All someone really “needs” is an axe. Of course, that’s not realistic for the vast majority of wood burning citizens. To be efficient and not want to give up, you need quicker, better tools. Such as a chainsaw or 2, proper PPE, a wagon or cart and something to pull it. To make it easy and as least painful on the body as possible, specialty tools such as tongs, pickeroon, cant hook or peavy, etc. To make it fun, ya gotta spend some bucks and get a tractor or skidsteer with grapple and three point winch, processor or really efficient splitter, hydraulic dumping trailer or dump truck, etc. It really all depends on how far into the water you want to go. To the folks who say buying all this stuff doesn’t make sense and I might as well burn oil or gas, I have to ask do you take a horse or a bicycle to work? Do you live in a tiny home with the bare essentials in it only, do you have the smallest, cheapest tv possible, then why kill yourself to split wood by hand? If you burn a cord in the fireplace, then your not heating with wood, your playing around. When your using ONLY wood and are using 6 plus full cords a year, then tell us it’s not worth buying better tools. After a few years our equipment is paid for, and you’ve spent just as much in heating oil or gas with nothing to show for your money spent. The equipment can always be sold.
