Over 1/2 cord split in 6 minutes with a Fiskars

[ropensaddle]

Looks more like a third cord to me but nice job now do it ten times till the pile looks like this

It is my bet you will be a bit more tired than I. Again nice job

 

[farmerdoug]

Timberwolf vs Fiskars

I actually think a person could compare them and ponder which way to go:

Fiskars: light, portable, affordable, fast, mobile and best of all . . . your wife thinks you came from the era of the pre-chainsaw days and is all over you.

Timberwolf: Faster than Fiskars if you run it straight for 8 hours or if you have some nasty wood to split. Yes it is more expensive, but they sure are pretty. The only down side is that you get home and watch biggest loser with your wife as you join the ranks since you didn't get a calorie burn in.

I am still figuring out the balance between technology and exercise. We keep developing our techniques and firewood will be classified as a white collared job and we will need to pay a fitness trainer to keep from dying of high cholesterol.

 

[Alaskat]

Priceless, I am a boy trapped in a real mans body and its awesome no hurry to grow up here. Wife calls me Peter Pan. At work I do underground electrical work its like playing in the sandbox, they give money ,health insurance, full bennies pulling sticks and levers whether hyd or wood Great share Doug. Real Men take 6 1/2 mins to think about it. Farmer Doug and his beautiful family deserve a Job well done.I thought I was the master of going off topic but I don't speculate gender or suggest anything better left alone but apparently it works for some. Gratefully Deadicated in AK> Heres what I call punks hangin around and this what us sissies drive (everything is just bigger)

 

[farmerdoug]

regarding it looking like 1/3 cord . . .

That is why I ran a tape both directions which came in at 6'.

16" log lenghts come in at 1.33 feet.

radius [3'] squared [3x3=9] X pie [3.14 x 9 = 28.26] X the lenght of the logs which is [1.33ft x 28.26 = 37.58 cubic feet]

There were 2 circles that were roughly 6' in diameter so you do:

37.58 cubic feet X 2 circles = 75.17 cubic feet.

128 cubic feet is 1 cord

75/128 = .586 of a cord which is over half a cord.

 

[farmerdoug]

very cool pic -

 

[ropensaddle]

That is why I ran a tape both directions which came in at 6'.

16" log lenghts come in at 1.33 feet.

radius [3'] squared [3x3=9] X pie [3.14 x 9 = 28.26] X the lenght of the logs which is [1.33ft x 28.26 = 37.58 cubic feet]

There were 2 circles that were roughly 6' in diameter so you do:

37.58 cubic feet X 2 circles = 75.17 cubic feet.

128 cubic feet is 1 cord

75/128 = .586 of a cord which is over half a cord.

My bad I did not watch second circle dern net too slow I have about a cord and a half there in 100 degree heat about two hours cutting splitting by my lonesome. I can cut and split and stack a half cord in about one hour not killing myself! It is still work though I don't care how you draw it. I used to use a monster maul in my thirties and I swear I was faster than the splitter but I paid for it in the small of my back!

 

[DangerTree]

I was not impressed.
1 the wood was knot free!
2 It had straight grain
3 It was already half split
4 It needed further splitting
5 He was slower than my granny ( who is dead )

What a woosie I'd fire him out of a cannon if he worked that slow on my crew! He could barely lift that girly little axe! The tape looked like a challenge for him!

 

[Alaskat]

Prolly saves the Knots and burns 'em whole so they burn like coal.

 

[zogger]

Oak

Okay, this is a follow up from a previous post!
http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=156148&highlight=fiskars

The setup: a $3 rope, Bungy cord, and a splitting Fiskars axe does the trick.

Many gave me a pretty hard time on the idea, but that is okay. Everything I learned was from your forum, so I thought I would give a little back.

I sit behind a desk for my day job, so your not looking at the biggest stud on the planet. In other words I think many of you could do it in well under 6 minutes.

The chainsaw fixes those few pieces that are knotted up pretty good.

