Mauling over splitting wood

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tiber

Feeling the Heat
Oct 4, 2009
453
Philadelphia
Hello gearheads

I have some wood (probably maple) which I'm having a deuce of a time splitting.

Is wood easier to split when the rounds have seasoned?

Using a maul, I am having a devil of a time splitting the wood. I'm a big guy, so the standard issue home depot 10# maul isn't a problem for me to swing. The problem is the wood feels soft and spongy (it's definitely not seasoned in the least) and the maul head will hit, bury itself about halfway in and then require the use of a whacking stick on the handle to get it unstuck. The rounds are roughly 20" long.

At this rate I'm going to buy a 10 ton manual log splitter.
 
If you can, wait till they freeze.
 
tiber said:
Hello gearheads

I have some wood (probably maple) which I'm having a deuce of a time splitting.

Is wood easier to split when the rounds have seasoned?

Using a maul, I am having a devil of a time splitting the wood. I'm a big guy, so the standard issue home depot 10# maul isn't a problem for me to swing. The problem is the wood feels soft and spongy (it's definitely not seasoned in the least) and the maul head will hit, bury itself about halfway in and then require the use of a whacking stick on the handle to get it unstuck. The rounds are roughly 20" long.

At this rate I'm going to buy a 10 ton manual log splitter.


Like lukem says, what for the freeze which should happen the week of Thanksgiving.



zap
 
OK so what is anyone using to split wood when it's not frozen?

The 10 ton manual press is looking good and it's in my price range. I've entertained those giant wood screws also.
 
tiber said:
OK so what is anyone using to split wood when it's not frozen?

Hydraulics is your friend. :)
 
I find that it takes more than your regular freeze. I like to have several days in a row where it's teens or lower consistently, that helps a lot.

I have some maple that is being a pain, too. the tree's grain sorta spirals up the trunk, so splitting it it really weird (and difficult). I feel your pain.

when the Maul doesn't work, it get's one of two treatments: Thrown into the burn pile or noodled. The more firewood on hand, the more likely it is to be thrown into the burn pile.
 
yeah what typically happens here is if it doesn't split nicely on the maul then I'll simply chainsaw it in half. I figure what wood I waste cutting it in half is less wood then I would toss out saying "too hard to split".

Maybe it's something particular to maple? My scrounges this year were all pine and maple, and the pine - not surprisingly - was easy to split.
 
tiber said:
Hello gearheads
Is wood easier to split when the rounds have seasoned?

My experience has been as a general rule that wood is easier to split the less seasoned or greener it is. One exception is some elm species that needs to be dead for years before it is splittable. I have not noticed if frozen wood splits easier than thawed wood.
 
tiber said:
OK so what is anyone using to split wood when it's not frozen?

The 10 ton manual press is looking good and it's in my price range. I've entertained those giant wood screws also.

I've never had too much trouble getting my maul stuck unless the wood is REALLY punky. I'd normally say a wedge when the maul doesn't work but, in your case, that sounds like a good way to loose the wedge.

BTW...I've tried one of the manual splitters. Make sure you have a LOT of time to spend splitting wood.
 
lukem said:
I've tried one of the manual splitters. Make sure you have a LOT of time to spend splitting wood.

I think I asked this before, pardon the dupe if I did. How about those electric ones? I am looking to spend $100 which made the pumping one attractive.
 
tiber said:
lukem said:
I've tried one of the manual splitters. Make sure you have a LOT of time to spend splitting wood.

I think I asked this before, pardon the dupe if I did. How about those electric ones? I am looking to spend $100 which made the pumping one attractive.
This is just me. I'm a thin guy, not all muscle bound or carry a lot of weight onto a round when I swing a maul. I have an electric splitter, and when it can't do the job I bring out the maul and I generally can. If i had to guess I'd say I can split anything with a maul that a 7 ton splitter can (most electrics are 4-5tons). If you give me unlimited swings I can probably bust through 12-ton splitter stuff, but it would be tiring, if there is a piece that a 22-ton can't split, then it's pretty much gonna be useless for me to think i can handle it with a maul/splitting axe.

I don't have any hard data to back this up, just my guesses on how it's been for me.
 
I attempt to split as little wood as possible.

I always start out with a 12# Monster Maul. If 3 shots later nothing has happened, I ask myself . . .

1)can I just shorten it and put it in the boiler?

2)Is the probable BTU content going to make a wedge and 16# sledge worthwhile?

3)Possibly I should just leave it for now until I am more desperate?

Hard Maple brings a yes to #2. But ONLY if #1 was a 'No'. If it's punky, you may want to just skip to #3, say 'Yes', then hope someone steals it :lol:

Danno's right. . .if yer gonna pay money for a splitter, don't mess with anything less than 20 ton. 35 is what you really want. Try to get a few friends to go in on shares with you. Splitters spend most of their life sitting around doing nothing.
 
For larger rounds I always use a sledge & wedge.
I've yet to encounter something that wouldn't split. I use a maul for everything else, but the best part about the wedge is that you can bury it in the wood and continue to pound it deeper into the round and eventually it will crack.
 
Sledge and wedge(s) can often get you through the tough stuff. A 10lb sledge can be a beautiful thing.

Matt
 
I've had similar problems with pin oak. Seems to me that if it is very green, it is too wet and the wetness helps it absorb the blows of your maul/axe.

I have a better time with those if I stack them up off the ground, then come back to them a week later. The round dries out a bit, but is nowhere near fully seasoned. Still, it stops spitting water out and some cracks may start to form.

