Big Task Ahead

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Dave Behrens

Dave Behrens

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Feb 25, 2011
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This is my first thread in the AT&H Forum thought this might be of some interest.

I recently had three trees cut down around my house. Two were 100 footers, and one was 40' (after top half broke off in a storm a few years ago). I had the tree guy cut the two larger trees into rounds but I will be doing all of the splitting myself. The catch is I do not have one of those fancy gas powered log splitters. Here are some photos of the task I have ahead, the tools I will be using, and my progress so far.

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I have estimated the total number or rounds between 150-160, the largest measure about 28-32" in diameter, and account for about 1/2 of the total rounds.

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Size reference.

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Third tree and shortest, I will have to "round" this one myself, I will be using a chainsaw.

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The tools I am using include a Harbor Freight 8lb Maul. I re-profiled the maul's edge, it was so thick from the store it just bounced off of the rounds, now it splits with relative ease. The other tools include a single bit axe and a double bit axe brands/makes unknown (been in the family for 3 generations).

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My progress after two days roughly 8 rounds split up. My goal is to finish by July and average 6 rounds per day.
 
ooooo... nice.
save some for stump stools! For anvil seats! (maybe not the right wood for those uses?)
 
Don't forget to save a few for tomahawk targets.

I split and stacked about 20 rounds one afternoon last summer. Totally kicked my butt. I was so sore the next three days and I think my hands were the worst of it.
 
Wow that's a bit of work me and my brother once knocked out a task almost of that in a weekend all of us were hurting the next Monday but worth it
 
You got a pile of fun in your future. Good exercise and it costs less than a gym membership.
 
Well it has been 3 weeks and 2 days since I began this thread/task. I am not as far a long as I thought I'd (or wanted) to be, mostly due to time (we all know how that is :rolleyes:). I am about half done in terms of actual labor, all of the largest stumps are split up. The maul is holding up fantastically, but is causing a lot of blisters, probably the plastic handle, wooden handles don't tend give me blisters this badly. Here are some more progress pics.

Pile has grown some. Estimate I have processed about 30-40 rounds.
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The wood pile in these two pics is at least 75% Pitchwood (fatwood), some of these stumps entire core was A grade (heavily saturated) fatwood.
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I got this blister after about a week of splitting, and was not bothering me at all until I ripped it open (during a completely unrelated task). This pic is two weeks after I ripped it open. This is the other reason for a lack of progress.
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You got a good start there. FYI, an axe with a full unclipped fawn's foot won't give you that nasty blister.
 
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