Best Budget Axe for Splitting??????

[jropo]

Wood Cutting & Splitting Attachment - YouTube


This thing is fast, but its a machine its stupid it don't realize that the wood gets stuck.
That would give me a chance to catch up!

 

[kamikaze]

oh and minor update... i just talked the wife into getting me the X27 the X7 hatchet and the SOGfari Machete

 

[kamikaze]

That thing is AWESOME.... but i have absolutely no use for something of that granduer.... although it would be nice..... now if my dad saw that he would have to buy one

 

[jropo]

--you'll win, don't sweat it. I've watched just a ton of guys machine splitting vids here, the only ones faster than a fiskars (normal regular wood, not 84 inch six way knots) are the big expensive multi wedge processor types. Maybe the fast cycling kinetic and split both ways splitters are a little faster, but just marginally. It's the cycle time. Both will split, the cycle time on most of the regular entry level hydraulics are ..well..they are slow. By the time they are on the third pass, with still more splits to go, the fiskars guy has the whole round done. I've just stared at those vids, and I have my own experience. The fiskars is just faster.

When I get in good wood, straight grained nice stuff, just a scosh drying out, cracks showing, I can split faster than my Gf can get it stacked, and that is WITH me loading the splits in the wheelbarrow, walking over to the stack area, dumping it, coming back and splitting again. Moderate wood, some twisty/gnarly to it, about even or she can stack a little faster, but not much.

That's one of the reasons I always comment on these fiskars threads. The dang thing just worked for me. took a chance, bought one, shazzam!! Freekin worked! And I ain't no linebacker, either, 5-5 and 130 with clothes on, pockets full, boots on, on the stock scales. Small in other words, and I am 60 now. If I can rip with a fiskars like that, well....think what a 20 or 30 something at over 200 lbs in good shape could do with some speed training and aim training and wood round reading.

You'll win, no probs.

What is saw racing, three cuts (I forget, don't follow that really). Make the splitter race three similar sized rounds. Not wimpy small, but not huge, both racers have to be able to pick them up.

NOT ME!!!!!!!! But this is how I split he was using at least a 6# maul.

Crazy wood splitter - YouTube

 

[jropo]

That thing is AWESOME.... but i have absolutely no use for something of that granduer.... although it would be nice..... now if my dad saw that he would have to buy one

You would have to REALLY be moving some product to justify the 80k or what ever for the ATTACHMENT!!!!!!!!
And it still has flaws, over head,ect.
That is for those who get "Saddle Sickness".

 

[HeRoze]

i skipped the whole thread... but if anyone said anything other than the fiskars, they haven't tried it, got hit in the shin by it, have an emotional attachment to something else, or are splitting something 'different' than me. using the tire corale trick I learned here, I've split everything from 5" to 16"+, magnolia to hickory, like a dream. I haven't sold my maul for scrap yet, but if metal prices keep going up....

you'll also see some debate between the old and new design... i have the old and can't compare to the new....

 

[RiverRat2]

Agreed. Last time I rented the big Husky splitter my wife and daughter (don't laugh, they are serious workers) split 4 cords in about a 8-10 hour period. Last cord I split with my X27 was about 2 hours worth, but I was loading it on a trailer as I went. Could I have kept up for 8 to 10 hours? Doubtful for sure, but then there were two of them...

This much I will say, when I'm in my 16-24 inch rounds of straight grained Walnut, I'll flat smoke a conventional hydraulic splitter even over a full day's time.

Only question I have is why are you splitting 16-24" rounds of straight grained walnut????? shouldnt you be making or selling it for furniture?????

 

[parrisw]

If I can't use a saw for noodlin.

No cutting the squish bands on pump cyl.
No porting of the valve bodies.
No modding of exhaust valve.
No Big bore cyl. heads.
But that should produce at least 10-12sec. cyl. times
OH oop: :msp_scared:
There I go thinking out loud again!


Stock log splitter vs Stock Fiskers X-27 :biggrin:

race


via


internet




What kind of wood ya got WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY over and up there!!!????

LOL, that would be fun. Enough of this saw buld off crap. Lets have splitting GTG.


In some cases the splitter will be faster in some not. It all evens out.

 

[jropo]

LOL, that would be fun. Enough of this saw buld off crap. Lets have splitting GTG.


In some cases the splitter will be faster in some not. It all evens out.

You betchya!
And the first one that get hauled off Wins!!!!

 

[jropo]

i skipped the whole thread... but if anyone said anything other than the fiskars, they haven't tried it, got hit in the shin by it, have an emotional attachment to something else, or are splitting something 'different' than me. using the tire corale trick I learned here, I've split everything from 5" to 16"+, magnolia to hickory, like a dream. I haven't sold my maul for scrap yet, but if metal prices keep going up....

you'll also see some debate between the old and new design... i have the old and can't compare to the new....

