Splitting splits

[gyrfalcon]

Oh, wood-wise friends, I could use more of your guidance. How the heck do you split splits with a wedge and sledge?

The sons of guns won't, of course, stand up steadily by themselves, so I'm stuck holding the wedge with one hand and smacking it with great effort at close range with a heavy mallet in the other hand. This really has to be the hard way to do it. Once I get the wedge to bite, I'm still stuck having to hold the split upright with one hand. What do you use to brace them with so you can get a good whack at them with a sledgehammer?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

You can lean it up against another piece of wood. Find a slightly unlevel piece of ground... How small do you want to go?

Matt

 

[mikeyny]

I know one guy that puts his log in the center of a couple old tires stacked up and wacks away till it's all split up. I think he has the tires fastened to each other somehow and onto a flat board on the bottom.

 

[velvetfoot]

More expensive, but one of those cheap electric splitters would work to make small pieces and in the garage too.

 

[crazy_dan]

you have about 4 choices
1. level it off with a saw
2. brace it with another piece of wood
3. set up something like this (broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/splittingblocksandtires.htm)
4. buy a splitter

 

[Moose]

I know when ever I'm cutting logs out of the woods I try to use a sharp chain this helps the saw go straigt through the log giving you a nice flat surface to work with. a dull chain has a tendency to walk to one side or the oter and all you logs will come out with an angled fac making it hard to stand up. With a straight face I then take the largest solid round of the season and lay it on the ground to give me a solid surface to work with. I then put the round that I am going to split on top of it. This also brings the round that I'm splitting up to a level that is easier for me to hit level thus reducing the possibility of the maul or sleg comming tward my shins on a full swing. If I happen to have a round that just wont stand up for any reason I will take a small piece of wood and use it as a shim a shim for a door way will work as well but you can make one just as easy with the wood you are splitting. I just shimm up the one side so that it will stand up all by it self. Depending on how unstable the round is you might only get one swing at before you have to set it back up but if its a good swing and you hit solid you usuall only need one. Hope this helps I know how frustrating a pesky log can be. I totally recommend a hydrolic splitter call me lazy but make life much easier and my back loves it....

 

[mayhem]

Why on earth would you be using a wedge and hammer to split splits? Anything I can't do with my maul I move up the hammer and wedge (say a round 15" or bigger) to split in half and then I go back to either the maul or just use my axe to split it into pieces small enough to fit in the stive. Maybe I've misread the original post, but it sounds like you're trying to use a hammer and wedge for entirely the wrong purpose...any split that cannot support the weight of your wedge and still stand upright you probably need to switch tools. The kind of splits you're talking about (in my mind's eye) are single whack maul or axe cuts...at least thats what I do.

The right tool for the right job.

 

[philaphire]

Why on earth would you be using a wedge and hammer to split splits?

The right tool for the right job.

For example, at times I'll have a 6 inch split that I did with my maul. I look at it and think that I would rather have two 4 inch splits. If I hit it again with the maul, I'll usually end up with a 4 inch split and a 2 inch split - sometimes 5 and 1. SO, I use a small sledge and wedge to control a midway split. It's the right tool for the right job ( for me )

 

[harmerd]

I use a "Chopper" axe. It has the little cantilevers on each side of the blade that force the wood apart. Mightly strike on a round, but an easy swing on a split. I can turn a 5 inch split into halves with no effort other than the swing of the axe. But to caution, it will send the halves flying! It has some weight to it......I guess about 5-6 lbs.

D

 

[Chettt]

I use a small camping hatchet/axe and a hammer for small kindling.

 

[woodconvert]

Oh, wood-wise friends, I could use more of your guidance. How the heck do you split splits with a wedge and sledge?
The sons of guns won't, of course, stand up steadily by themselves, so I'm stuck holding the wedge with one hand and smacking it with great effort at close range with a heavy mallet in the other hand.

Have you got a little brat neighbor boy in your area??. Get him to hold the wedge and the split while you giver hell.

I'm guessing you were not able to dry your wood or purchase dry wood or biobricks???.

