics.

 

[billb3]

before my back started bothering me I used a splitting maul
if it is I use a sledgehammer and wedges.
I've gotten pretty good at moving right along with the wedges.

 

[Stax]

Does anyone use this?

 

[hemlock]

I split about 9 cords by hand this year. I enjoy it for the same reasons as others - exercise, fresh air, etc. As for method, velocity is your friend. A good, fast swing with the correct splitting axe is far more effective than trying to "muscle" through the rounds. It takes a bit of practice to get a technique down that suits you, but once you do, you'll find you can likely go quicker than a splitter. As for the big, knotty, stringy peices - they go in the later pile and......

 

[pyper]

Does anyone use this?

I pound the wedge through with an 8 lb maul.

Mostly I split by hand. Last fall someone gave me a 30" pecan tree, and it was too tough to split by hand so I rented a hydraulic splitter -- $50 for a weekend. Some of the wood was even a challenge for the splitter.

 

[Jutt77]

I split by hand for all the same reasons everyone has mentioned so far but I did get a chance to use my buddies 22ton Speeco on Saturday for some giant, wet cottonwood rounds. I have to admit that it was pretty darn fun. Some of those nasty rounds I had pounded like 20 times with the X27 with no luck and it was really cool watching that splitter rip right through them.

I would eventually like to have a hydraulic splitter for the giant or really hard to split rounds.

 

[Kenster]

I've done about two cords this year, about 3:1 water oak over pin oak. No down hickory this year and I don't cut living trees. I split only by hand using:
1. Fiskars SS
2. 10 lb maul
3. two splitting wedges and the back side of the maul.

I used all three methods yesterday on the big, fresh Water Oak trunk I worked on. The rounds were about 22 inch diameter and about 20 inches long. The Fiskars did not work at all on any of the first cuts on the rounds. I mostly had to do initial split with a wedge near one edge of the round. When it opened up a crack I'd drive in the other wedge in the crack, close to the middle of the round. Because the core of the round was very stringy due to being so wet and green, sometimes both wedges will be buried to the their heads in the crack but the round would not split all the way open so I'd have to flip it over and whack the other end of the round along the crack until the round opened up. Even then I often had to use the Fiskars as an axe to break up the stringy remnants at the core.

Oddly enough, the very longest round, which was about 22 inches, split easily with about three whacks of the maul. And one particular round gave me a real hard time so I ended up chipping away nice size chunks working from the outside in. The core on that particular round was knotty so it will remain as one over size split. It's chewed up pretty good now so should still dry out nicely over the next couple of years and will make a great overnight log.

The Fiskars did a great job of further breaking down the quarters of the big rounds. It just could not handle the full rounds of that size and density. It felt great to swing the Fiskars after a couple of hours of swinging that ten pounder.

I have to admit that it's a real workout splitting by hand, regardless of the tools I use. I look at it as a great workout, though sometimes I'm a little sore the next morning.
I'm 58 and don't see hydraulics in my future. However, I admit that I can cherry pick all the oak I will ever need and never have to touch twisty, knotty, gnarly wood or "Ys" or crooked limbs or anything else that takes too much effort to split by hand.

 

[bogydave]

40+ years by hand. axe, maul
22 ton hydraulic now.

 

[trailmaker]

I started out with hydraulics and abandoned it for hand splitting. With the Fiskars (a superb tool), I found that once my technique developed I could split more than I thought possible. The part of splitting that wears me out the most is moving the rounds into position, this must be done for hydraulics or manual. With the Fiskars I don't find that striking the round is particularly tiring.
A manual splitter is also cheap, quiet, and easy to maintain and store. I've already got way too many things that have an engine to be maintained, and require space to store.

 

[granpajohn]

I can give you both sides of the story...
I have a hand-me-down family heirloom hydraulic. I split by hand for years, but with injuries, (and multiple surgeries), I got used to the machine and almost always use it now. My wife enjoys running the lever. (She doesn't smoke the cigar at least).

However, the reason I got that thing as a hand-me-down, was that my dad, in his 60s and 70s, just couldn't stop axe splitting. He loved it for the same reasons many have cited. Also, I think it reminded him of his youth.

So there you go. Split by hand as long as your health allows it.

 

[WoodpileOCD]

Been splitting by hand since I was probably 13 or 14 and I'm 60 now and still splitting by hand. I discovered the Fiskars splitting axe this year and I must say I use it for about 90% of my hand spliting now. So far I've split about 3 cords this year by hand and just today I rented a hydraulic because I had a good pile of uglies and my scrounging has been so good that my piles of rounds have gotten ahead of me. I split probably another cord and a half today and need to get finished because my gardens will be taking up most of my outdoor time here very shortly. As long as I can still swing it the only way you'll get a maul / axe out of my hands is to pry it from my cold dead fingers as they say.

 

[basswidow]

Does anyone use this?

Rcrozier:

yes - that's a fine way to use the wedge and sledge. If the round is really big - it's better to start the wedge near the side rather then square in the middle.

Anything that is 5 gallon bucket size or smaller - I can simply split with the fiskar.

Once the rounds get much bigger like wash tub size, these must be pie cut with a sledge and wedge. I use my chainsaw to cut a big X in the top of the round in spots that look like they will aid in the splitting. I go about 1/2 a bar deep. I then put my wedge about a inch or two from the bark edge and use the sledge. You don't have to do an killer sledge swing. Sometimes all that is needed is lifting it up and few feet and tapping it down on the wedge to crack it. It's not difficult and it won't wear you out. Once I have taken the wash tub size and pie cut it into 4 pieces - the smaller pieces are easy work with the fiskars.

Now some may say - just noodle the pie pieces and I've done that too. Also others will say - just use the fiskars on those big wash tub sizes and work around the edges. I've also done that too. But normally - I do not split on my scrounge site - so I am just pie cutting big rounds to make them the size I can lift into my truck without blowing something out.


I love a nice crisp day when you can spend a few hours swinging the fiskars and splitting some wood. I split about a wheel barrel load and then stack it and then repeat - until it's time for lunch. It's a zen like experience to listen to the sound of the rounds splitting, the smell of the wood, it's addictive.

 

[Flatbedford]

I love a nice crisp day when you can spend a few hours swinging the fiskars and splitting some wood. I split about a wheel barrel load and then stack it and then repeat - until it's time for lunch. It's a zen like experience to listen to the sound of the rounds splitting, the smell of the wood, it's addictive.

What he said. I can't imagine having an experience like that with hydraulic machine's engine running.