I use a Fiskars Super Splitter and I try to deliver as much force as I can to those rounds. That means having it on the ground and I raise up high and slam it down into the round full force.

So yea try letting them dry out a bit off the ground and come back to em a week later and see how they go then.
 
Louie VA said:
I use a Fiskars Super Splitter and I try to deliver as much force as I can to those rounds. That means having it on the ground and I raise up high and slam it down into the round full force.

In the theme of exploring options here, how well do those compare to a maul? Is it just for people who can't aim? ;)
 
tiber said:
Louie VA said:
I use a Fiskars Super Splitter and I try to deliver as much force as I can to those rounds. That means having it on the ground and I raise up high and slam it down into the round full force.

In the theme of exploring options here, how well do those compare to a maul? Is it just for people who can't aim? ;)

Practice makes perfect.

After using the Fiskars for almost a year I recently picked up an 8lb maul - It felt extremely awkward - like driving a tank when you're used to a compact car. The power is there but my skill was not. You'll get good at what you are used to using. There are lots of folks that have great success with the maul.
 
i use a 10 pound sledge and wedges.and fiskar splitting axe for first time this year and some endurance. theres hardly anything i cant split by hand. takes practice and some patience and you'll get there. splitting when its cold is a plus but i do it year round to keep up and dont have any problems.
 
do you have a picture of the wood? It does not sound like maple, at least not the maple I split. I find it really pretty easy and the maul/axe does not sink in. The only maple I have seen do that is punky wood. Now elm is another issue. The more I pound on that stuff the worse it gets, stringy and a real pain.
 
I like to wait at least a week after cutting (more depending on species) and this gives the wood time to start naturally checking/cracking on the ends. This gives you a place to start splitting. I've found that wood splits the easiest along natural crack lines.

Honey locust, which some say is hard to split, splits much easier once you get some natural cracks started.
 
I have never met the unseasoned round that was easier to split than a more seasoned round. As the wood dries, cracks tend to develop at the ends, those cracks are usually where I aim the maul and they will usually open right up in a few good whacks. Frozen wood is even worse...it takes that mushy, wet wood and freezes it solid and turns the stuff to iron...now instead of sinking into the round and not opening it up, the maul just bounces off the top and sometimes comes right back at you. I've evn pounded my wood grenade into frozen rounds...tapping it in wiht a 10lb sledge and you get far enough so it'll stand on its own, but when you apply some serious force to it, the shockwave from the hammer impact goes through the wedge, hits the frozen wood (which could be battleship armor for all the give it has), reflects back to the wedge and blows it straight out of the wood. I've had my wedge actually shoot up a foot and ahalf or so when trying to split frozen wood. Its would be funny if it weren't so frustrating.

I wouldn't bother with purchasing any $100 splitting machine. Anything in your price range is either going to be too weak for your needs, or if it does have enough power, its going to be so slow that you mgiht as well not bother...4 tom electrics start around $300 new, so you'll have alot of trouble finding even a used 4 tomn electric model for your $100...if this is all the budget you can afford, you simply cannot afford to buy a splitter thats going to of any value to you.

My recommendation is to go through your splitting pile and open up all the stuff you can with the maul, stack up everything that you can't do by hand and take your $100 and go rent a gas powered hydraulic splitter thats at least 20 tons or more. You'll go right through the rest of your stuff in a day and have a few bucks left over from your $100 for a well deserved 6 pack and maybe a small pizza.
 
For answers to most issues raised here, read Splitting Firewood by David Tresemer written in the early 80's in the wake of the 70's oil crisis and back to the land movement. It's very good and available on amazon used for only a few $$$.
 
If you cant aim, the LAST TOOL you want to try is a Fiskars SS.......and make sure your health insurance premiums are up-to-date. Those buggers are SHARP!!! I use mine for sh*ts and giggles on ash and oak rounds( FUN :lol: ), and let me tell ya... if that thing were to hit your foot full force - bye,bye, little piggies!
 
At age 65, I split my first batch of wood ever this past fall. I bought a 6 lb. splitting maul and it worked very well on straight grain unseasoned birch. Junks with a lot of knots were another story. When I get around to it I'll take the chain saw to those. Most of my wood was around 14" in length (20" lenghts would probably have been more difficult). I didn't try to do it all at once......usually just a half hour at a time. Thinking of it as an upper body workout may make it seem less onerous.
ChipTam
 
wood-fan-atic said:
If you cant aim, the LAST TOOL you want to try is a Fiskars SS.......and make sure your health insurance premiums are up-to-date. Those buggers are SHARP!!! I use mine for sh*ts and giggles on ash and oak rounds( FUN :lol: ), and let me tell ya... if that thing were to hit your foot full force - bye,bye, little piggies!

Oh YEAH!!!!! X2!!!!
My buddy lets his 10 year old boy split some wood out camping. I had my SS in the truck
and he had left his axe at home.He asked if his boy could use my axe and I said No way!
I am sure you guys can all picture what a 10 year old looks like chopping wood;kinda awkward
looking. I told him that the SS is more like a very heavy knife than an axe and to prove it,I shaved
a bit of hair off my arm.Just the weight of the axe alone hitting a leg would cause injury. I can't think
of another tool that could cause as much injury if not given the proper respect.(Well maybe Mike Tyson LOL)

I purchased a 20 ton splitter and some of the wood that this thing goes through is incredible.I went through
some wood without the unit struggling too much that I could have hit with the SS all day and never got through.
 
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