Splitting Hickory: Do you people do this by hand?

[FishZapper]

Things are coming along nicely now. Went and picked up a couple wedges (generic crap is all my local hardware place had) and gave that a go...still had a bit of trouble setting them, so I took my saw and ripped some 2" notches into the tops of the blocks and drove them from there.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[JBinKC]

Told you it wouldn't be so bad. Mockernut hickory doesn't shred. The only negative thing about it is the wood boring beetles (leave oval holes) really have a field day with it during the summer and leaves a powdery mess but the wood seems drier than other hickory species and burns like ash firewood on steriods.

 

[A. Stanton]

I recently split up a big hickory that a neighbor had cut down. I used my trusty Huskee 35 ton splitter and my wife's dear old departed Uncle Henry's machette.
Piece of cake.

 

[Log Splitter]

I recently split up a big hickory that a neighbor had cut down. I used my trusty Huskee 35 ton splitter and my wife's dear old departed Uncle Henry's machette.
Piece of cake.

What was the machette for??????

 

[AngelofDarkness]

I split everything by hand, splitters are for the weak. Chainsaw ripping tough rounds works good, I do it a lot for weird, knotty stuff or rounds with 2 or more cores, otherwise I could beat on them all day with no progress. The Husky 55 with the 3/8 chain ground to 25 degrees does a good job for ripping, although I might look for a full chisel chain to use just for that purpose.

My weapon of choice is a Wood Grenade and a 12# Mega maul. Yes, I managed to bend the steel handle on the Mega maul already.

I am also a part time bouncer.

 

[musch]

I am surprised at this thread.
Out by me we have a lot of shagbark hickory, and I love it.
Great heat, and splits real easy with a maul.
Then again, its 10 degrees, and maybe that makes it somewhat brittle.

The big oak trees, on the other hand, are some obstinate evil stringy stuff to split by hand.

 

[A. Stanton]

What was the machette for??????

The machette is for those pesky little strings of grain that refuse to let go after the split. Lot easier to wack with a machette than try and twist apart. And machette is nice and light and nimble to swing.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Yep, altho I've got the Shagbark variety. It is stringy but I've only had a problem with the knotty or crotch pieces. I use a hatchet to cut the strings if they are bad. 6lb maul with fiberglass handle is the weapon of choice. I have a 12lber but it wears me out.

Ian

 

[Log Splitter]

The machette is for those pesky little strings of grain that refuse to let go after the split. Lot easier to wack with a machette than try and twist apart. And machette is nice and light and nimble to swing.

Ah! Try this - leave the cylinder extended, grab the leading edge of on side of the round you've just split, and use the beam on the splitter for a fulcrum as you rotate that half of a round out to 90 degrees from the splitter. It almost always works to finish splitting the stringy stuff, and it's fast.

I keep a hand axe around for the occasional times that I need it, but the technique described above works almost always.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Ah! Try this - leave the cylinder extended, grab the leading edge of on side of the round you've just split, and use the beam on the splitter for a fulcrum as you rotate that half of a round out to 90 degrees from the splitter. It almost always works to finish splitting the stringy stuff, and it's fast.

I keep a hand axe around for the occasional times that I need it, but the technique described above works almost always.

Yep, I did that when I borrowed a splitter for those knotty pieces.

Ian

 

[Haywire Haywood]

The splitter that I borrowed had the ram set up as the wedge and it pushed to the "anvil" that was set up on the beam. Seems that your setup would be better for production.

Ian

 

[ericjeeper]

I will show you how the Leveraxe

Handled some slick bark hickory.
http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/image/76927471

 

[Peacock]

I split everything with an 8lb maul. Occasionally I use a 14lb mega maul, but I've found that a sharper 8lber works better. Anything over ~24" I rip in half with the saw. Sold about 20 cord so far this year.

I've split hickory, oak, hard maple, hedge, locust, elm and so on. Nothing here is as hard to split as hornbeam. 8 inch rounds just laugh at either maul.

The laughing stops when the 441 comes out!:greenchainsaw: