Customizing a chopping block + any thoughts on best height

[mar13]

I usually split my wood using a maul, unless I have a huge amount of wood and rent a splitter. I stumbled upon the following Irish video (Splitting firewood: Splitting block arrangement - YouTube and Splitting firewood: knotty difficult rounds with twisted grain. - YouTube ) and noticed his chopping block to keep the pieces from flying down on the ground. (Yeah, he should wear goggles + ear protection when using the wedge. He seems to like making wood splitting videos.) I think I'll give it a try since I have some large spruce rounds available to chose from.

Before I go through the time of customizing a chopping block, are there any opinions on the best height of a chopping block? I usually just grab what's convenient and not-too-tall nor too-short. I imagine you'd want the top of the round being split to be a height where the maul is dropping just past parallel - good momentum, but still more vertical to ground.

 

[walhondingnashua]

I'd say you would want the top of the piece you are splitting at about your hand height with your hands hanging to your side. That's about where mine sits. You can also just use an old tire screwed to the top of the block to hold the pieces on.

 

[begreen]

I like the chopping block to be low enough so that a 16-18" tall round sitting on top is not too high. This allows the full momentum of the axe or maul swing to connect with the wood. For me, this about 12-14" high, though I have used a 16" round in the past.

 

[CatfishHunter]

I use two chopping blocks. The main one is at about knee height so that, like walhondingnashua, the top of the rounds are around waist high. I have a second, shorter block that I put on top of the main block when I am splitting kindling with a hatchet. It makes my back feel better to not stoop over.

 

[Solarguy3500]

I just wrap a bungee cord or a rachet strap around the piece before I split it. Same idea, but less work. Sometimes I use a chopping block, but if the rounds are really big, I don't bother lifting them onto a block, I just split them on the ground.


I just work from the sides in, and walk around it while splitting. Never have to pick up pieces that went flying.

When I'm done, I take the bungee off and it just falls apart.

Yes, I do sometimes chop the bungee, but the kind I use have holes all along them so I can just piece them together by adding hooks. Also, you can minimize the chance of chopping the bungee by flicking your wrist to twist the axe sideways just as the axe hits the wood. This does two things. One it helps push the pieces apart, and two it stops the momentum of the axe from continuing down and into the bungee after it splits the wood.

 

[weatherguy]

I use a chain with a 6 inch bungee because I kept chopping the bungee. I like my chopping block at 16 inches.

 

[JamesGuido]

i have two, however the one i use most often is just in front of my shed.
it's been around nearly ten years, i believe it's oak... solid.
it's about 23" high and 20-22" round.
set on treated 2x6's to help keep from sinking further into the ground.
and i cover it with a rubber sheet when not in use to help it from rotting.

 

[SpaceBus]

I just wrap a bungee cord or a rachet strap around the piece before I split it. Same idea, but less work. Sometimes I use a chopping block, but if the rounds are really big, I don't bother lifting them onto a block, I just split them on the ground.
View attachment 277919

I just work from the sides in, and walk around it while splitting. Never have to pick up pieces that went flying.
View attachment 277920
When I'm done, I take the bungee off and it just falls apart.
View attachment 277921
Yes, I do sometimes chop the bungee, but the kind I use have holes all along them so I can just piece them together by adding hooks. Also, you can minimize the chance of chopping the bungee by flicking your wrist to twist the axe sideways just as the axe hits the wood. This does two things. One it helps push the pieces apart, and two it stops the momentum of the axe from continuing down and into the bungee after it splits the wood.

This won't work with knotty and twisted softwoods. Generally the nice hardwoods you are splitting go much easier.

 

[Simonkenton]

Make the chopping block 16 inches high.

 

[burning VC]

I feel there is a correct answer, and an intelligent answer to this...

The correct answer is to make your chop block at the level that YOU feel is the safest to use, and the easiest to continue working the woodpile.

The intelligent answer is to make the top of the piece you are splitting to be at or just lower(below) the point of the axe/or maul's point of maximum acceleration.

,02

 

[tymbee]

I usually split my wood using a maul, unless I have a huge amount of wood and rent a splitter. I stumbled upon the following Irish video (Splitting firewood: Splitting block arrangement - YouTube and Splitting firewood: knotty difficult rounds with twisted grain. - YouTube ) and noticed his chopping block to keep the pieces from flying down on the ground. (Yeah, he should wear goggles + ear protection when using the wedge. He seems to like making wood splitting videos.) I think I'll give it a try since I have some large spruce rounds available to chose from.

Before I go through the time of customizing a chopping block, are there any opinions on the best height of a chopping block? I usually just grab what's convenient and not-too-tall nor too-short. I imagine you'd want the top of the round being split to be a height where the maul is dropping just past parallel - good momentum, but still more vertical to ground.

