Mauling over splitting wood

[Lumber-Jack]

If you cant aim, the LAST TOOL you want to try is a Fiskars SS.......and make sure your health insurance premiums are up-to-date. Those buggers are SHARP I use mine for sh*ts and giggles on ash and oak rounds( FUN :lol: ), and let me tell ya... if that thing were to hit your foot full force - bye,bye, little piggies!

Oh YEAH!! X2!
My buddy lets his 10 year old boy split some wood out camping. I had my SS in the truck
and he had left his axe at home.He asked if his boy could use my axe and I said No way!
I am sure you guys can all picture what a 10 year old looks like chopping wood;kinda awkward
looking. I told him that the SS is more like a very heavy knife than an axe and to prove it,I shaved
a bit of hair off my arm.Just the weight of the axe alone hitting a leg would cause injury. I can't think
of another tool that could cause as much injury if not given the proper respect.(Well maybe Mike Tyson LOL)

I purchased a 20 ton splitter and some of the wood that this thing goes through is incredible.I went through
some wood without the unit struggling too much that I could have hit with the SS all day and never got through.

I'll 3X these points.
I would suggest a person develop some proficient axe swinging skills before progressing to a Fiskars. My kids (and I) split a lot of wood by hand, so we are no strangers to the task, but from the moment I first tried our Fiskars Splitting axe I realized, and sternly warned my boys, how much more dangerous it is because of it's razor sharp edge. But despite the warnings my 13 year old did this to his hand shortly after we got it. It could have been much worse.
He's already healed up and back splitting kindling again, but he's a lot more careful now,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I hope. :shut: Oh, and yes, he's using the Fiskars too.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

If you cant aim, the LAST TOOL you want to try is a Fiskars SS.......and make sure your health insurance premiums are up-to-date. Those buggers are SHARP I use mine for sh*ts and giggles on ash and oak rounds( FUN :lol: ), and let me tell ya... if that thing were to hit your foot full force - bye,bye, little piggies!

Oh YEAH!! X2!
My buddy lets his 10 year old boy split some wood out camping. I had my SS in the truck
and he had left his axe at home.He asked if his boy could use my axe and I said No way!
I am sure you guys can all picture what a 10 year old looks like chopping wood;kinda awkward
looking. I told him that the SS is more like a very heavy knife than an axe and to prove it,I shaved
a bit of hair off my arm.Just the weight of the axe alone hitting a leg would cause injury. I can't think
of another tool that could cause as much injury if not given the proper respect.(Well maybe Mike Tyson LOL)

I purchased a 20 ton splitter and some of the wood that this thing goes through is incredible.I went through
some wood without the unit struggling too much that I could have hit with the SS all day and never got through.

Any axe can be made that sharp. Here is some proof in a short video. They used big knives and an axe. I used to have a longer video of the guy doing a complete shave with a huge axe but sadly no longer have that one. He used to do all sorts of demos doing that.

(broken link removed to http://www.razoredgesystems.com/videos/beard-shaving-with-an-ax)

 

[thewoodlands]

OK so what is anyone using to split wood when it's not frozen?

The 10 ton manual press is looking good and it's in my price range. I've entertained those giant wood screws also.

24 Ton American CLS Horizontal (towing only)/Vertical splitter.


zap

 

[okotoks guy]

If you cant aim, the LAST TOOL you want to try is a Fiskars SS.......and make sure your health insurance premiums are up-to-date. Those buggers are SHARP I use mine for sh*ts and giggles on ash and oak rounds( FUN :lol: ), and let me tell ya... if that thing were to hit your foot full force - bye,bye, little piggies!

Oh YEAH!! X2!
My buddy lets his 10 year old boy split some wood out camping. I had my SS in the truck
and he had left his axe at home.He asked if his boy could use my axe and I said No way!
I am sure you guys can all picture what a 10 year old looks like chopping wood;kinda awkward
looking. I told him that the SS is more like a very heavy knife than an axe and to prove it,I shaved
a bit of hair off my arm.Just the weight of the axe alone hitting a leg would cause injury. I can't think
of another tool that could cause as much injury if not given the proper respect.(Well maybe Mike Tyson LOL)

I purchased a 20 ton splitter and some of the wood that this thing goes through is incredible.I went through
some wood without the unit struggling too much that I could have hit with the SS all day and never got through.

Any axe can be made that sharp. Here is some proof in a short video. They used big knives and an axe. I used to have a longer video of the guy doing a complete shave with a huge axe but sadly no longer have that one. He used to do all sorts of demos doing that.

(broken link removed to http://www.razoredgesystems.com/videos/beard-shaving-with-an-ax)

I understand that any axe can be made that sharp;The fiskars comes that way! It's generally not expected that an
axe be that sharp.If someone were to borrow a radial arm saw they would certainly know that it is a dangerous tool capable
of causing serious injury in the hands of an inexperienced user. It's the same idea with the Fiskars.

 

[bboulier]

I have just had a huge maple tree cut down in the back yard. Some of the pieces are as large as 24" x 36" and a length of 18" to 22". I haven't yet tried the very biggest pieces, but have tried some with (say) a diameter of 20" using a Fiskars supper splitting axe. I first take the large round and place it over a short round of similar diameter (so I don't dull the axe by cutting into the ground). I then take a whack at the outside edge - maybe 3" or 4" into the log, splitting off a chunk. Then I turn the log, and split another outside chunk. I continue in this fashion until I get to a central "small" log that I can split in half and then quarters. Amazingly easy! It rarely takes more than one whack to split off a piece. Haven't had to use my maul and wedges for anything yet.

 

[jensent]

Gransfors Bruks includes a copy of their book, "The Axe Book" with each new tool. It clearly states in several places that wood should be split as soon as possible after felling as it becomes more difficult to split each day. They have made splitting tools since 1902. Many Northern Europeans cut fresh felled wood into one meter lengths (39.37in.) , split it and dont cut to stove lengths until seasoned and needed.
Tom

 

[mayhem]

It clearly states in several places that wood should be split as soon as possible after felling as it becomes more difficult to split each day.

Personal experience leads me to call utter BS on this statement. My brother and I dropped a maple in his backyard. He kept the smaller stuff that he can easily split or just use as is and I took home a truckload of trunk rounds. I brought my maul with me, thinking I'd just bust em in half to make the loading and unloading easier and no matter how many times or how hard I hammered on those suckers, the maul just bounced off and scarcely left an impression in the wood...even if I tried to nick a chunk off the edge of the round, the maul just won't penetrate...ditto with the sledge adn wood grenade. Fast forward a couple months and those rounds have started checking and graying on the ends...three or four smack and they bust right open.

I have the exact same problem when trying to split frozen rounds too. Can't get a cutting implement into the wood...not even a 12lb sledge and a wood grenade will do it.

 

[Danno77]

It clearly states in several places that wood should be split as soon as possible after felling as it becomes more difficult to split each day.

Personal experience leads me to call utter BS on this statement. My brother and I dropped a maple in his backyard. He kept the smaller stuff that he can easily split or just use as is and I took home a truckload of trunk rounds. I brought my maul with me, thinking I'd just bust em in half to make the loading and unloading easier and no matter how many times or how hard I hammered on those suckers, the maul just bounced off and scarcely left an impression in the wood...even if I tried to nick a chunk off the edge of the round, the maul just won't penetrate...ditto with the sledge adn wood grenade. Fast forward a couple months and those rounds have started checking and graying on the ends...three or four smack and they bust right open.

I have the exact same problem when trying to split frozen rounds too. Can't get a cutting implement into the wood...not even a 12lb sledge and a wood grenade will do it.

I've never had a wood that split easier when it was "wet" or "green". To me it makes total sense. I'm no biology expert who will tell you everything you would ever want to know about wood, but Moisture should help keep the cells together. Not just because I say so, but like Mayhem, that's what I've experienced.

If Gansfors doesn't believe me then I'd be willing to bet my entire lineup of splitting tools that I can pick a handful of species that I've got sitting in my "couldn't split" pile right now they can't split by hand (into reasonable sizes) at all right now, but by this time next fall (probably sooner) they'll bust right open with a 6lb maul.

 

[jensent]

Dont know where Peru,Ma or Hamilton,IL is but they must have some very odd wood in those locations that doesnt split like it does in the rest of the world.

 

[Danno77]

Dont know where Peru,Ma or Hamilton,IL is but they must have some very odd wood in those locations that doesnt split like it does in the rest of the world.

lol, I guess so! Or maybe I just burn stuff that would normally be left alone by "Serious wood burners"? Although that can't be the case, totally, because I have this red oak that never wants to split until it dries in the rounds for a few months. I know I'm not the only one burning oak. They are never the small rounds either, I'm talking 30" or so. I can start taking off of the outside, but the only way I can ever get it to split is to take off stupid little sheets that amount to kindling. ton's of knobs and knots on the stuff, too. maybe that's the problem. Maybe my trees are crappy and not the picturesque straight as an arrow without limbs stuff I always see harvested on TV.

 

[mayhem]

Dont know where Peru,Ma or Hamilton,IL is but they must have some very odd wood in those locations that doesnt split like it does in the rest of the world.

Maybe its the altitude or something. I'm pretty high up...for Massachusetts. If you have maple trees in Illinois, you have the same situation as me.

Can't explain why this is this way, but years of splitting wood in all conditions has taught me that it is way harder to split freshly cut wood than it is to split wood that has been seasoning in the round for a month or so. I'd love for someone to show me what I'm doing wrong.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Gransfors Bruks includes a copy of their book, "The Axe Book" with each new tool. It clearly states in several places that wood should be split as soon as possible after felling as it becomes more difficult to split each day. They have made splitting tools since 1902. Many Northern Europeans cut fresh felled wood into one meter lengths (39.37in.) , split it and dont cut to stove lengths until seasoned and needed.
Tom

The book he quoates was probably written in Sweden. (broken link removed to http://www.gransfors.com/htm_eng/index.html) So probably Sweden is where you'll find this strange wood that splits better when green ;-)

 

[tiber]

Wow I walked away from the internet for a few days to fix the jeep and this turned into a really interesting and informative thread. I'll try to post pictures of what the wood looks like. I ended up dragging out the chainsaw and finding out that didn't want to start either (the jeep has ghosts in it, apparently) and so I took a few more whacks on smaller stuff with the maul. I got a few of them to come apart (nasty, stringy stuff) and it's red in the middle and wet. Meh. I put that stack aside and nailed some of the pine I got scrounging and that stuff you could split with the hammer side of the maul. It pretty much explodes into kindling.