I'm not getting rid of mine either it still has a purpose.

 

[HeRoze]

I'm not getting rid of mine either it still has a purpose.

mauls are good to have around no doubt. i guess my answer is 'fiskars' if the question is 'what one (and only one) hand tool would you recommend to own in order to split most wood'

 

[jropo]

mauls are good to have around no doubt. i guess my answer is 'fiskars' if the question is 'what one (and only one) hand tool would you recommend to own in order to split most wood'

I think that it could be done!
Don't drive felling/splitting wedges w/ it.
Ol' hardware trusty stays behind the seat.
X-27 is now my Go to tool for splitting wood, until it lets me down, and I really don't think it will.

 

[user 64030]

...Don't drive felling/splitting wedges w/ it.

Fiskars ought to tell Dave Rygard on Ax-men then...I was watching one on-line the other night (Season 4 opener I think) and he was carrying a Fiskars to drive felling wedges.


dw

 

[mactodd]

If you do Ebay, do a search for axe-hatchet. There will be 3 or 4 hundred quality axes listed. I love my Friskars for splitting, but it does not have near the quality of steel that an older Bluegrass, Keen Kutter, True Temper, etc. axes will have. There's something about vintage quality axes and hatchets that will always turn my head. I many that I have restored and they do nothing but hang in my shop.

Yup, an old Bluegrass/Belknap is a good ax. I split many a round of oak with a Bluegrass double bit. A 3.5 lb single with a Michigan handle is even better. But I would like to try one of those Fiskars. I wouldn't give ya a plug nickel for a maul. Never could split with one of those.

 

[jropo]

Fiskars ought to tell Dave Rygard on Ax-men then...I was watching one on-line the other night (Season 4 opener I think) and he was carrying a Fiskars to drive felling wedges.


dw

He can afford to break his toys and throw them away and buy another one.
I suppose you could use it on plastic wedges. I'm not though.
You could use it to drive steel splitting wedges if so inclined, I'd wear safety glasses and I believe it voids the life time warranty.

 

[jropo]

Yup, an old Bluegrass/Belknap is a good ax. I split many a round of oak with a Bluegrass double bit. A 3.5 lb single with a Michigan handle is even better. But I would like to try one of those Fiskars. I wouldn't give ya a plug nickel for a maul. Never could split with one of those.

Snow & Nealley??????

 

[HeRoze]

Yup, an old Bluegrass/Belknap is a good ax. I split many a round of oak with a Bluegrass double bit. A 3.5 lb single with a Michigan handle is even better. But I would like to try one of those Fiskars. I wouldn't give ya a plug nickel for a maul. Never could split with one of those.

[threadjack]
an ole' hatchet guy, huh.... where's the thread here with old hatchet pics and questions... I've got a couple I have picked up over the years that are neat, to me.
[/threadjack]

 

[SawTroll]

Order an X27 and be done with it. Seriously.

Yep, or the shorter handle version of the same axe!

Buying something cheap is just a waste of money, imo!

 

[Guido Salvage]

Back to the topic at hand.....

For me an axe has too narrow a profile and would get stuck in the 18"-24" hardwood that I split. I have used a Sotz Monster Maul exclusively for the past 30 years and I find that it simply overpowers the wood. Now that I am getting older I regret not getting the "ladies" model that weighed about 8 pounds before they went out of business.

The Sotz is the worn orange one on the left. The red one I picked up at an auction for $10 and does not split nearly as well as the Sotz even though it is a pound heavier. The head seems to "roll" to the side as I bring it down on the round.

As I get older I am tempted to try a Fiskars, I think it would be a bit faster once the round is busted open.

I have a Masterforce 4.5 lb splitting maul.... The maul has wings built in to the sides of the maul. When you split a piece, the parts fly apart.

I was cutting wood at my mother's last spring and forgot my Sotz and discovered one of those things in her garage that my brother had bought years ago. I used it on about a half dozen rounds and then the tab holding one of the "wings" broke off, rendering it useless.

 

[flhusa1]

i also have used the monster mauls for 25 years+. once you get used to them a regular axe or maul just won't compete.i have had to reweld the head back to handles several times because i swing so hard when it hits the handle bends and eventually cracks. the monster mauls either split or bounce back up. you will never get a monster maul stuck. remember it is like golf or baseball. the swing is the key to splitting. i still have wedges and a sledge hammer for splitting giant pieces in half to get under my log splitter. i can split faster than you can stand the pieces on end. the log splitter teaches the knotty twisted pieces a lesson but it will not keep up with me. no piece resists a 35 ton log splitter.