I love my Fiskars Super-Splitter

[CountryBoy19]

Split nearly a full cord of white ash and a quarter cord of poplar with "ease" using my Fiskars. Yes, I was exhausted, but that's a heck of a lot of wood to split in one day by hand.

Still have about a half cord of poplar to split, and 2 poplar trees to cut up and haul home (if I want them).

Also have 3 truck loads of red oak on the ground that needs split (3/4 cord per truck load), 1 load that still needs hauled home, and 2-4 oak trees that still need cut and hauled home.

I think I'm going to be set on wood for a while... I'm sure glad I lucked into this wood-haul.

 

[Cluttermagnet]

Photos, or it didn't happen. ;-)

Seriously, I've split smaller diameter Poplar rounds, 8in and under, no problem with my 6lb maul. but I have some big Poplar rounds here I'm saving for the splitter. I've found it way tougher than Red Oak to split the big stuff.

Can your Fiskars split 18-24in Poplar? I gave up on that size stuff for hand splitting. Too much work.

BTW are we talking Tulip (Yellow) Poplar here? Or 'that other stuff'?

 

[CountryBoy19]

Photos, or it didn't happen. ;-)

Seriously, I've split smaller diameter Poplar rounds, 8in and under, no problem with my 6lb maul. but I have some big Poplar rounds here I'm saving for the splitter. I've found it way tougher than Red Oak to split the big stuff.

Can your Fiskars split 18-24in Poplar? I gave up on that size stuff for hand splitting. Too much work.

BTW are we talking Tulip (Yellow) Poplar here? Or 'that other stuff'?

Tulip Poplar for sure...

It normally only takes 4 whacks at an 18" round to get one side off, then I just work my way around taking nice little splits off at a time until I don't have anything left then I pick up the side that I knocked off and split that down the middle.

If poplar splits harder than oak then I'm excited to split all the oak!

I think different trees rank differently on ease of splitting depending on the region and their growth etc. so it's entirely possibly that you've had poplar that split harder than oak, but this stuff was easy; much easier than the white ash, and I did split a couple of the big oak rounds so I could get them loaded and I know that will split about the same as the ash.

 

[bsearcey]

Photos, or it didn't happen. ;-)

Seriously, I've split smaller diameter Poplar rounds, 8in and under, no problem with my 6lb maul. but I have some big Poplar rounds here I'm saving for the splitter. I've found it way tougher than Red Oak to split the big stuff.

Can your Fiskars split 18-24in Poplar? I gave up on that size stuff for hand splitting. Too much work.

BTW are we talking Tulip (Yellow) Poplar here? Or 'that other stuff'?

I just got through splitting about 2 cords of tulip with my fiskars. I have to agree with you Clutter once you get up to about 18" and above it is tough to get it to split, especially when green. It seems to absorb the impact unlike denser woods like red oak. I had to noodle pretty everything in order to get it to split. I did find that some of the drier pieces split alot easier then the green stuff. Anyway, kind of sucks to go through all that work for something without a great BTU value, but better than letting it rot IMO.

 

[Cluttermagnet]

Thanks, guys. Well, I won't let it rot. Oak it isn't, but it does have some good BTU's. I have a bunch of bigger rounds and splits, and yes, it was still pretty green when I got it free off a Craigs List ad. Maybe it will split a little easier now, a year later. The smaller stuff split up real good, right away. I burned a good bit of it last winter, still have some to use this year.

BTW the charts all say that it has about 2/3 or better the BTU's of Oak, and that ain't bad at all. It will heat your house just fine. Real good mixed in with some Oak or Cherry. It burns hotter and it will get that other, denser hardwood going in your firebox.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Photos, or it didn't happen. ;-)

Seriously, I've split smaller diameter Poplar rounds, 8in and under, no problem with my 6lb maul. but I have some big Poplar rounds here I'm saving for the splitter. I've found it way tougher than Red Oak to split the big stuff.

Can your Fiskars split 18-24in Poplar? I gave up on that size stuff for hand splitting. Too much work.

BTW are we talking Tulip (Yellow) Poplar here? Or 'that other stuff'?

I just got through splitting about 2 cords of tulip with my fiskars. I have to agree with you Clutter once you get up to about 18" and above it is tough to get it to split, especially when green. It seems to absorb the impact unlike denser woods like red oak. I had to noodle pretty everything in order to get it to split. I did find that some of the drier pieces split alot easier then the green stuff. Anyway, kind of sucks to go through all that work for something without a great BTU value, but better than letting it rot IMO.

That's my take on it too, it's still wood, and free is cheap enough for me. The neighbor a mile down the road had a bunch of trees dropped. He said I can have the ash and oak if I take the poplar too. So I've hauled 1 load of ash, 3 loads of oak (at least 3-5 more coming when I get to it), and 1 load of poplar. I also noticed a sugar maple that I may take but I think I'm going to need a wood splitter for that, I've heard maple is hard to split.

Oh yeah, the guy that gave me the wood said I can use his splitter anytime he isn't using it... now that's a good deal... I've just been using the Fiskars because he is using the splitter right now and I don't want to make myself a burden by overusing it, especially on wood that's easy to split.