 

[gyrfalcon]

You can lean it up against another piece of wood. Find a slightly unlevel piece of ground... How small do you want to go?

Matt

For the ones I'm having trouble with, pretty small. I almost totally lack large kindling, and all the stuff I might scarf up from my own small property and the nearby woods is under about a foot of very wet snow and likely to stay that way until spring.

 

[Yooper Burning]

I intentially have my chopping block at a slight angle. Not so much that a square end split will tip over, but just enough that a split with a angled end can sit on it without tipping over. I use a Snow&Nealy;(SP?) kindling hatchet to split splits into kindling, but a 6 pound maul to just split splits smaller when the need arises.

 

[gyrfalcon]

you have about 4 choices
1. level it off with a saw
2. brace it with another piece of wood
3. set up something like this (broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/splittingblocksandtires.htm)
4. buy a splitter

Hmmm. Something similar to that tire thing might work. Thanks for the link to the pix. I read a description of this somewhere but could't really picture it.

I may have to buy a splitter, but it seems a little like overkill for the relatively small amount I need to do from time to time. And I do like the exercise, if only it produced more for the amount of effort.

 

[gyrfalcon]

I know when ever I'm cutting logs out of the woods I try to use a sharp chain this helps the saw go straigt through the log giving you a nice flat surface to work with. a dull chain has a tendency to walk to one side or the oter and all you logs will come out with an angled fac making it hard to stand up. With a straight face I then take the largest solid round of the season and lay it on the ground to give me a solid surface to work with. I then put the round that I am going to split on top of it. This also brings the round that I'm splitting up to a level that is easier for me to hit level thus reducing the possibility of the maul or sleg comming tward my shins on a full swing. If I happen to have a round that just wont stand up for any reason I will take a small piece of wood and use it as a shim a shim for a door way will work as well but you can make one just as easy with the wood you are splitting. I just shimm up the one side so that it will stand up all by it self. Depending on how unstable the round is you might only get one swing at before you have to set it back up but if its a good swing and you hit solid you usuall only need one. Hope this helps I know how frustrating a pesky log can be. I totally recommend a hydrolic splitter call me lazy but make life much easier and my back loves it....

Yeah, my back is deeply unhappy here! I'm not cutting my own wood, though. I'm just trying to split down the stuff I had delivered, only a few small rounds, mostly fairly large splits.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Why on earth would you be using a wedge and hammer to split splits? Anything I can't do with my maul I move up the hammer and wedge (say a round 15" or bigger) to split in half and then I go back to either the maul or just use my axe to split it into pieces small enough to fit in the stive. Maybe I've misread the original post, but it sounds like you're trying to use a hammer and wedge for entirely the wrong purpose...any split that cannot support the weight of your wedge and still stand upright you probably need to switch tools. The kind of splits you're talking about (in my mind's eye) are single whack maul or axe cuts...at least thats what I do.

The right tool for the right job.

Agree totally, but the key tool involved here is me, and as a middle-aged person of the non-testosterone-bearing type, my arm and upper body strength is pretty minimal. I wouldn't go near a heavy sharp tool like a maul until and unless I develop enough strength to handle it reasonably precisely, and therefore safely. I'd prefer heading into old age with my feet intact.

And even with a maul or an axe, the split has to be able to stand on its own before you can smack it, no?

 

[velvetfoot]

The cheap electric/hydraulic splitters would do a good job for you and not take up much space.
I paid $240 for this one at the HF store: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93815 .
You could get something similar at Home Depot.

 

[crazy_dan]

Why on earth would you be using a wedge and hammer to split splits? Anything I can't do with my maul I move up the hammer and wedge (say a round 15" or bigger) to split in half and then I go back to either the maul or just use my axe to split it into pieces small enough to fit in the stive. Maybe I've misread the original post, but it sounds like you're trying to use a hammer and wedge for entirely the wrong purpose...any split that cannot support the weight of your wedge and still stand upright you probably need to switch tools. The kind of splits you're talking about (in my mind's eye) are single whack maul or axe cuts...at least thats what I do.