Extremely portable and affordable. The Tarp is for clean up . . . keeps you from sweeping. This setup also allows to split on concrete with a razor sharp edge and can guarantee that you won't chip the splitting axe.

73.26 cubic feet is the amount of wood off the measurements in the video with the wood 16" long.

This is an unedited view of splitting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLULLzZuMn8

Great axes those super splitters. I did some non-gnarly/knotty oak with mine here on the east coast, I only have two pics though, no vid. 16" diameter, 15.5 length, 15 chunks from the round in 40 seconds (one Mississippi, 2 Mississippi etc). Ya, on the much larger and gnarlier and stringy red oak I use a maul, but for some stuff that fiskars...you can't load the gasser log splitter faster. Plus..hand splitting is just plain fun!

 

[pioneerguy600]

Priceless, I am a boy trapped in a real mans body and its awesome no hurry to grow up here. Wife calls me Peter Pan. At work I do underground electrical work its like playing in the sandbox, they give money ,health insurance, full bennies pulling sticks and levers whether hyd or wood Great share Doug. Real Men take 6 1/2 mins to think about it. Farmer Doug and his beautiful family deserve a Job well done.I thought I was the master of going off topic but I don't speculate gender or suggest anything better left alone but apparently it works for some. Gratefully Deadicated in AK> Heres what I call punks hangin around and this what us sissies drive (everything is just bigger)

I travelled your State extensivelly a couple of years back and found it, LARGE, to say the least. I spent a day in Palmer and kind of consider it the start of my return trip home, I like the ride in your pict and seen many versions of the venerable Powerwagons out that way. I figure it takes a real man to live and survive up there.
Pioneerguy600

 

[ms290]

i think thats a great idea. I have to split a lot of post oak so now im going to try this.

 

[farmerdoug]

Easy to talk . . . how about walking . . .

I was not impressed.
1 the wood was knot free!
2 It had straight grain
3 It was already half split
4 It needed further splitting
5 He was slower than my granny ( who is dead )

What a woosie I'd fire him out of a cannon if he worked that slow on my crew! He could barely lift that girly little axe! The tape looked like a challenge for him!

I like your comments. They are not valid unless you can post a better video. Easy to make something up behind a keyboard, totally different to perform in front of a video camera.

I agree that the video could have been better. We are all spoiled by watching professional videos that have multiple re-takes and edits. I think I could get a better sampling of wood that will result in a faster time as I normally switch to the super splitter half way through [which goes twice as fast since it is half the weight]. The problem is that my wood wasn't splitting that easy, so I couldn't switch over.

I haven't had anyone outsplit me with this technique and so I challenge anyone to post a video that is better at hand splitting. I am not even in great shape. Just think what the video would look like with a guy who lives behind a splitting mall.

I would say about 10% of my wood is knotted up pretty good, so it would take a lot of gathering to get a circle full of knots.

How many people buy curly firewood? Usually knotted firewood isn't straight. I wanted the video to represent what most people deal with. Many people get a permit and quickly learn the difference between straight grain versus knotted. Since there is a surplus of wood, you only take the best stuff.

Kind of like trying to figure out if you are going to cut up a rotten log or a fresh log. You cut up a few rotten logs and you quickly discover the difference.

Thanks for the post, now get out there and show me what you can do with a splitting axe. :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Taxmantoo]

1. I watched most of the first bundle. Doug split most of those pieces more than once, so I don't see anything to complain about there.

2. If a short handled Fiskars is something to beware of when you don't have the round elevated on a chopping block, lowering the rounds so the tops are level with the soles of your shoes is downright frightening. As somebody said earlier, I could split my foot with just one swing.

 

[DangerTree]

I like your comments. They are not valid unless you can post a better video. Easy to make something up behind a keyboard, totally different to perform in front of a video camera.

I agree that the video could have been better. We are all spoiled by watching professional videos that have multiple re-takes and edits. I think I could get a better sampling of wood that will result in a faster time as I normally switch to the super splitter half way through [which goes twice as fast since it is half the weight]. The problem is that my wood wasn't splitting that easy, so I couldn't switch over.

