Wedges in addition to fiskars

[firekindler]

You should not beat the back of any splitting maul with a sledge. When two hardened surfaces strike each other, metal shards can fly off, leading to injury. Wedges are intentionally made of softer metal, which tends to mushroom out with use. My favorite wedges have a sharp leading edge and a twist in the body. Example in picture
View attachment 1242924

I have one of those, along with a couple of conical shaped wedges. On a larger round, I'll often start the conical wedges each about a third of the way in from the outside. One nice thing about them is that they almost never get stuck. If you keep pounding they'll either split the piece of pop out. Then if they begin getting hard to drive, I'll finish it off with the twister in the middle. I have a ten lb maul that I really like and I use a 12 lb sledge with the wedges. Almost never have to fire up the hydraulic splitter..

 

[fields_mj]

Rent a 3 point splitter first. My old man has one, and I find it to be a major pain and woefully slow to use. Also sucks tou need to pick the rounds up, or lower it down to roll them on, since the loader is no longer available to put the round on the splitter.

I don't use my loader to lift rounds now. If they are too heavy to lift by hand, I noodle them. I also wouldn't bother with a unit that relied on the tractor's hydraulics. That would be way too slow imho. I'd want to add PTO driven hydraulic pump. It would be a good idea to rent or borrow one first though. It would suck to put time and $$ into it only to figure out that I hate it later.

 

[fields_mj]

I used to run the biggest Stihl chainsaws in my younger years, including an 090AV 60".
Those days, sadly; are decades past. Now I'm having fun with the newer battery operated saws, the biggest one carrying a 24" bar. I cut my rounds rather short, making them much easier to split.
After a while the 'ugly' pieces started piling up. That's when I told myself that I needed a hydraulic log splitter again. I don't have the disposable income that I used to, and I wanted to stay with electric. I found the best value was a Yardmax 9 ton for 500.00 on Amazon. For what it is; it works great. Sometimes I have to reposition the block of wood, or swap ends; but I haven't run across a piece yet that it couldn't process.
I'm just getting back into chainsaws and firewood. I've got a fireplace, but the wood burns up too quickly, so I quit using it for now.
Maybe a little later I'll be able to get an insert with fans. That will increase the burn time, and one with fans could possibly heat the whole house.
Gives me a project in my golden years.

The big saws are handy for cutting big wood, but big wood is a LOT of work... Originally I thought about buying a used splitter instead of a big saw, but I had 2 trees in the yard that were over 36" that were dying and needed to come down, so I opted for the saw (064) instead. It turned out to be the right choice for me at the time. Most of the wood that I was cutting was down in the bottom of a large ravine that had been select logged over the summer. I could get the truck most of the way down into it, but there was no way I could have pulled/backed a splitter down in there. A lot of the trees were white oak, and most of the tops that were at least 24" across. The 064 did a LOT of noodling for those first couple of years When I did break down and buy a splitter, I found a used 27T MTD in good shape on craigslist about an hour away for $475. Its been well worth the money.

Something to keep in mind when trying to heat with a stove or insert. Its easier to blow the cold air towards a heat source than it is to blow hot air into a cold room. When you think about the air flow, think about how you're going to get the cold air out, not about how to get the warm air in. When the cold air moves out of the way, the warm air will naturally fill the space.

 

[Okie]

Painful when a splitting wedge glances off the ankle at high speed.
(you will not ever forget such, especially when it's cold and you are rolling around on the ground moaning and whining and then have to drive yourself home using one foot)

 

[sean donato]

I don't use my loader to lift rounds now. If they are too heavy to lift by hand, I noodle them. I also wouldn't bother with a unit that relied on the tractor's hydraulics. That would be way too slow imho. I'd want to add PTO driven hydraulic pump. It would be a good idea to rent or borrow one first though. It would suck to put time and $$ into it only to figure out that I hate it later.

we thought about converting it to a pto pump set up, but with the cost of the pump, hoses and tank it wasn't worth it. Could have ran anywhere and bought a new engine powered splitter for about the same cost. Mobility is better with it most times. Gets kinda hairy in the woods with it sticking out so far, but it's seldom been an issue. As he gets older and I take on processing more and more of his wood, I've contemplated just taking over my splitter. It's faster by a long stretch, more powerful, and has a log lift. I've wrecked my back and one shoulder enough to appreciate not having to lift rounds, and I get a lot of big wood I process since other cant/ won't handle it.

 

[fields_mj]

I trailer everything home in log form and do the bucking and splitting at the house. One would think that I'd prefer a standard splitter, but if I have to move it, I do so with a tractor so in my mind it would be convenient to just start my tractor, pick the splitter up with the quick hitch, and drive over to the wood pile. Probably not the cheapest route, but I'm getting to the point in life where I'm willing to spend a little more to make things more convenient....