Log Splitter Pics

[quads]

Here's a few pics of my log splitter. My favorite part of the whole process is splitting. Running the saw....meh. Hauling...ho hum. Stacking....oh well. Burning...fun but. Those things are necessary only to get to do more splitting! Here it is:

6# with fiberglass core/plastic handle. 30 years old. The original hardwood handle only lasted 5 years, the handle that's on there now I purchased 25 years ago. In 30 years time, that maul and I have pounded through 200 cord, a conservative estimate. I have an older 6# maul, but it has the round sledge hammer type handle. The round handle isn't as strong and never lasted as long. It's been setting on my workbench now with the handle broke off for the 30 years since buying this maul.

It's got some dings here:

And some cracks there:

A few years ago I noticed it was starting to get loose here:

When I noticed that, I thought maybe it was time to get a spare. I bought a new 6# maul from ACE Hardware, but so far it's been wasted money. It's one of those with the yellow handle and the black overstrike protector. It looks like the head isn't glued on either, but slid down the handle until it gets tight on a tapered end. Interesting, and probably a very good maul. It hangs on the wall, still having never been swung. I'm not sure I ever will swing it either. I think, if the time comes, I will buy a new handle for my favorite.

The only bad thing, I sharpened it once when I was a younger man. What a mistake. Took a long time for it to dull itself back down and get into good splitting form again. Lesson learned, after much wiggling of the handle to get it unstuck from the wood!

Thanks for looking!

 

[prairiefire]

nice maul and nice that you give it respect! it has served you well. tools nowadays rarely last 30 years! if your like me you get to know a tool and how to use it and when you use a different one it never feels the same. i am a mechanic and my impact gun i bought the first day on the job as a lowly apprentice(15 years ago) i still use today! have had to fix it a few times but have tried other guns and none feel right so i will keep fixing it until i can't. nice post sometimes we forget about the simple things in life that make our lives easier! even though splitting wood isn't easy

 

[BrotherBart]

My two mauls are 30 years old and I have split a bunch of wood over that time. The mauls are leaning against the hydraulic splitter I bought in 1988 that split most of that wood and that will split whatever gets split in the future. :lol: Happiness is shoulders that quit hurting in 1988. For $38 a year.

Swing away! :cheese:

 

[quads]

Thanks guys! There's just a certain uncomplicated simplicity (?) about splitting with my old maul. Like riding my bicycle or rowing my boat.

 

[rdust]

I have to respect the people who hand split large amounts of wood. I'll split a face cord here and there but when I decided to buy a stove the next purchase was a hydraulic log splitter. I've split 10 cords this year and I could never imagine doing that by hand.

 

[BrotherBart]

If I still had to split by hand we would not be burning wood. I would be in an old folks home that has gas heat.

 

[quads]

Ha ha! It's not THAT bad, splitting by hand. It's the other way around for me, if it wasn't for all the wood that I split by hand I'd probably be in the old folks home. Sometimes I think it helps keep me alive and going. To me it's a lot of fun, productive exercise. I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Quads, I used to do that splitting by hand too, but I also used to milk cows, and done some logging, etc.

Now I can say my splitting maul is a bit older than yours....but it hasn't been used in years. lol I now use the hydraulic splitter and rarely work up a sweat while splitting a year's supply of wood. And the milking stopped many moons ago as did the logging too. Time has taken its toll, but I love that sitting place. As a matter of fact, I get most of my exercise now by walking around looking for a good place to sit.

 

[quads]

I'm retired from all the field work, somebody else does it now. I always say I'm going to give up milking someday too, but I like the cows. I've raised them all by hand from babies and I don't like it much when somebody else has to do the milking for me. I try to take the weekends off now, but they're not really rest days. I'm usually out swinging my maul somewhere!

 

[Flatbedford]

I split about 3 or 4 cords a year by hand. I will resist the hydraulic splitter as long as my body lets me. I am only 39 now, I hope to keep the maul in use for a while.

 

[burntime]

I split 6 cords a year by hand and finally bought a splitter. I am 6 ft 270, and although have a beer gut, not a pushover by any sense of the imagination with a 54 inch chest. I split by hand but the spee co is faster, easier, easier on the body, and affords me loads of time to do other things. Split by hand if you must. Even try to convince yourself you do not need a splitter, but once, just once, use one and you will be ruined for life!

