Tool of choice?

[rkofler]

I already own a Fiskars, and I absolutely love it! However, I just scored a bunch of large rounds that the Fiskars is struggling with. I know the best answer is a splitter, but that's not happening. What would be my best hand tool for these large rounds?

 

[hobbyheater]

I already own a Fiskars, and I absolutely love it! However, I just scored a bunch of large rounds that the Fiskars is struggling with. I know the best answer is a splitter, but that's not happening. What would be my best hand tool for these large rounds?

On the farm in my teen years the toughest wood to split was cotttonwood with larger rounds of 3' in diameter. I would noodle a cut just deep enough to get a steel splitting wedge started. When the steel wedge bottomed out, I would then use 4" to 5" dia x 16" long wooden wedges made from maple the year before. Those maple wedges would bust just about anything apart!

 

[DexterDay]

Sledge and Wedge....... Big and Bigger.......

 

[bogydave]

I had some big rounds of gnarly birch that the maul & me couldn't handle. Kept bouncing back up at me.
Made one a splitting stump.
Some I was able to split when it got -20°.
I split the others when I got a splitter a few years later, but they were pretty punky by then, camp fire wood

Noodle if you really want them split. They'll be straighter splits & stack better.

 

[Prof]

I like a wood grenade and sledge for anything my Fiskars can't handle. If that doesn't work, just noodle. Make sure to turn the round on its side for noodling. The first few times I tried to noodle I didn't do this and was wondering where the noodles were.

 

[Woody Stover]

Yeah, wood grenade, other wedges and sledge will get it if the 8# maul can't.

What kind of wood is this?

 

[nate379]

Regular splitting maul works much better than those little Fiskers "splitters". The one I use is around 15lbs.

 

[Wood Duck]

I use an 8 pound maul for the biggest stuff. It takes a few hits, sometimes more than a few. Once you make the first split, even if you have just split off a slab from the edge, the rest goes a lot easier.

 

[jeff_t]

Regular splitting maul works much better than those little Fiskers "splitters". The one I use is around 15lbs.

 

[Woody Stover]

Regular splitting maul works much better than those little Fiskers "splitters". The one I use is around 15lbs.

Yikes, what is that, a Monster Maul??

 

[JoeyD]

Have you tried working from the outside in?

 

[ScotO]

Lay the rounds down and noodle them. If you can't noodle the whole round, just get it started and finish it off with a maul or a sledge and wedge. I never give up!

 

[KaptJaq]

I have an 8 pound maul and a couple of different wedges (two of each). One wedge has a long, sharp edge like an axe, another is blunt and wide like my maul, the third is a wood grenade. I also have a 10 pound sledge hammer for working the wedges. I do not use any power splitters and have not had a problem yet. Yeah, the last resort with some tough crouch pieces, is to noodle it to death...

KaptJaq

 

[infinitymike]

All I know is I split 12 cords of oak with my friends timberwolf tw5. 4 of which I burned this winter.
He took it back.
Now I have been trying to split locust and cherry that was bucked in august.
Holy crap this splitting by hand is hard work.
Because the Fiskars is so sharp it just gets stuck.
I went out HD and bought an 8# maul and 5# wedge, it is still brutal.

I've been swinging a framing hammer for 28 years but damn this is a heck of a lot harder.

Hydraulics rule

 

[Woody Stover]

All I know is I split 12 cords of oak with my friends timberwolf tw5. 4 of which I burned this winter.
He took it back.

Wow, that guy has a lot of nerve...

Now I have been trying to split locust and cherry that was bucked in august.
Holy crap this splitting by hand is hard work.
Because the Fiskars is so sharp it just gets stuck.
I went out HD and bought an 8# maul and 5# wedge, it is still brutal.

Welcome to GASP (Gentlemen's Aged Splitters Program.) We are tortoises, not hares. Usually, the sooner after bucking you can split it, the better. Locust and Cherry should be pretty easy but anything that's not straight-grained or that has a lot of branches is going to be tough. I use two or three wedges if I have to (like trying to get big scrounge wood loaded in the trailer) but I'll save the tough stuff for the power splitter if I can. At this point I have to abuse my body wisely. Sometimes I just prefer hearing the birds to hearing the monotonous drone of a small engine...plus, there's a certain satisfaction in whacking something with a big stick.
In addition to what you have, I've got a 4.5# axe and just picked up a 6# maul at TSC.

 

[infinitymike]

Wow, that guy has a lot of nerve...

Welcome to the old-man splitting club. We are tortoises, not hares.

Hey now! Thursday is my birthday and I'll be ONLY 45!
Calendar says 45, bones and joints say 65
Waist says 32"

Humping lumber, climbing like a monkey and swinging a hammer for 28 years has taken its toll.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I've never like noodling. I used sledge and wedges for many years on the really tough stuff. Normally I have 3 wedges and it is not uncommon to drive two in together on the really tough stuff. A regular splitting maul can split much easier than a Fiskars from what I've seen. But it seems new wood burners like to search for something different or "better." When they try something that seems to work good that is the end of their searching and that appears to be what happens with the Fiskar's crowd. I tried it and was far from being impressed. I'm sure I could do as well or maybe even better with just a single bit axe and it would be a whole lot cheaper.

 

[Realstone]

On the farm in my teen years the toughest wood to split was cotttonwood with larger rounds of 3' in diameter. I would noodle a cut just deep enough to get a steel splitting wedge started. When the steel wedge bottomed out, I would then use 4" to 5" dia x 16" long wooden wedges made from maple the year before. Those maple wedges would bust just about anything apart!

Used maple & oak wedges while working at a fibreglass factory to part large parts from their molds. Tough little beasties, about as durable as their nylon counterparts.

 

[Wooderson]

8# maul, 20# Monster maul w solid handle for rough stuff, Huskee 22 ton for lazy times...

 

[jimbom]

...GASP (Gentlemen's Aged Splitters Program.)...

 

[onetracker]

like the backwoods savage, i don't like any maul head with anything fancy on it. fiskars is not the first compay to have the sharp spreaders on the maul head, one i have is a collings i think and it works ok unless the round has twisty back-tension in it when it splits and the maul gets stuck. that frustrates me to no end. i use old fashioned 6, 8 and 12# mauls and a couple of wedges. i am however a big fan of noodling and i do it all the time at the logging yard. some of the cookies over there are over 30" or more and green oak is mighty heavy. i noodle them in 1/2 so i can tip them up to the tailgate and run them home. and now that i own a hyd splitter i throw them in a pile and split them as soon as i can. i'll post a few pics.....
including verticle operation and padded milk crate seat.

OT

 

[Locust Post]

Monster maul was always my tool of choice until my back said no more last year. There was very few that I could not get through. Hydraulics rule here now. Don't know why I waited so long.