maple splitting

[firefighterjake]

I've had some red maple crotches and knots be a little stringy. I have the TroyBuilt spliter that has the welds made on the cylinder itself. I used to just let it power through and almost "cut" the wood, but after reading about the TroyBuilt failures at the cylinder welds (see a thread from this summer on the TroyBuilt) I don't let it push like that anymore. I just go for the easy split and I can throw the bigger curvy piece in the door of the Garn. That thread has me a little worried about the troybuilt, but it has been flawless for the 5 years I've owned it. Haven't met anything I couldn't split, but a few of these 24" beech rounds about 24" long I can't seem to pick up. I've almost though about trying to split the wrong way, vertically I mean.

My own take on the splitter failure . . . s#@t happens . . . anything made by a person can and will fail eventually . . . the design may not be the best, but it is what it is . . . the fact that you've gone five years with no issues should tell you something . . . I mean we can always worry about what could happen and I personally think it makes sense to baby the splitter a bit and not push it as hard knowing that this is a potential weak point . . . but it is what it is . . .

Final thought . . . the internet is good . . . and bad. You can do lots of research and get opinions on nearly every product made . . . but the one thing you'll soon discover is that if there is a problem in a product it can often be magnified greatly . . . a few bad experiences or failures can suddenly make it seem like this is a wide-spread problem when in fact the vast majority of folks with the product may not have a problem.

 

[BlankBlankBlank]

I've had some red maple crotches and knots be a little stringy. I have the TroyBuilt spliter that has the welds made on the cylinder itself. I used to just let it power through and almost "cut" the wood, but after reading about the TroyBuilt failures at the cylinder welds (see a thread from this summer on the TroyBuilt) I don't let it push like that anymore. I just go for the easy split and I can throw the bigger curvy piece in the door of the Garn. That thread has me a little worried about the troybuilt, but it has been flawless for the 5 years I've owned it. Haven't met anything I couldn't split, but a few of these 24" beech rounds about 24" long I can't seem to pick up. I've almost though about trying to split the wrong way, vertically I mean.

My own take on the splitter failure . . . s#@t happens . . . anything made by a person can and will fail eventually . . . the design may not be the best, but it is what it is . . . the fact that you've gone five years with no issues should tell you something . . . I mean we can always worry about what could happen and I personally think it makes sense to baby the splitter a bit and not push it as hard knowing that this is a potential weak point . . . but it is what it is . . .

Final thought . . . the internet is good . . . and bad. You can do lots of research and get opinions on nearly every product made . . . but the one thing you'll soon discover is that if there is a problem in a product it can often be magnified greatly . . . a few bad experiences or failures can suddenly make it seem like this is a wide-spread problem when in fact the vast majority of folks with the product may not have a problem.

And as a result of being problem free, they might NOT weigh in that fact; thus, as firefighterjake pointed out, contributing to an overly slanted view that a good product is poor quality, design, etc.

I'm one of those guys who darn near researches everything. I do not like hassles. I do not like buyer's remorse. But I also have had to deal with keeping all this great Internet info in perspective, which is hard to do sometimes.

 

[peakbagger]

I hand split about 2 cords a year with a maul. On occasion, I have some bad pieces, but usually they just pop.

 

[gerry100]

In my experience, Maple splits easier the wetter it is.

Even dry it's not bad, but freshly dropped it's real easy with the maul.

 

[gerry100]

In my experience, Maple splits easier the wetter it is.

Even dry it's not bad, but freshly dropped it's real easy with the maul.