 

[quads]

Hydraulic log splitter? Not me, never, no way. Splitting with my old maul is my favorite part of the process. Here's something I posted in another thread:

Wood handles always hurt my shoulders/arms/neck. The fiberglass core/plastic handles are much easier on me, for some reason. Maybe they absorb some of the shock so my old body doesn’t have too?

I used to help an old uncle that owned a hydraulic log splitter. He would set on a milk crate, smoking a cigar, and run the lever up and down while I did all the rest (he even mounted an umbrella on it so he could stay dry in the rain while “WE” split wood). I can tell you I will never own one (never say never, but....). It always just about killed me. My knees, back, shoulders, fingers when unky got trigger happy with the lever, headache from the exhaust blowing in my face, couldn’t hear the birds singing like I can when using my maul, not to mention it’s one more thing to put gas in and drag around,.........yuck. Nothing against those that use them, to each his own, just not for me.

Come to think of it, I guess I was just about ruined for life by using one! Ha ha!

 

[savageactor7]

This splitter mall goes back to our bicentennial ...I've probably replaced the handle a dozen times or so. It's the lighter of the 2 so I guess it would be my favorite.

 

[quads]

savageactor7, does the water keep the handle tight? I don't know that much about wooden handles, having used the fiberglass core/plastic handle for a long time. I don't remember any of the "old timers" around here soaking their wooden handles though, and I never did.

I dug through my archives and found an old picture of Unky's log splitter. Boy, does that bring back memories (bad ones mostly). When it was in operation, we used it in the vertical position, while he sat on the milk crate. I did all the rolling around on the ground with the rounds, carrying, maneuvering, bending, kneeling, lifting, yuck. Sometimes he gave me an old boat cushion to kneel on. No matter what way you looked at it, it was more work and screwing around than using my maul. We first had to cut the tree. Then pile the rounds somewhere near a trail that we could haul the splitter to. Then haul the splitter to the rounds. Split the wood and pile the splits on the other side of the trail out of the way, as we did. Then go back to the farm and get the trailer. Then head back out to the woods, pile the splits on the trailer, then haul the splits back to the farm where they got piled again in the woodpile. But, having paid $1000 or whatever for the hydraulic splitter, he insisted that we had to use it because it was "easier". For him maybe. Even if we had left the splitter on the farm and hauled the splits to it, it would have still been more work. It's a lot harder to load those unsplit rounds on the trailer and move them around than it is to work with splits. Not to mention there would have been more trips needed because the rounds don't pile as well as splits and take up more room on the trailer. I don't like to handle the firewood any more than necessary. The less I have to touch it, the less time it takes and the less work it is. I don't mind hard work, but boring stuff that takes way longer than it needs to drives me crazier than I already am!

The way I do it with my maul: Cut the tree up into rounds. Tip the round up where it lays and split. Throw the splits at the trailer while I'm splitting. Stack on trailer and haul to the woodpile. One load on my trailer behind the ATV takes about 45 minutes from the time I walk out the door until I walk back in the door. That's complete, including cutting the tree down, splitting, hauling, and piling in the woodpile. Done. I never have to touch it again until it goes in the stove.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I too used to really enjoy splitting wood and actually split most of the wood with an axe rather than a splitting maul. I did use a sledge and wedge on some tough stuff.

However, all good things must come to an end and that is the way my splitting went. When the body gives out and there is still work to be done, you either hire it done or find a way to do it yourself. As for me, I bought a 20 ton splitter and it was one of the best purchases I ever made.

To do the work (and I'll be posting some pictures one of these days when the body settles down and I can do it again), I cut and then haul to where I want the wood pile. The wood is loosely (very loosely) stacked in rows and then in the spring, I move the splitter right next to the rows. Putting the boom into vertical position, I then use the old favorite; an old milk crate with a hot seat on it.

Sitting, I can move the logs one handed using my left arm, onto the splitter. I do not lift the logs at all but simply roll them onto the splitting block. As the log is split, I throw the splits into a pile. I can split a lot of wood working alone without working up much of a sweat or none at all.

Some say it is slow using a hydraulic splitter. What they go by is the recycle time. As most know, if you time a splitter from the time you hit the down lever and let the ram go all the way and then go all the way back up, it does take some time. However, I never use the whole length. Depending on what is being split, like this year with all white ash and soft maple, the ram does not need to go all the way down on most pieces. Some, but not very many of them. As soon as the log splits I immediately start the ram back up. I then stop the ram when it gets to just above where I will set the log for the next split. This saves a lot of time!

