Wood Splitting style

[woodjack]

Have you ever been so anxious to split a piece of wood that you miss the entire log or just clip the side? Sometimes, I have to say to myself "slow down big guy", take a deep breath, pause, concentrate and then split that sucker right down the middle. It's a miracle I haven't severed any toes.

I usually use a round house swing over my head. However, I saw this other guy who delivers, splits and stacks wood for a living just pick up the maul in front of him, not too high, and gave a short accurate swing.

What is your splitting style, home run swings or high batting average?

 

[begreen]

I try to make every swing a home run. You have the right idea. Slowdown and focus. With practice, you'll rarely miss.

 

[crazy_dan]

If you do miss just claim you were checking the durability of the handle :coolsmile:

 

[billb3]

I don't lift too high either.
But, I have found that choice four letter words help the maul accelerate faster.
At least untill the neighbors complain.

Hey, the tennis pros grunt.

 

[gpcollen1]

The technique is going to depend on the wood for the most part, as well as the tool you are using. Some short ash logs are going to split with just a pinch more than the weight of the head. Other wood is harder to split or stringy enough to warrant a good whack. Bottom line, get the head up high and let gravity do the work...and the tortoise wins the race here, not the rabbit.

 

[firegal]

yes, slowing down and focusing always help me. If I get going too fast on automatic, I clip the thing and sometimes it goes flying off to the side with just a chip taken off. Well, this also sometimes happens when my maul lands over a knot that I didn't see ....

My maul is too heavy for me to do a 'home run' swing, I just hoist it up onto my shoulder first, take a few deep breaths, focus, and then lift the thing up and swing it down, visualizing in my mind where I want to strike the wood. Works ... most of the time.

firegal

(edited for a typo)

 

[SPED]

Depends on the wood for me, when resplitting the oak I got delivered, most of it was easy and I lifted it maybe a couple feet higher than the log and swung it some, but went for accuracy over speed. Now when splitting pine, I get it up over my head down to my back and go for broke. It's funny, it's kind of like baseball, even when i swing all out IF I keep my eye on the log where I want to hit it I usually come pretty close. Now I definitely miss and sometimes just take a small chip and have it go flying sometimes.... usually when my arms are getting tired after a couple hours of splitting.

 

[Henz]

Uh, I just put the round up onto the splitter and pull the hangle..and BANG its into 4 pieces.!

 

[Mmaul]

My style also depends on the type of wood or if its a "Y" if I am splitting elm I go over my head on every swing, if I'm splitting maple I just toss it up and slam it down and it usaully splits every time. I probably only raise it a little bit higher then my head heighth, this is the way I was taught by my Father to do it, so you dont get tired to fast.

 

[woodjack]

I like to swing the round-house, home run style. When I practice this style with wood that's already quartered I usually miss one or two out of ten. I guess I'm batting .800 on small pieces. Not bad for baseball, but I should probably slow down a bit or not use such a big swing on small wood.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Splitting wood sometimes can be almost an art. Some make it look easy while others have to give it their all. For those who miss, most times it is because when bringing the ax or maul over the head, it is not directly overhead; that is, the head of the ax or maul is left or right of center. Therefore, when you bring the head down into the wood, it will tend to go in the opposite direction of where it was on top. Hope that makes sense.

One also must understand that all wood does not split the same. Some wood you can split just any old way and others differently. For instance, when splitting maple, you can pretty much split it any way. Oak splits best through the heart. Beech splits best on the side and not through the heart, etc.

I have to admit though that nowadays I am like Adirondackwoodburner. I love my splitter but do wish I could still split some by hand but the body argues too much, so I just roll the log to the splitter and pull the handle. Nice and easy. Now if I could find an easier way to stack that stuff...

 

[PSYCHO]

Good question! It is true, not all wood splits the same, but I split all wood the same way! Since I've been swinging a maul since I was 5 or so, my method has changed a bit. My all time favorite way is to stand baseball style, left foot out, right open to first, left hand on the butt of the maul handle, and right at the head. Pivot to the right, swing overhead, all the time sliding your right hand down the handle to meet the left at the butt. For the toughies, I even kick up my left foot, swinging for the fence if you will. I think it is imperative to have hand slide and a wide arc to achieve the most striking power and accuracy. It's worked for me for 30 years, and I'm 35. The straight up method yields not nearly as much power and bad accuracy on my end. I want the job done NOW, and with no help, it's me that has to reset the logs that I miss. THAT'S no fun!

 

[Ken45]

My style these days is to just pull the hydraulic lever Should have bought that thing years ago

Eons ago, I remember one piece that just would not split. Very interlaced grain. I bured three wedges, a spliting maul and an axe in it! I think I finally used the chain saw to recover everything! I suspect it was elm.

Ken

 

[NHFarmer]

I was always told to visualise my bosses head on the chopping block.Never miss that way and you use enough forse to split anything

 

[RedRanger]

People, keep those legs far apart!! Far less chance of a glancing blow striking one of them that way. Not fool-proof, but as close as it gets to being so.

