Splitting by hand

[phaywood]

I had purchased a rick of split wood last month and I've burned everything except a few rounds that were in the pile. I figured I'd try and split them by hand (I had an old rusty axe in the barn). I had never split wood before but it went smooth. Then I had a few logs that I had stacked in the Fall so I decided to cut a couple of those with the chainsaw and split those. After an hour I had almost a whole rick split! I couldn't believe it went so quickly! I had planned to purchase a log splitter (or at least rent one) in the spring, but now I'm not sure its necessary. I enjoy the exercise and it actually seemed faster than splitting by machine. Is that true?

So I'm wondering how big of rounds I can expect to split by hand. Most of those today were only 8-10" at the largest. I'll also invest in a new axe; everyone here seems to rave about the Fiskar X27. Should I get anything else? A Maul? Wedges? I'm just excited that it actually worked.

 

[Woody Stover]

Yeah, it goes pretty quick if you have some easy-splitting wood. If the rounds are big, you may be able to work around the outside and whittle 'em down that way.
A good arsenal for starters would be a 6# and/or 8# maul, a sledge and some wedges.

 

[tigeroak]

The biggest I split so far was 54 inches across. I split every thing by hand. Then if I can't split it the saw will. I use a 10 pound maul and when needed 2 wedges. Nothing more than that . I have the next 3 years split and stacked. I split just a little over 4 cord in a week and stacked.

 

[bboulier]

You can split any size round by hand with an X27. Your ancestors accomplished such tasks with axes that were not nearly as good as those produced by Fiskars. With a large round, you should start by splitting from the outside and then gradually whacking it until you get a nice square in the middle for further subdivision. The value of a power splitter has to do with the quantity of wood you are splitting. When I had a large maple tree (40" in diameter at the base) to cut into rounds, I split it by hand for the daily exercise. When my son had the equivalent of 6 cords or so of oak, maple, and cherry to split, I bought a small Harbor Freight electric splitter. Good decision. We did not need anything more powerful, since the diameters of the trees were fairly small.

 

[blacktail]

So I'm wondering how big of rounds I can expect to split by hand.

The answer is, "it depends."

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

I like splitting by hand which is good since i dont have a splitter. Just more of a sense of accomplishment looking at a cord of freshly split wood you did by hand.
And swinging an axe always gave me time to contemplate the world and clear my head. It's good for the soul.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

So I'm wondering how big of rounds I can expect to split by hand

Anything I can't split by hand get chainsawed. Having split by hand my entire life I can assure you that while there is some relationship between the diameter of a round and it's difficulty to split, it is not as correlative as you might think.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

I had some big rounds last year i couldnt lift or split. I discovered if you score the face of the round about 2 inches down in the middle and then use a wedge and sledge hammer it split like a dream (least beech did) and then once i had them in half i could split with a maul easily and I really get a nice chunk of wood in each split that way.

 

[HackBerry]

After swinging a maul for a while you might find your shirts fit a little tighter in the upper back and you have to take up a notch in the belt.

 

[toasty]

(broken image removed) Hi guys, just joined the forum as there is some good info here delivered with humor! (we recently moved to Norway,from New Zealand, and are using wood for heating)

I agree about splitting by hand, much better all round. They sell loads of little splitting machines here, but there's nowhere near the satisfaction in my view.

Easy to work around any size round, just make sure they are not too thick. We cut at a foot here and managed the 70 year old Ash (above) easily. I recon on a good day I could beat a splitter too! Esp. using my 'tyre on a log' to stop the logs falling all over the place on chopping.

Never needed a wedge myself but then most of 'our' trees here are babies compared to the ones some of the guys on here chop. This Ash was my biggest ever!

 

[Bigg_Redd]

After swinging a maul for a while you might find your shirts fit a little tighter in the upper back and you have to take up a notch in the belt.

How much splitting are you doing? I split a lot of wood (10+ cord per year) and by my gorilla math I split 20-25 hours per year which is nowhere near enough to effect my waistline.

 

[jatoxico]

(broken image removed) Hi guys, just joined the forum as there is some good info here delivered with humor! (we recently moved to Norway,from New Zealand, and are using wood for heating)

I agree about splitting by hand, much better all round. They sell loads of little splitting machines here, but there's nowhere near the satisfaction in my view.

Easy to work around any size round, just make sure they are not too thick. We cut at a foot here and managed the 70 year old Ash (above) easily. I recon on a good day I could beat a splitter too! Esp. using my 'tyre on a log' to stop the logs falling all over the place on chopping.

Never needed a wedge myself but then most of 'our' trees here are babies compared to the ones some of the guys on here chop. This Ash was my biggest ever!

Hey good technique! Don't let that blade get too far below your hands and you'll never hit your feet, have to use those knees though. What kind of stove you using in Norway?

 

[Tom Wallace]

I split mostly by hand, too. I just got a Pow R Kraft 4 ton splitter yesterday to help deal with some very curvy, full of crotches, plum wood. The wood is made worse by the fact that the guy who cut it down made many diagonal cuts instead of perpendicular to the grain of the branch, like a normal person would.

Previously I've been splitting large douglas fir rounds. Often if they're over around 24" and/or have a few knots in them, I'll use a maul and wedge instead of the Fiskars. The Fiskars does very well on easier to split rounds, though, and I highly recommend it. The Fiskars does not do well on rounds where the grain of the wood isn't very straight. For example, knots, crotches or pieces near the stump where the top and bottom of the round are different size.

