ouch

[randy41]

i know a lot of you guys have them fancy log splitters that you hook up to your tractor but for those of you still living in the dark ages like me and split by hand....dontcha just hate it when you miss by just a little and the log bites your leg? and why did i think it was so funny when my oldest son was a teenager and it happened to him?

 

[1bush2hog]

Worse yet would be if the maul glanced off the log and hit your leg -

What is the toughest wood you have to split?

 

[turnkey4099]

After over 30 years of making my firewood, my shins are scarred top to bottom. Doesn't matter if I am using the splitter or hand spitting, they still get hit. I figured out many years ago that a pair of shin guards like some sports use would be a good investment. Now all I have to do is go buy some some day.

Harry K

 

[randy41]

my woodpiles got mostly locust with some poplar. i find the toughest split is knotty locust. but this didnt happen because the log was tough to split. it happened because my concentration was slipping. i guess i've been splitting for about 30 years also.

 

[ToadHill]

I found that putting the round inside an old tire before you wack it makes for a lot fewer shin problems. The worst wood to split is Elm. I can remember having 4 wedges stuck in one round and having to cut them out with a saw.

 

[dfkrug]

The toughest wood to split here is Bay Laurel. Maple, Oak, Alder
much easier.

I do a couple of cords per year and I prefer manual splitting to the
hydraulic splitters.

Hopefully everyone has dicovered this great tool:
Truper Axes — 12-Lb. Splitting Maul w/Steel Handle |Logging Accessories | Northern Tool + Equipment

No more sledge hammers and wedges! My F-I-L gave me his about 15y ago
and a I did not know what I was missing.

 

[riptides]

After over 30 years of making my firewood, my shins are scarred top to bottom. Doesn't matter if I am using the splitter or hand spitting, they still get hit. I figured out many years ago that a pair of shin guards like some sports use would be a good investment. Now all I have to do is go buy some some day.

Harry K

I wear street hockey shin guards. They are strong enough to deflect the hurt, absorb the gash from the maul, and simple enough to use.

When they come out, the kids disappear - It's WORK time.

-Mike Z.

 

[1bush2hog]

I don't split as much as I used to.

I always found it easier and faster to use a maul over a wood splitter when I was young and cut and sold wood to make some extra spending money. Knowing how to read the end of the log helps a bunch. Then again, I never knew what a maul was until I moved to the city - we always called it a "Go Devil" and maul was something a bear did to you if you got too close.

Knowing not to try to split blackgum also helps

I'm sure splitters have come along way since then, but it seemed like just as much work, if not more, to keep moving that log around so the splitter could split it. Guess I never got that technique down and don't plan on trying it now.

My shins have a few scars too

 

[Thomas]

Evening Randy.
Have piece come flying off and slap the boys...yikes...don't think it would have made much differents if it was hard or soft wood.

 

[Bird]

I've split some Elm that was a little tough, but by far the toughest to split I ever encountered was a big Sycamore stump. I was using an axe, wedges, and a sledge hammer (before I got a splitting maul that was so much better) and I drove two big wedges into the Sycamore and it was like putting a finish nail in a 2 x 4; didn't split at all. Instead of a straight grain, it was a twist grain. I couldn't even get my wedges out, so they had to stay there until that wood aged another year.

 

[RonL]

dfkrug

I found the problem with the all steel woodsplitters is that the handle is round. It does not orient in my hands as well as an oval handled maul or ax. I tend to hit the wood off center more often with round handle.

RonL

 

[Egon]

Cut shorter pieces and use the heaviest woodsplitter you can find. And maybe wear your chainsaw chaps or pants.

 

[randy41]

I've got one of those all steel splitting mauls and I use it to pound on the stubborn stuff but for most splitting I use a maul with a yellow plastic/fiberglass (i dont know which it is) handle.
When i cut trees for firewood i usually look for standing dead locust and i saw so that any knots dont end up in the middle of the piece. this doesnt always work.
my 'boys' have never been attacked by firewood.

 

[czechsonofagun]

I use maul and wood grenade:

Lehman's - Products for Simple, Self-sufficient Living

for big logs and double hand axe for small ones.

The wood grenade works great.

 

[turnkey4099]

I've got one of those all steel splitting mauls and I use it to pound on the stubborn stuff but for most splitting I use a maul with a yellow plastic/fiberglass (i dont know which it is) handle.
When i cut trees for firewood i usually look for standing dead locust and i saw so that any knots dont end up in the middle of the piece. this doesnt always work.
my 'boys' have never been attacked by firewood.

'Boys" being attacked reminded me of the time I got hit by a softball at the company picknick. I am rolling around on the ground with my hands clamped between my legs when the company nurse runs up. Insists that a massage will ease the pain. I had my doubts but told her to go ahead. She unzips me and begins.
"There, doesn't that feel better?"
"Yes ma'am, that do feel good...but my finger still hurts"

Harry K