Ideal Height For Chopping Block?

[Eric Johnson]

I think you're right about the extra swing distance, cast. And there's nothing wrong with a dull edge on your maul head. I say, the duller the better. You're not trying to cut the grain, but shock it into compliance with blunt force trauma.

If you want to work with a short block, velvet, try cutting a stump down and using the resulting 3- or 4-inch piece. Stumpwood is a lot tougher than regular stemwood, so it should hold up longer. I used to use a piece of elm like that, for obvious reasons. But I found that as long as you're not hitting too hard and too directly, a short block will last a good long time.

 

[DiscoInferno]

You do need to be more mindful of good technique for low swings, bringing the elbows down and bending the knees, otherwise you'll hit the log at an angle with the top corner of the maul. I get lazy sometimes with logs I know will split easily, and that's when the maul swings right through the round, misses the short block, and hits the pavement. A proper swing will pass straight down through, not continue the arc. Stiffening your arms and bending your knees also adds a lot of body weight to the maul head.

 

[Gooserider]

It depends alot on what you are splitting and the ground that you are on.

IMHO it gives an optimal hit if the end of the log is about knee high to halfway between knee and hip height. Higher and you don't get a good swing, lower and you are starting to get out of your bodies efficient muscle use range, and starting to arc back towards your feet if you miss...

Big logs have enough mass that they don't bounce around or move when you hit them, so you can split them on the ground pretty easily (plus who wants to lift them onto a block?) Smaller stuff - say < 12" or so seems to move under the impact and waste alot of energy punching into the ground (I can feel the ground vibration through my boots) - more of a problem on spongy dirt with a lot of loam in it than it would be on rock or clay soils. Those logs I find split faster when sitting on a block that is big enough not to move - ideally a low stump.

What I've started doing is actually hauling my 6-12" rounds the extra distance to the stump of a tree I took down last year (about 3-4" high, 2-3' around) and splitting them on that, then picking up the splits and hauling them back to the woodshed - it seems easier than splitting them on the ground next to the woodshed... My smoke dragon takes longer wood than most stoves, If I was working shorter rounds, I'd probably want a stump that was more on the order of 6-8"

If you don't have a stump handy, some folks have suggested partly burying one of those really gnarly crotch rounds that you weren't even wanting to think about splitting anyway - leave it long to keep the mass and resistance to splitting, bury it to get the height down to match your total height to the optimum hit zone.

Another thing that I haven't tried yet (but it's on my list) is to put the rounds inside an old tire. This is supposed to help keep them from falling over, and offers the side benefit of helping to keep your maul out of the mud. Some put the tire on top of the block, and even chain it there. Seems like a good plan.

Gooserider