Babaganoosh
ArboristSite Operative
I bought a splitter and regret it. Said nobody ever.
Wood splitting debate. Maul vs splitter
- Thread starter CoreyB
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- maul wood splitting
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Ironworker
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Good one.
Ironworker
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Thanks, yes it's electrical tape, I finished with a couple of half hitches but put the tape on to keep it from sliding down, I made sure not to let the tape touch the wood, hopefully it will keep the rope from sliding down.
Ironworker
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Erik B
ArboristSite Guru
Sold my monster maul for $5.00. Friend from church splits all of his wood by hand and wanted to try something a bit heavier. I never used it anymore so thought it should go to a new home. I will stick with my 16 year old Speeco.
Dalmatian90
Addicted to ArboristSite
Of course, bodies also rot out from lack of use or break down from sudden overexertion, too.
If I, in the shape I'm currently in, had to work in 8-10 hour sessions like the original poster to get the wood in...well, it's splitter time. Would do too much damage going all day.
An hour or ninety minutes after work splitting away, or a couple 90 minutes sessions on a weekend day...that's good exercise and keeps the body tuned up.
(I'm also a big splitting ax fan -- the lighter weight has to be easier on the joints than swinging a heavy maul more than necessary.)
zogger
Tree Freak
Pics!
sawjunky23
Just here for the free beer!
I think I heard somewhere that the average hydraulic splitter can turn out a cord an hr. I am 32 and in pretty decent shape, I gaurantee you that I can not maintain a cord an hr pace with a fiskars or a maul over the course of a day. I like to swing an axe for some exercise from time to time, last winter though I noticed my shoulder would start to get worked over.
stihly dan
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I have both a quality stihl pa80, fiskers and hydro splitter. I hand split 99% of the time, but its reassuring to know the hydro is there if needed. I may need the hydro more as I age, but not yet. I like hand splitting, gives me a good sense of accomplishment.
If I lived in an area that primarily had difficult to split species I'd have a splitter for sure. Ive got it relatively easy unless I encounter a twisted maple or knotty pine.
Yup, stuff like beech really calls for a splitter. Two guys going at with mauls and straight grained wood can get a lot done in a short time, and make a splitter look like a waste of money. Get into some real difficult stuff and you could debate whether you're busting up the wood or the wood is busting you up.
Like a few of you guys have said, I enjoy doing some of the easier stuff by hand. But the splitter gets all the stubborn blocks these days cause I learned there's no point in trying to be more stubborn than the wood is.
Must be something in the water up there to make beech nasty. I'd heard about beech being nasty before, then got a mess of it from one giant beech that Sandy tore up. Split like a dream, with any of a bunch of non-bludgeon mauls. (Many totally confuse crappy POS mauls with the ones carefully forged by skilled smiths from good steel.)
When working through a stack of billets, those that resist with forks/knots go into a "group W" pile. They then get a quick partial noodling with whatever saw is ready & handy. Then hit with maul. It's all about KISS, IMHO.
I used to sell hydraulic splitters. For my purposes, given the above, they're more trouble & expense than they're worth, especially when I have big rounds out in the woods, to enable loading them out. E.g. 20" shagbark rounds. (X27 will suck wind on them besides.)
For background, 6.6 lb is a BIG maul. There'll be a variety in E. Falmouth for test.
sawjunky23
Just here for the free beer!
sawjunky23
Just here for the free beer!
Like the maul I have with the yellow handle that was carefully "forged" (by me with an angle grinder).........................
Ah, it's been many moons since CTYank trolled in here to trash the venerable Fiskars.
sawjunky23
Just here for the free beer!
Careful....he's very protective of his tools.Like the maul I have with the yellow handle that was carefully "forged" (by me with an angle grinder).........................
spike60
Addicted to ArboristSite
Given that view of hydralic splitters, I'd suspect that you didn't have very many "salesman of the month" plaques hanging on the wall.
Considering what most of us have invested in saws, the cost of a small splitter can hardly be considered a big deal. And they are simple machines that are trouble free for anyone who knows how to check the oil level. Granted, you generally can't take them into the woods. And that's where a maul and noodling come in to get those blocks down to a size where you can get them into the truck. But they do make life easy when you've got a lot of splitting to do. Same as your Ariens snow thrower. You could have just done all that work with a snow shovel, but the Ariens makes life a little better, doesn't it?
OK let's all be honest here: There's a certain psychology involved in this debate that runs along the "I don't need a splitter, cause I can still get it done by hand." route. There's a certain "wuss" factor to getting a splitter, cause part of that decision involves not wanting to do it all by hand anymore. And splitting by hand is the last "pure" un-mechanized part of the whole firewood process. Just sweat and muscle like in the olden days. Yeah I get that, and I really enjoy when I'm hand splitting. But I also like having a splitter for the larger sizes, quanities and species of wood I run into. Job's easier, life's better.
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