I also use this method for making kindling. I can take, say, a 12" soft maple log and make a lot of 1" x 1" pieces of kindling using the hydraulic splitter and do it extremely fast.


btw, most of the reason my body required me to buy the splitter is medically related. When you realize that at one time in my life polio left me cripple from the waist down, you probably can understand how my body is giving out. Post-polio problems are many. However, I do whatever I can and have learned to live with it. It is just like sharpening the chain saw. For years I sharpened with a file only. Now I use the dremel tool which is fast and fairly accurate if you are very careful. My hands simply will not take the sharpening using a file.


quads, that is also the reason I could never milk a cow completely using only my hands. I recall back in my youth that when our power went out, we'd get extra help milking. I'd spend most of my time carrying the milk while others did the milking. I could do a little bit, but not much.

 

[quads]

You're right, the actual time with the splitter doesn't amount to a big slowdown. It was all the extra messing around that Unky did that caused things to take so loooooong. All the unnecessary steps he insisted we take. I did it for many years for him and I don't miss it one bit. But that's kind of the way he did everything. We can safely assume that his heart attacks were not caused by sweating from swinging a maul, if you know what I mean.

I think splitting by hand is 50% psychological and 50% physical. Without one half, the other half by itself isn't enough to turn a person into a "maul swinger". You either can do it, you can't do it, or you used to be able to do it and now you lost the ability. Take my wife for instance. She has all the willpower and determination, but she's just too weak. She can barely pick the 6# maul up, let alone swing it with any authority. She has tried a few times in the past, but she was so shaky with it that I was afraid she was going to hurt herself, because she was just physically too weak. Me, on the other hand, was raised to work hard even when other ways seemed easier, so I have the 50% determination needed. And as far as physical ability, I have that too! At least until I start the slippery slide towards the nursing home, or something happens. I have had heart and respiratory trouble already, but so far I'm ok.

My dad always used an ax too, he hated splitting mauls. I can't split anything with one, except for kindling. He was pretty good at it, but for the life of me I can't figure out how he did it.

I must admit, I also use a Dremel to sharpen my saw. The reason being, I can't do it with a file! Never could do it worth a darn. Just can't get it right for some reason. I usually cut until the chain starts to get dull, then I either quit for the day or come back home and sharpen it. I never carry a file with me in the woods. Really wouldn't do me any good to have one along.

As for milking cows by hand with no power, no way! I could probably do it for a few, but not all 33. When the power goes out, out comes the generator.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

quads, when you wrote about your wife, you could also have been writing about mine. I would hate to see an ax or maul in her hands!

On the dremel tool, I picked up one at our local saw shop and take it to the woods with me. It just clips onto the battery. That way, when it needs sharpening, I do it right then and it takes so little time that way. Nice.

You are also right about the splitting, but I'd still rather use the axe; just can't do much of it any more.

My dad had many faults but one thing you could say with truth about him is that he was good at milking by hand. I've never seen anyone faster. I've seen him milk twice as fast as most folks and I was really thankful for that because that meant I didn't have to do it. lol That was when we milked around 30-35 cows. Now thank God for portable generators.

 

[savageactor7]

savageactor7, does the water keep the handle tight?

Truthfully and scientifically I dunno...but that's what my dad told me and I've been replacing handles that way since. I never had one come off but basically I'm a follow the procedure type guy.

Quad I mostly hand split in the winter cause I 'm looking for outdoor physical activity. When I'm making production in the spring/fall I use a gas splitter. Mostly cause elm is my best and hardest wood...then it's maple and ash. If it wasn't for elm I could hand split...although I probably wouldn't be that fond of doing it...I could.

btw that mall has been bashed by a sledgehammer a couple thousand times or more. Today's malls will mushroom up and spit shrapnel at you.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

The water will make the wood swell.

 

[savageactor7]

^well yeah I know that but when I told my Dad it would eventually dry he told me to keep my pie hole shut and just do it anyways.

 

[quads]

Mostly cause elm is my best and hardest wood...then it's maple and ash. If it wasn't for elm I could hand split...although I probably wouldn't be that fond of doing it...I could.

Ummm, yep, elm is where I draw the line. We don't have much of it around here anymore, but the ones I find I leave in the woods to rot. I enjoy splitting by hand, but I'm not THAT crazy! Ha ha!