Lets use those axes for what they were ment for.

[garry3]

Dang Square Peg, I was just feeling bad for you working out in that nasty weather and in the other thread the that you posted to the flora is all cactis!
I bet you was just cooling off on the week end!

 

[Square_peg]

Dang that don't look like it was fun any more. Seems like things just take longer when the weather gets nasty.

The weather definitely tests your metal. Plus this site is 1.3 miles and 1200 vertical feet up the trail. Packing iron up the trail in rain gear is sweaty work.

 

[cooperhill]

Peg, would love to join out on the trail some day. Great work. Need a road trip to visit out west.

 

[G-pig]

I split around a face cord of halfway seasoned red oak this morning. I was going to split some today and record some another day, but I get in a rythm and then it was all done. I think I was going around a 40 minute face cord which isnt too bad. This oak was pretty gnarly, knots and twists etc. Split with my 3 1/2 ish MWH Co. double.

Also, when people say split with the cracks I always thought it was trivial. a lot of times its not. The biggest checks seem to happen alone the weak points in the piece, and makes for easy splitting. 14 inch oak rounds split in 2 or 3 swings with a standard axe, with each sequential swing splitting every time speaks to this =)

 

[Steve Tall]

...when people say split with the cracks I always thought it was trivial. a lot of times its not. The biggest checks seem to happen alone the weak points in the piece, and makes for easy splitting...

David Tresemer wrote a book called "Splitting Firewood" in which he did MythBuster-style testing of various folklore, and Myth #2, "Split Along the Check Lines", was confirmed to be true:

"For forty-seven hardwood billets seasoned six months and forty-eight billets cut two weeks previously, I marked all the drying checks longer than one-third the radius of the end. I drilled a quarter-inch hole in the very center of the billet and hammered in a radially symmetrical wedge that exerted pressure equally in every direction. Ninety billets split along the largest crack; the other five split along the second largest crack. This common myth is confirmed."

From Splitting Firewood by David Tresemer.
Can be read online or downloaded at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38151947/Splitting-Firewood-1981

 

[Square_peg]

Peg, would love to join out on the trail some day. Great work. Need a road trip to visit out west.

We'd love to have you, Coop. Same goes for the rest of you folks. If we get something big going again like that 600' puncheon bridge we finished last winer then I'll post a heads up here. That kind of project is truly a lifetime experience.

 

[made2cut]

Had some heavy winds that brought the top of this tree down over a walking trail in the neighborhood. I took my Collins Legitimus down with the dog one afternoon to clear it out. Being it was the holidays I don't think the parks dept would have been along to help for a couple of weeks. It was still razor sharp after the workout.

This was the second cut.

With it's "fancy" blade guard

 

[Square_peg]

Good lookin' axe and nice work. Do you know what kind of wood that is? It look hard.

 

[daizee]

Love the axe, and the blade guard is ingenius.

 

[CedarEater]

More importantly how did the dog break (?) its leg and how long does it have to wear a cast?

 

[made2cut]

Not sure what kind of tree it was, all the leaves were gone so I'd have to ID it by the bark. It was pretty hard wood.

The guard is not my idea, one of the regulars here posted up using heater hose and over the holidays I made a bunch of them for my user axes.

Smokey got hit by a car about four weeks ago (these pics are almost 2-3 weeks old). Luckily she didn't break any bones but had a lot of trauma to the lower leg. She could still easily out run me on three legs . She's doing much better now, thanks for asking :thumbup:.

 

[cooperhill]

Had some heavy winds that brought the top of this tree down over a walking trail in the neighborhood. I took my Collins Legitimus down with the dog one afternoon to clear it out. Being it was the holidays I don't think the parks dept would have been along to help for a couple of weeks. It was still razor sharp after the workout.


With it's "fancy" blade guard

Nice work. Very clean.

 

[cooperhill]

Did some work up on a mountain about 15 minutes from me. A good day out with the dog. This white pine chopped up nicely. Used my new old Plumb Victory Connecticut.

 

[M3mphis]

Very cool pics, Chris! What do you think about that Plumb? Looks great to me!

 

[cooperhill]

Very cool pics, Chris! What do you think about that Plumb? Looks great to me!

thanks. I like it a lot. It's a smaller sized Connecticut but maybe its a wide Dayton. who can tell. It popped the chips out real nice. Of course, white pine is easy but ... I have two other plumbs sans handles (one a jersey and one a bigger CT) which I will hang soon to see how they do.

 

[daizee]

Cold snap coming our way, time to catch up on the firewood with the 3.5lb Mann:

I knew this one would be tough, and it's too long for the stove anyway. After starting a split from the end, I stuck the axe in the split from the side and pounded on the poll with another log. It got predictably stuck, so I figured it was time to practice some wedging techniques. Out came the little 1lb hatchet:

The first wedge released the big axe easily enough. Time for a second:

Once the wedges had done as much work as they could and the piece was mostly in two, the hatchet made short work of the remaining fibers.

I like this little hatchet, but the head is still coming loose after re-wedging. I couldn't get the head off to re-seat the shoulder of the haft the last time. Looks like it needs another attempt.

 

[Square_peg]

The power of the wooden wedge! :thumbup:

What are you splitting there, red oak?

 

[garry3]

Had some heavy winds that brought the top of this tree down over a walking trail in the neighborhood. I took my Collins Legitimus down with the dog one afternoon to clear it out. Being it was the holidays I don't think the parks dept would have been along to help for a couple of weeks. It was still razor sharp after the workout.
Did you get some strange looks it that neighhood? Anybody offer to loan you there chain saw?
Just wondering. My neighbors used to offer there's all the time.
Like your axe to. I love it when they have vintage handles.

 

[garry3]

Cold snap coming our way, time to catch up on the firewood with the 3.5lb Mann:



I knew this one would be tough, and it's too long for the stove anyway. After starting a split from the end, I stuck the axe in the split from the side and pounded on the poll with another log. It got predictably stuck, so I figured it was time to practice some wedging techniques. Out came the little 1lb hatchet:



The first wedge released the big axe easily enough. Time for a second:




Once the wedges had done as much work as they could and the piece was mostly in two, the hatchet made short work of the remaining fibers.




I like this little hatchet, but the head is still coming loose after re-wedging. I couldn't get the head off to re-seat the shoulder of the haft the last time. Looks like it needs another attempt.

I guess Oak does not split easy. You guys are fortunate to have the varietes of hard woods that you do.

 

[daizee]

The power of the wooden wedge! :thumbup:

What are you splitting there, red oak?

and lots of it.
It was a mixed delivery of mostly red oak and maple.

Oak normally splits easily enough if you exercise just a little care in how you hit it. The problems start when the grain starts to go weird. The spread at the bottom of this piece was very dense and starting to change directions. Normally the Mann just plows through in one modest swing.