I got the supersplitter confused with a slide hammer. I ended up watching the videos and it looks interesting although I can't help but feel like the maul is better being both a hammer and an axe. I think what I'm going to do is get out the grinder and sharpen the living heck out of the maul and see if I can't have the best of both worlds (or utterly destroy my maul).

 

[jensent]

Tiber
Things that may help. Cut the round so it is 10in. tall. Turn the fresh cut side up and strike it about 1.5in from the edge trying to cut a slab from the side by following the growth rings. It may take several blows in the same spot. Dont sharpen the maul as it is already sticking in the round. You seem to need a blunt trauma tool not a sharp axe type tool. If this works you can cut the next round a little taller. Get on utube and search "Leveraxe Vipukirves Prototype." This guy works around the edges like Im trying to explain. Split with a chopping block. It will save your tools and ankles and keep the ground from absorbing the force of the blow. Let us know how you do. As mentioned pics may help.
Tom

 

[Kenster]

It clearly states in several places that wood should be split as soon as possible after felling as it becomes more difficult to split each day.

Personal experience leads me to call utter BS on this statement.

Well... you're reality doesn't make someone else's reality BS. I guess it varies with species of trees. I don't know. But I can tell you that I've had some 16 inch pignut hickory trunk rounds that have been stacked for two years that my 8 lb maul will not make a dent in. Just bounces right off time after time. But the rounds from the same tree trunk that I split at the time of bucking two years ago split fairly easily with the same maul.

 

[louieva]

Europeans cut their wood into 1 meter lengths (39.37 inches) and then split it? Wow - I thought 18 inch rounds were hard to split!

Looks like you can get a free copy of "The Axe Book" by sending them an email to [email protected] - I'll have to check it out.

I'm still not sure about splitting right after you split it either. I suspect it depends on what kind of tree. With the pin oaks that were cut down in my yard, a lot of the rounds were so wet, it was like trying to split a concrete block, except the water oozed a bit. I took some of those same rounds and dry them out a bit and they split a lot better, especially along the checks that form. My guess is that there is some sort of sweet spot that is between soaking wet living wood and petrified dead wood.

BTW I think that hitting the ground isn't that terrible unless you hit a big rock or something. I don't mind hitting the ground - just a bit of dirt to wipe off. I do use a chopping block half the time but other times I let the really big rounds just stay where they are and split them there.

 

[dave11]

Dont know where Peru,Ma or Hamilton,IL is but they must have some very odd wood in those locations that doesnt split like it does in the rest of the world.

I guess all the wood is different here in Pittsburgh, too. Oak, Maple, Pine, and Poplar all split much easier when dry or semi-dry. The only wood I've split that drying didn't improve was black locust.

 

[FINLAND]

[quote author="jensent" date="1290215091"]Tiber
Hello
I would like to take part to this conversation. I used to split the wood with all kind of conventional axes and mauls. As you all know, they are wedges. There are some problems with them. The manufacturers have struggled to get the friction smaller. They have used different designs in the blade and they have coated the blade for instance with teflon. Sometimes this has made the blade too slippery which have caused serious injuries. Still the major part of the energy vanishes to the friction. Nobody seem to carry any responsibility about the accidents. There are No safety elements in the conventional axes.
It is worth wile to split the wood as soon as possible after you have cut it down. This way it splits easiest. It dries fastest. The insects cannot multiply in them.The wood will not rotten.
Why the wood is easier to split when it is frozen?... The water in the wood freezes, that makes it slippery. The friction is smaller...The wood will not become weaker when it is frozen.
I got "fed up" to those conventional axes and started to develop new way to do the same thing without friction, without the fear to be injured and with the great joy what my invention offers.
I know based to these several writings during these five years, that the idea how the Leveraxe functions, is not very easy to understand for everybody. I cannot blame them because before my invention there was only conventional splitting tools those functioned all the same way.
Now we can use leverage which offers us splitting without the friction and makes the splitting safe because the blade does not penetrate through the block, it remains on the block. It will not stick in to the block either.
The Leveraxe has been on the market five years on the 2nd.December 2010. There has happened no accident.
There are many of these in US. and Canada. Based to the feed back, everybody is very satisfied with their new tool. I am not telling you to buy this tool, I am only giving a safe, effective and enjoyable alternative.
You do not lose anything if you Google or You Tube leveraxe or vipukirves.
I wish you all safe splittings how ever you do it.
All the best from Finland.
Regards
Heikki, the inventor