 

[ChuckWood]

I just use a little crappy hand axe. It was the cheapest I could find and was all metal. The handle was tough rubbery and it was prettymuch the lightest axe you can get. I found that if you really think hard then whack it at full speed you can accomoplish a helluva smack. This splitting speed seems to really help shater the wood. However all the Ys and buts of sycamore etc are a real pain. For these I used to use another chunk of wood with a branch sticking out to slowly drive the axe. This acted as a big fat wooden hammer and it did no damage to the axe. No sharp burs or warped heads. But after loosing it inside chunks of wet wood too often I gave up on this style. now I just go for the cowards way and lift the wood with the axe in it and try to drop it from sholder height and I slam it axe head first down in to my sycamore chopping block. As long as you keep a good grip on the axe handle you can really force the wood apart. I find this is much more successful as it cracks the wood more than splitting it. The worst wood I have found is really wet Ys or bizzarely shaped diseased lumps. These have no real grain at all and don't want to crack in any direction. (Probably better to turn these into bowls or something.)

Anyway I have never given up on a piece of wood so far and I have chopped a helluva lot. I have lost the entire head into a piece of wood but with a coupld of careful measurements I was able to chainsaw it in half and whack a thin bit on the back of the axe head till it fell apart.

I don't really like the sound of metal on metal and I think you can do just fine with any axe. Bad Ballerinas always complain their shoes are too tight.

 

[woodjack]

That makes perfect sense - until you pick up a Fiskars's Splitting Axe or a good splitting maul. Then you'll realize how wrong you can be.

 

[FatttFire]

I agree with BEGREEN totaly! Also it is a good anger managment tool, and it is more productive, and cheaper than a therapist! I have alwyas thought, about putting a anger management/ therapist add in the paper and having weekend classes of like a dozen people come over and take a couple swings at some nice rounds ........... for a charge of course! lol ..... :lol:

 

[Ken45]

I have alwyas thought, about putting a anger management/ therapist add in the paper and having weekend classes of like a dozen people come over and take a couple swings at some nice rounds ........... for a charge of course! lol ..... :lol:

Do you REALLY want people around you swinging axes who have anger management problems?????? What if the wood doesn't split easily for them and they thing your head would be easier to work with? ;-)

Ken

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Well, I've not had enough practice to chance a "round house" swing, talk about "fool not-proof" in my case. I use short swings, with the maul head up above my head but not behind my back. It doesn't work all that well on some tough wood, but that's where I break out the "granade" wedge.

I'm thinking of buying a Harbor Freight manual hydraulic pump splitter. I see they have a Father's Day sale this week end where they'll sell one for $79.99, normally $119.99. Glad I read this post, it reminds me to go to HF and see if that splitter is worth a try.

 

[savageactor7]

I only hand split in the winter and that's out in the field when I cut dead trees. Mostly it's an excuse for outdoor winter activity. I'm not really looking for production ...it's mostly a housecleaning type of activity.

The round is on the ground and I'm square to it with feet spread apart. I take aim and position with my arms straightened, lift the splitting maul over my head and them bring it down by squatting and keeping my back straight at all times...and that would be for maximum effort..like was mentioned upthread not all logs require that.

If I get a couple bucket loads of splits an outing I'm happy to save the rest for another day cause you working against available daylight. Pretty sure my bucket is 1/3 yard but I dunno. If I can do that 3x a week ...then that was a good week.

Elm I stockpile back by the house ...when I get a significant pile or spring comes it yields to the gas splitter.

 

[sapratt]

I try the maul first if the wood cracks then I turn the piece over and hit it on the other side. If those don't work then hammer and wedges come and win the game. I agree nothing relieves strees better then going to town on a stack of wood.

 

[derecskey]

I swing like PSYCHO. A Pseudo-baseball stance. Square feet to log, then adjust left foot slightly forward. Left hand starts on butt (the maul's) and right hand near head (again, the maul's). Hold it like you'd shoot from the hip, then swing back and up over the head, slight rise onto your toes at the top of the arc if it's a tough piece. Let knees bend a little as the head of the maul comes down, right hand sliding all the time towards the left. The tip of the maul usually strikes the round at a 5 degree angle right of center (not perfectly squared to the center of your body).

I use a 4lb maul for most work. more control, and force = mass * velocitysquared. Speed is more important.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I'm mostly splitting red oak. Big pieces, knots, etc all get the hydraulic treatment. Much of the other stuff- raise the maul, and with little effort they split. Bigger stuff it's roundhouse swing. For straight grained stuff I get the job done faster with the maul than the splitter at the expense of a cardio workout (which I can use). bang bang bang- rather than bring the log over and load it, lever one way, lever the other way, etc etc.

 

[Beanscoot]

I have an axe and maul and wedges. I split the firewood in my driveway which has a slight slope, by working from the lower side of the wood. If at all possible I use the axe as the maul wears me out quickly, while I can use an axe for hours. If I have to use wedges I use earmuffs. Make sure to have two wedges as one will often get stuck.

Surprisingly some wood splits easier with the axe than the maul. I recently split a bunch of wet black locust which was like this. The maul just wasn't working so I tried the axe. I found that if I got terrific speed the rounds split nicely.

Another help is to have a small sharp hatchet handy to chop stringy bits that hold pieces together after they've been split.

The paved driveway is nice to work on and I sweep it up after every chopping session and burn this debris in the stove. Since it's still cold here I'm using the stove a lot of evenings anyway.

The biggest difficulty I find is hitting a started split in the exact same spot. With really tough pieces you need to hit them super hard with the maul, but aim tends to decrease with power. One helpful technique is to jam a little piece of wood scrap in any small crack before removing the maul or axe. This way you have a better chance of getting the tool right in there next time, and it doesn't matter if you hit this little piece of wood with your axe.