Wood splitter questions on productivity.

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Bigg_Redd said:
Get yourself a Fiskars and hit that pile 20 minutes at a time. It'll be gone before you know it.

That is my way of splitting, has been since I bought this house ( 15 years ). When I was younger me and my brothers took turns until we were done with the pile. I have the fiskars and and a maul, I usually reach for the maul. I also bought a splitter this year and used it to do my dad's wood and then about a cord of my own. I have over 2 cords of red oak outside that needs splitting and I think I am going to use the maul and fiskars because I like the work.
I bought the splitter because my dad wanted to buy one ( he is 75 ), so I just bought it and told him he can use it anytime. When he uses it, it comes with my help.
 
Hurricane said:
Bigg_Redd said:
Get yourself a Fiskars and hit that pile 20 minutes at a time. It'll be gone before you know it.

That is my way of splitting, has been since I bought this house ( 15 years ). When I was younger me and my brothers took turns until we were done with the pile. I have the fiskars and and a maul, I usually reach for the maul. I also bought a splitter this year and used it to do my dad's wood and then about a cord of my own. I have over 2 cords of red oak outside that needs splitting and I think I am going to use the maul and fiskars because I like the work.
I bought the splitter because my dad wanted to buy one ( he is 75 ), so I just bought it and told him he can use it anytime. When he uses it, it comes with my help.
Aw C'mon!, buy the old guy his own Fiskar, at 75 I think he's old enough to deserve one of his very own. Even if he never uses it. :p
I hope to own my own Fiskar by the time I'm 75. ;-)
 
He still splits with sledge and wedge :). He still scrounges, hauls, and stacks all his own wood.
He is slowing down after heart surgery and I think he is liking the splitter deal.
 
I think this thread is moving back to the 20 some odd page "the Mighty Fiskars " thread from a few months back!
 
golfandwoodnut said:
I figure I will save getting a splitter for when I can no longer easily split by hand. I know some of you say that your body will last longer, but I disagree, I think working my body will make it last longer. Part of the reason I am doing this is to get into shape physically and I am afraid the splitter will defeat that purpose a bit. As I get older I am sure it will become more of an option. I am 54 now, so it may not be that far off. But time will tell, as the maul swings.

You still get a work out with a splitter......Rounds do not move themselves!

Nor do splits stack themselves.
 
Werm said:
golfandwoodnut said:
I figure I will save getting a splitter for when I can no longer easily split by hand. I know some of you say that your body will last longer, but I disagree, I think working my body will make it last longer. Part of the reason I am doing this is to get into shape physically and I am afraid the splitter will defeat that purpose a bit. As I get older I am sure it will become more of an option. I am 54 now, so it may not be that far off. But time will tell, as the maul swings.

You still get a work out with a splitter......Rounds do not move themselves!

Nor do splits stack themselves.

I understand that, but of course you still have to move the rounds and split them manually. So you are obviously getting more of a workout with the maul. I just feel like I got a workout afterwards and after a long splitting session the hot shower feels so good.
 
golfandwoodnut said:
Werm said:
golfandwoodnut said:
I figure I will save getting a splitter for when I can no longer easily split by hand. I know some of you say that your body will last longer, but I disagree, I think working my body will make it last longer. Part of the reason I am doing this is to get into shape physically and I am afraid the splitter will defeat that purpose a bit. As I get older I am sure it will become more of an option. I am 54 now, so it may not be that far off. But time will tell, as the maul swings.

You still get a work out with a splitter......Rounds do not move themselves!

Nor do splits stack themselves.

I understand that, but of course you still have to move the rounds and split them manually. So you are obviously getting more of a workout with the maul. I just feel like I got a workout afterwards and after a long splitting session the hot shower feels so good.

How's western PA doing these days, I spent some time down in Waynesburg many years ago...Beautiful area.
 
Werm said:
golfandwoodnut said:
Werm said:
golfandwoodnut said:
I figure I will save getting a splitter for when I can no longer easily split by hand. I know some of you say that your body will last longer, but I disagree, I think working my body will make it last longer. Part of the reason I am doing this is to get into shape physically and I am afraid the splitter will defeat that purpose a bit. As I get older I am sure it will become more of an option. I am 54 now, so it may not be that far off. But time will tell, as the maul swings.

You still get a work out with a splitter......Rounds do not move themselves!

Nor do splits stack themselves.

I understand that, but of course you still have to move the rounds and split them manually. So you are obviously getting more of a workout with the maul. I just feel like I got a workout afterwards and after a long splitting session the hot shower feels so good.

How's western PA doing these days, I spent some time down in Waynesburg many years ago...Beautiful area.

We are getting some nasty weather now, like most of the country. Not alot of snow, we seem to get 1 or 2 inches a night. Only about 5 inches on the ground. It is pretty, but a pain. I would like to cut some wood but it has been a little too cold for me on the weekends and too dark during the work week. The hills of the PA also make it difficult to extract. Need to take some of the holiday lbs off. Have a good year!
 
I always enjoyed splitting with a maul. But I recently bought a used splitter and it is hard to beat. Some rounds are faster by hand and some faster by splitter. But I get more work done in a day with a splitter.
 
The thing you'll find is that once you own a splitter and have it there, you won't think about how long it takes to split. It just happens easier for certain and almost surely faster. I don't stack wood up to make a production out of splitting so I never have a pile of wood to do at one time that I could say "This much wood takes this much time" I just split it as it comes out of the wagon and put it straight onto the stack. Splitting doesn't even feel like another step to me any more. It is just part of getting the wood out of the wagon.

Sorry if that was too long winded.
 
I know I can process much more wood with my hydraulic splitter than by hand. Because there is nothing that I cannot split with it. I can manually split the perfect stuff faster perhaps, but there is the inevitable and all too common knots and gnarly pieces that will not split by hand, or at least not easily.

The elm I picked up thinking it was oak would not even split by hand. I had it stacked in a pile until I got the splitter. It made short work of it.
 
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