I haven't had anyone outsplit me with this technique and so I challenge anyone to post a video that is better at hand splitting. I am not even in great shape. Just think what the video would look like with a guy who lives behind a splitting mall.

I would say about 10% of my wood is knotted up pretty good, so it would take a lot of gathering to get a circle full of knots.

How many people buy curly firewood? Usually knotted firewood isn't straight. I wanted the video to represent what most people deal with. Many people get a permit and quickly learn the difference between straight grain versus knotted. Since there is a surplus of wood, you only take the best stuff.

Kind of like trying to figure out if you are going to cut up a rotten log or a fresh log. You cut up a few rotten logs and you quickly discover the difference.

Thanks for the post, now get out there and show me what you can do with a splitting axe. :hmm3grin2orange:

I'm not the one with something to prove. But I can tell you this I can split wood way faster than that! I spent 4 years splitting block with a swedish shake axe. ONE HANDED, one turning and chuckin' and one swingin' axe, any of you who has done it will immediiately know what I'm talkin' about! Get some work on a shake sale and in 2 days your forearms will feel like they were pounded with a bat. From there you decide if you can take any more punishment or you get fired! All that while being eaten alive by mosquitoes in a patch of devils club on a 35 Degree slope! But you know what I plan to buy a Canon Vixia hf s21 so in the spring I may take video of shake being logged to put it into perspective for you. But good on ya for tryin'

 

[TraditionalTool]

Sorry dude, splitting that balsa wood fast don't make you anymore of a man then anyone else. Praising that other softwood splitter don't make him anymore of a man either.

Bring that little ax over here to the midwest, and I'll give you some wood to split to really prove how much of a man you are. :hmm3grin2orange:

I have been to the PNW myself and seen your wood out there and I'll tell you what we do with pine trees around here. We use them for Christmas trees.

If they get cut down otherwise, they get thrown in a brush pile and burned.

No offense, nice little video, but it don't prove nothing to me.

Wow, you sure are a sour puss, heh?

Did someone spit in your cherrios?

 

[TraditionalTool]

I like your comments. They are not valid unless you can post a better video. Easy to make something up behind a keyboard, totally different to perform in front of a video camera.

I like you Doug, and I rep'd you for it. Good for you to get it done, and teachin' your boy how to split the kindlin'...

Don't let any of these naysayers get 'ya down...that wood is going in your fireplace, not theirs. :biggrinbounce2:

 

[Chris Crouse]

That's an interesting technique. The wood split real nice, which surprised me considering it looked like you were getting a bit worn towards the end and not hitting it too fast or hard. The video does say a lot about how well the Fiskars head works.

For everyone that seems to be putting you down, I say use whatever method you want when you do stuff! If eveyone did everything the same way, what fun would life be?

 

[farmerdoug]

This is a good point

2. If a short handled Fiskars is something to beware of when you don't have the round elevated on a chopping block, lowering the rounds so the tops are level with the soles of your shoes is downright frightening. As somebody said earlier, I could split my foot with just one swing.

Standing on a circle and splitting is not the safest way to split wood. This is a good point to make a note of.

The solution is to leave the bottom circle in tact and use it for a base as you put a circle on top. You can split the bottom circle when you are all done.

You would need the circles to be a little smaller if you are doing this so you can reach across.

I think I am going to take these suggestions and make a better video.

I am getting some good feedback on this!

Thanks!!!

 

[Zombiechopper]

That's an interesting technique. The wood split real nice, which surprised me considering it looked like you were getting a bit worn towards the end and not hitting it too fast or hard. The video does say a lot about how well the Fiskars head works.

For everyone that seems to be putting you down, I say use whatever method you want when you do stuff! If eveyone did everything the same way, what fun would life be?

I'd say it says a whole lot more about how easy that wood is to split not much about the axe design. That wood would fall aprt with a shingling hatchet. As mentioned by many others, hardwoods do not just jump apart like that stuff does!

 

[Chris Crouse]

As an experienced elm hand splitter, I hear that.