The right tool for the right job.

Agree totally, but the key tool involved here is me, and as a middle-aged person of the non-testosterone-bearing type, my arm and upper body strength is pretty minimal. I wouldn't go near a heavy sharp tool like a maul until and unless I develop enough strength to handle it reasonably precisely, and therefore safely. I'd prefer heading into old age with my feet intact.

And even with a maul or an axe, the split has to be able to stand on its own before you can smack it, no?

it definetly helps the nice thing with the tire is you can stuff it full and then go to whacking and very few go flying and you can splitt several with a single reload of the tire (depanding on size of tire) and the tire will help if you swing short something eles in the way of you shins

 

[gyrfalcon]

Oh, wood-wise friends, I could use more of your guidance. How the heck do you split splits with a wedge and sledge?
The sons of guns won't, of course, stand up steadily by themselves, so I'm stuck holding the wedge with one hand and smacking it with great effort at close range with a heavy mallet in the other hand.

Have you got a little brat neighbor boy in your area??. Get him to hold the wedge and the split while you giver hell.

I'm guessing you were not able to dry your wood or purchase dry wood or biobricks???.

Hi, Woodconvert! Thanks for the laugh. I can think of a few neighbor brats where I used to live I'd like to recruit for the job, but here I'm in open dairy farm country with few neighbors, and none with small or medium-size offspring at the moment.

I'm getting the better wood I have dried out as much as can be in the house and around the hearth before using it, and I can get good fires going in the 350-400 range pretty consistently with careful spilit selection and fire building, but it takes large kindling to get going right. I really don't want to go the biobricks route, and can't find anybody with already dry wood the 14-inch size that's max for my stove. Most folks around here have honking big stoves that use 16 or 18. I'm thinking my best bet at this point would be to find some of the 16 or 18-inchers and get it cut in half, but although I've asked every single soul I know here about finding somebody I could hire to do that for me, I'm coming up blank. The farm folks have too much hard winter work themselves to want to come do more for somebody else on their time off, I think.

I have to brag that my little Tribute, using the best of my mediocre wood (I shouldn't say that, it's terrific wood, just not quite ready and much of it a bit too big), kept the main part of my small old house a comfortable (to me) 66, 67 all by itself with no help from the boiler last week during a two-day stretch of sub-zero temperatures after dark.

 

[backpack09]

Yes it should stand on its own. What are you splitting on? the ground or a splitting log/stump? If I have a round or a split that wont stand on its own I often just shim the odd side with a piece of bark or such. A maul is only dangerous if you are very weak, or very tired...

 

[gyrfalcon]

Yes it should stand on its own. What are you splitting on? the ground or a splitting log? If I have a round or a split that wont stand on its own I often just shim the odd side with a piece of bark or such. A maul is only dangerous if you are very weak, or very tired...

Only got ground here, and on the side of a ridge, so not too many flat places. I had slightly more success sticking the splits in a pile of snow, but that only helps for the first couple of whacks. And yes, sorry, I'm very weak, apparently, and this maple is very hard. So even just getting the wedge in enough to stick so I can back off and swing at it good takes an embarrassing amount of time and effort. <sigh>

Maybe the thing to do is, as you suggest, shim some of my really big splits as necessary and just take a whack or two off the side of each one for kindling rather than what I've been doing -- which I'm now realizing is pretty dumb -- and trying to turn one entire piece into kindling. I've also got a froe coming from Lehman's, and that should also help.

 

[backpack09]

You will get alot farther splitting if you either get on firm flat ground or lay out a piece of say 2x12 to keep your splits form dancing too far. Froe... Cant say I have ever seen anyone use on of them, except on PBS to make siding at plymouth plantation....

 

[mayhem]

Why on earth would you be using a wedge and hammer to split splits? Anything I can't do with my maul I move up the hammer and wedge (say a round 15" or bigger) to split in half and then I go back to either the maul or just use my axe to split it into pieces small enough to fit in the stive. Maybe I've misread the original post, but it sounds like you're trying to use a hammer and wedge for entirely the wrong purpose...any split that cannot support the weight of your wedge and still stand upright you probably need to switch tools. The kind of splits you're talking about (in my mind's eye) are single whack maul or axe cuts...at least thats what I do.