Wow-- it's amazing what you find when you search for "how to split" wood. This looks like one of the more ridiculous videos IMO. Personally, I have never used a chopping block. Never saw the point.

 

[Simonkenton]

You don't use a chopping block? I use one all the time.
Let us say the piece you are chopping is 8 inch diameter. But the chopping block is 16 inch diameter as mine is. When you set the smaller piece on the chopping block, more force from the maul is delivered to the piece you are cutting.

Also helps keep the blade of the maul out of the dirt.

 

[begreen]

You don't use a chopping block? I use one all the time.
Let us say the piece you are chopping is 8 inch diameter. But the chopping block is 16 inch diameter as mine is. When you set the smaller piece on the chopping block, more force from the maul is delivered to the piece you are cutting.

Also helps keep the blade of the maul out of the dirt.

Yes, otherwise the earth absorbs quite a bit of the force of impact from the maul. It feels like it takes twice as much work to do the same job without a chopping block.

 

[tymbee]

You don't use a chopping block? I use one all the time.

Different strokes I guess.

Nope, no block for me. I can line up a half dozen pieces and whack 'em in a fraction of the time it would take me to do the same with a block. Picking up a piece, place it on the block, hit it, and if lucky it splits, if not more than often if falls off the block and you have to bend over, pick it up again and start all over.

I do most my firewood cutting in the woods/field. Fell a tree and toss the smaller pieces that don't need splitting in the tractor bucket. As I go along I just stand up the ones that do need splitting then I can just walk around and BANG BANG BANG (sound effect!) split 'em up. And if some need another smack or fall over, I usually can just flip those up with my foot and go at it. Much more efficient IMO than lugging each heavy, unsplit piece over to a chopping block.

Hitting some dirt? Not a problem. Using a 6# maul it doesn't need to be "sharp" like an ax in the first place. You also lose some force using a block in that the arc of your swing before contact is shorter than it would be hitting a block on the ground.

As I said, folks use what works best for them.

 

[Simonkenton]

OK

 

[MongoMongoson]

Different strokes I guess.

Nope, no block for me. I can line up a half dozen pieces and whack 'em in a fraction of the time it would take me to do the same with a block. Picking up a piece, place it on the block, hit it, and if lucky it splits, if not more than often if falls off the block and you have to bend over, pick it up again and start all over.

I do most my firewood cutting in the woods/field. Fell a tree and toss the smaller pieces that don't need splitting in the tractor bucket. As I go along I just stand up the ones that do need splitting then I can just walk around and BANG BANG BANG (sound effect!) split 'em up. And if some need another smack or fall over, I usually can just flip those up with my foot and go at it. Much more efficient IMO than lugging each heavy, unsplit piece over to a chopping block.

Hitting some dirt? Not a problem. Using a 6# maul it doesn't need to be "sharp" like an ax in the first place. You also lose some force using a block in that the arc of your swing before contact is shorter than it would be hitting a block on the ground.

As I said, folks use what works best for them.

I can see this if you are in the woods cutting straight, tall sugar maple, white birch, and red oak. A lot of the stuff some of us get takes multiple wedges to pry the strings apart, then you have to go in with an axe and chop away at them anyway. I have taken to using my 16 lb sledge lately because the 8 lb sledge just bounces off the wedges and they come shooting out of the logs. Lots of branches because it came from someone's yard or a farmer's fenceline... twisted grain from lots of crazy wind exposure. I always thought ash was a piece of cake to split until I moved down here. Suddenly it is stringy and nasty and some of them are just a nightmare. It depends on where it grew.

So yeah, here I use a big oak chopping block. I have a tire installed on top to help catch the splits, or to catch the log I'm trying to split when it doesn't split on the 1st or 8th swing.

When I'm in the UP of Michigan, which is probably closer to your upstate NY, the wood is a dream to split. I don't even stand them up sometimes, I just leave them lying in a jumble and go around and "pop, pop, pop" there's three logs split.

 

[tymbee]

I have taken to using my 16 lb sledge lately because the 8 lb sledge just bounces off the wedges and they come shooting out of the logs.

Yikes-- 16 lb sledge?! I think if it got to that point I'd have a separate stack of those bad boys destined for the burn pile.

Good point that all wood of the same species is not created equal. Like yourself, I've started to split pieces that I assumed would just fall apart, quaking in fear as I smacked them with my six pounder, only to laugh in my face. "Hey, you're RED OAK after all!"

Don't know what kind of upbringing any particular tree might have had to cause it to develop such a twisted grain, Perhaps a misspent youth growing up.