 

[BillLion]

How much splitting are you doing? I split a lot of wood (10+ cord per year) and by my gorilla math I split 20-25 hours per year which is nowhere near enough to effect my waistline.

2-2.5 cord hand split per hour? I must be doing something wrong...

 

[BEConklin]

I tried the old car tire on the ground trick for the first time today. I took down an ash in the yard - maybe 15" DBH - and split the rounds right inside the tire. Of course it's ash so it was easy splitting for the most part - but that tire made the job a whole lot easier. Bout the hardest part was yanking the splits from the biggest rounds out of the tire when I was done.
Gotta get a piece of plywood for underneath it too - that Fiskars goes right through and keeps on going - tire or no tire.

 

[Tom Wallace]

I tried the old car tire on the ground trick for the first time today. I took down an ash in the yard - maybe 15" DBH - and split the rounds right inside the tire. Of course it's ash so it was easy splitting for the most part - but that tire made the job a whole lot easier. Bout the hardest part was yanking the splits from the biggest rounds out of the tire when I was done.
Gotta get a piece of plywood for underneath it too - that Fiskars goes right through and keeps on going - tire or no tire.

I recently started using a tire, too. Got a 19" rim tire from Discount Tire. They have a bin outside the shop that they leave tires in, the manager told me they don't lock it and feel free to come by after they're closed and grab one. For some reason they don't want people going through it during business hours. Anyway, I bolted my tired to a large round I use for splitting. I found without the bolts, the tire slid all over the place and fell off the stump a few times. The tire is a great idea.

 

[toasty]

Hey good technique! Don't let that blade get too far below your hands and you'll never hit your feet, have to use those knees though. What kind of stove you using in Norway?

*laughing* I told him that he should stick to the kindling! It's probably not a 'proper' serious stove compared to what you guys need but it's a Danish one, the TT22S from TermaTech, let me see if I can find the pic.... yup, here. It weighs in at 460lbs and within an hour all the living space is up to 26 degrees... at least the open window means the fire gets plenty of air!

p.s. I also had to gasp at the 10 cords in 25 hours... move over superman!

 

[toasty]

The Fiskars does not do well on rounds where the grain of the wood isn't very straight. For example, knots, crotches or pieces near the stump where the top and bottom of the round are different size.

That is the trouble with splitting by hand, you really do need straight grain. Can be impossible to split much off anything near a sizable side branch. On the bright side I now have a few oddments of stumps stacked out of sight along the edge of the stream on my bottom plot, that will eventually rot down providing food for the bugs that the birds like...

 

[Bigg_Redd]

2-2.5 cord hand split per hour? I must be doing something wrong...

Math can be difficult so we'll walk through this together: 10 cord in 20 hours = .5 cords per hour, not 2.

Depending on species (Doug Fir, Adler, bigleaf maple) I'm quite capable of a cord per hour.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

p.s. I also had to gasp at the 10 cords in 25 hours.

Rilly? It's truly not some amazing achievement. How long does it take you to split a cord?

 

[CenterTree]

I hate splitting wood by hand. I MUCH prefer using an axe.


I find it easy to split quite FAST with my X27. But the reality is it is getting to be too much for me lately.

I will be buying a hydraulic this spring though as my tennis elbow is getting to be too painful.
Will be a whole new ball game for me with a splitter.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

*laughing* I told him that he should stick to the kindling! It's probably not a 'proper' serious stove compared to what you guys need but it's a Danish one, the TT22S from TermaTech, let me see if I can find the pic.... yup, here. It weighs in at 460lbs and within an hour all the living space is up to 26 degrees... at least the open window means the fire gets plenty of air!

p.s. I also had to gasp at the 10 cords in 25 hours... move over superman!

That's a nice looking set up.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

I hate splitting wood by hand. I MUCH prefer using an axe.


I find it easy to split quite FAST with my X27. But the reality is it is getting to be too much for me lately.

I will be buying a hydraulic this spring though as my tennis elbow is getting to be too painful.
Will be a whole new ball game for me with a splitter.

I liked my X27 but also found it hurt my elbow. Got A PA80 from stihl which I like better, and no more elbow pain. My fiskers seemed to like to twist at the end.

 

[farmboy05]

I hate splitting wood by hand. I MUCH prefer using an axe.

If Chuck Norris used an axe, the earth would split I think he only has to punch a tree and it explodes into perfect splits. Then he looks at the splits and they stack themselves out of fear

 

[toasty]

Rilly? It's truly not some amazing achievement. How long does it take you to split a cord?

I guess I'm underestimating the size of your trees etc and comparing it to my own efforts managing woodland here in Norway. All my wood comes from management, i.e taking out 'sisters' next to large trees, taking out small stuff to open up the canopy, keeping pathways clear etc. And it's nearly always on a damn slope!

I never just get to chop, chop, chop for any length of time. I usually go into the woods, drop the trees, drag them back to the truck. Cut and split and fill the truck. I read that a cord is about 3 and a half cubic meters, let me do the math, how big is the truck bed..... shoot that means that it takes me half a day to do a little over 1/4 of a chord!

Now you see why at first glance it seems like a herculean task! I googled it and of course you are right, in much differing circumstances than my own it's possible but boy, I bet you sleep after that lot!