The right tool for the right job.

Agree totally, but the key tool involved here is me, and as a middle-aged person of the non-testosterone-bearing type, my arm and upper body strength is pretty minimal. I wouldn't go near a heavy sharp tool like a maul until and unless I develop enough strength to handle it reasonably precisely, and therefore safely. I'd prefer heading into old age with my feet intact.

And even with a maul or an axe, the split has to be able to stand on its own before you can smack it, no?

I think I understand better now...but a maul is usually lighter than a sledgehammer.

I'm no big burly man myself...just a regular white collar guy who cuts his own firewood.

In your particualr case I would be looking at a lightweight cutting axe or even a hatchet. Very lightweight, easy to swing and very precise. I usually hold the axe in my right hand and choke up on the drip so I can swing it easily and hold the wood upright. Beging your swing with the axe and release the split before you make contact...the split will stand balanced just fine for the half secodn or so it takes to get the axe head into contact wiht it. This is easy, low impact and reasonably safe...certainly safer than whacking away at a split with a wedge and hammer. A bit of practice and this is actually a pretty reasonable solution...I think it would be far easier than what you're putting yourself through.

Just my $0.02.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Why on earth would you be using a wedge and hammer to split splits? Anything I can't do with my maul I move up the hammer and wedge (say a round 15" or bigger) to split in half and then I go back to either the maul or just use my axe to split it into pieces small enough to fit in the stive. Maybe I've misread the original post, but it sounds like you're trying to use a hammer and wedge for entirely the wrong purpose...any split that cannot support the weight of your wedge and still stand upright you probably need to switch tools. The kind of splits you're talking about (in my mind's eye) are single whack maul or axe cuts...at least thats what I do.

The right tool for the right job.

Agree totally, but the key tool involved here is me, and as a middle-aged person of the non-testosterone-bearing type, my arm and upper body strength is pretty minimal. I wouldn't go near a heavy sharp tool like a maul until and unless I develop enough strength to handle it reasonably precisely, and therefore safely. I'd prefer heading into old age with my feet intact.

And even with a maul or an axe, the split has to be able to stand on its own before you can smack it, no?

I think I understand better now...but a maul is usually lighter than a sledgehammer.

I'm no big burly man myself...just a regular white collar guy who cuts his own firewood.

In your particualr case I would be looking at a lightweight cutting axe or even a hatchet. Very lightweight, easy to swing and very precise. I usually hold the axe in my right hand and choke up on the drip so I can swing it easily and hold the wood upright. Beging your swing with the axe and release the split before you make contact...the split will stand balanced just fine for the half secodn or so it takes to get the axe head into contact wiht it. This is easy, low impact and reasonably safe...certainly safer than whacking away at a split with a wedge and hammer. A bit of practice and this is actually a pretty reasonable solution...I think it would be far easier than what you're putting yourself through.

Just my $0.02.

Hmmm. That's a good .02. Got my money's worth there, I think. I'll try the hatchet route first and see how that goes. I'd sure like to be able to get the weight of the tool working for me rather than against me.

I think I know what you mean by "choke up on the drip," but what's a "drip"? Did you mean grip?

I've got a somewhat rusted and presumably not very sharp hatchet (and an axe, too, in the same condition) in the barn somewhere. Any reasonable way to revive it, or should I just go get a new one?

 

[ansehnlich1]

ok, sounds like you have trouble holding the split upright, while trying to hold the wedge, while trying to pound it with a large hammer/small sledge.

sooo, what i would do is get a nice metal file and file that wedge so its a bit sharper, so when you hammer on it a couple times it seats itself into the wood.

you can also file your axe and hatchet, put 'em in a vise if you can, and run that file over 'em, keeping 'em flat, and sharpen 'em up.

i saw a guy use a froe, do a google on froe, you see, it's a bit sharper and will seat into a split quicker than a wedge maybe, and ain't as heavy either.