brianbeech, I'm a relatively newbie at all things firewood and woodstoves but I just was introduced last Saturday with my 28" Super Splitter. I was splitting smaller rounds of both dry and green water oak along with re-splitting/reducing some larger splits of the water oak. I'm no youngun, I'm about 6' tall, around 175 pounds, basically worked a desk job for the last 10-12 years, not a muscled up guy, got some back problems, blah, blah, blah,....the Fiskars SS really impressed me.
I will be burning in a Jotul F3CB so some of the splits that were delivered to me needed re-splitting along with many of the rounds. Now, like I implied above, I'm no professional weight-lifter so I couldn't believe how well the SS split the dry and green oak. I had read of the issue of the short handle on the 28" model and was a little concerned about that, also about the sharpness of the edge (it's VERY sharp and would cut you easily if you ran the edge across your skin with very much pressure). So, when I began my little splitting job I started with the idea of safety foremost in my mind. Basically my safety method was to keep my feet spread wide and bend my back as the axe came down.
By bending my back I was able to keep the handle fairly square with the ground and thus mostly square with the top of the log/split. Thus, when the edge of the blade hit the wood my hands were basically level with the top of the wood...and this kept the axe head from swinging back towards me if I missed my target (which I did to begin with but caught on surprisingly quick to a better aim). There were a few pieces that the SS bounced off of but I simply repositioned the round or split and proceeded to bust it up. As has been stated elsewhere, at times it seemed I was swinging the SS too hard...I had to back off a few times. The hardest and most time consuming part, it seemed, was picking up the wood pieces and getting them standing up on my makeshift, ground-level chopping block.
Depending on your height, the 28" SS might be about right for you. Personally, at ~6 feet tall, I'm very interested in the 36" X27 model and will be buying one when it comes available. Overall, I'm very satisfied with the 28" SS but depending on your height you may want to wait for the 36".
I've got a 1.5 cords of more water oak to go over with the SS today and get stacked but I've snagged a chopping block and a tire to help out the process...we'll see how raising the splits and rounds up off the ground goes and also how the tire works in holding them upright....I really think the tire will really shine when splitting larger rounds but it should still help a lot in allowing me to pack several splits/rounds inside it so I don't have to bend over so many times. We'll see...
One user here on the forum said that he pre-ordered one at his local Ace Hardware store and that he was told the axe would be available on the 17th. I emailed Ace's customer service and was told that they didn't handle that axe...but, I think it was a CS rep from either India or Pakistan that couldn't find it on the Ace website so they figured they don't carry it.
Best wishes,
Ed
