Where does the wood take revenge on you?

[wdchuck]

In all the handling that firewood requires, splitting gives the wood its greatest opportunity to take revenge on us. For me, pieces that fall off the opposite side of the splitter, drop on end and tip over into unsuspecting soft tissue, and get me on either the inside of my left knee, or top of a foot. Granted, its all preventable, just put a table on, but just as the bruises heal up, bam, gets tenderized again, and it never involves dried/dead stuff, oh no, Murphy dictates half of a 20" round of oak, or other unforgiving specie of wood.



So where does the wood get you most often when running the splitter?



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[Stihl051master]

I rarely use the hydraulic splitter, but the wood always tries to get me on the toes - but the jokes on it, it just bounces off the steel toes in my boots. Then it gets me back. I nearly always bash my shins somehow. The sheer mechanics of I don't even understand, wood flies off at impossible angles, stumps and branches leap out of nowhere, tractor drawbars and truck receivers shoot out of everywhere- it's scary stuff. I thought running a splitter was supposed to be easier on you...

 

[turnkey4099]

It will get me in the shins every time. Not only will it do it once, it will do it repeatedly and hit the same spot every time.

My shins are pure scar tissue from ankle to knee from a fire back when I was a kid and now those scars are overlaid with scars from 30 years of 'wooding'. I won't even go near the wood pile anymore unless I am wearing my chaps - helps a bunch.

Harry K

 

[Butch(OH)]

I seem to have troubles with getting my fingers out of the way of big chunks of wood and immovable objects. Like when I struggle to plop a big one on the lift, or off the lift to the beam and one of my fingers is between it and its final resting place. Several times I have been afraid to take my gloves off and look. Another good lick'en came when I was tossing a big one in the OWB and hit the top of the opening with the wood, and one of my fingers was again, inbetween. :censored: &^$%$@@!!!! Yeeeoww!!!, glad the wife nor preacher wasnt in an earshot that day. The last one drew not a dop of blood but dented my pride. When loading the truck,and the back window,, you know the rest of the story.

 

[woodbooga]

A number of years back, my firewood gave me a black eye.

A nasty tough chunk of crotchwood oak. Got the maul about 3" into it and just began wailing on it - you know when the maul is thick into the piece and you raise it up to slam the butt end on the stump. Butt ended the chunk 3 or 4 times when it yielded. Half of it ricochted off from the barn and whacked me in the face.

Told the folks at work my wife gave me my black eye. Easier to believe.

Since then, I've moved my splitting stump an extra 10' from the barn.

Live and learn, I reckon.

P.S. - I put that chunk aside in a special place so I'd remember where it was come burning time. I did take an awful lot of pleasure dropping that one in the firebox!

 

[woodbooga]

Even if you don't care much for poetry, Robert Frost's "Out, Out-" is worth a read and extremely on topic.

http://www.online-literature.com/frost/740/

 

[b1rdman]

Got the maul about 3" into it and just began wailing on it - you know when the maul is thick into the piece and you raise it up to slam the butt end on the stump. Butt ended the chunk 3 or 4 times when it yielded. Half of it ricochted off from the barn and whacked me in the face.

deja vu...

Similar thing happened to me in sixth grade only there was no ricochet. The wood sailed strait from stump to nose. Ouch!

Broken nose, 7 stitches, lots of blood and two black eyes.

I haven't done that since. Take the time to dislodge the axe/maul and give it another whack. It's not worth it.

 

[avalancher]

I will have to agree with the shin. It never fails. I usually spend my splitting time wearing shorts, and it never fails. Will throw a big 24 inch piece of oak on the rail and send the ram on through. The piece will split in two, I will heroically try and hold both pieces so that I can drop the far side piece where it is easy to get to and the piece closest to me will slide down my leg, tearing meat all the way down from the knee to my boot.
I cuss and swear, maybe throw a piece or two of wood around to make myself feel better, then sit down to survey the damage. Not a lot of blood, no need to go to the house.
Back to work, repeat the same process several times in a day. I lost ten pounds last weekend splitting wood. Eight of it was sweat, two pounds of meat gone off my leg.
You would think that I would learn something from all this.

 

[Zodiac45]

I always split in steel toed shoes/boots these for the obvious reasons. I will say that ever since I fabbed up some extensions too the log cradle on my splitter, things have been much more harmonius.

 

[Joshlaugh]

Shins. I was splitting with my maul two weeks ago and some how a nice piece of wood bounced funny after I split it and hit me right in the shin. I tried to walk it off but within 10 seconds I had a golf ball size knot on my shin. I had to sit down with ice on it while my two daughter poked at it and kept asking "Why I let the wood hit me"

Josh

 

[strongback]

fingers for sure.

If were only talking about body parts it would have to be the fingers. They get cut, splinters under the fingernails or just plain ole crushed. Most recently I was splitting a smallish piece of wood that I had whittled down to the last 8" piece of heartwood from a larger (40") log. It split into three pieces one of which smacked the :censored: out of the knuckle on my index finger. I thought I had broken my finger at first. But, after performing the obligatory "Song and Dance of the self-inflicted wound" I was able to finish my splitting for the day. This was over a week ago and I can still feel the bruise on my knuckle.

After the fingers I'd say it's got to be the forearms. I've got countless burns on my arms (and the back of my hands) from the doors to the fireplace insert. I keep a pair of welding gauntlets on the hearth to prevent this from happening but if I'm just throwing a couple of logs in I don't need them right?

The most expensive vengence, as has been mentioned already, is the removal of all of that "extra" glass from the rear window of my truck. All I've got left is the sliding window in the middle right now. I'm not going to replace the window until I build a sheild for it. I've been toying with the idea of just welding in a "Madd Maxx" window and being done with it.