Splitter side companions

[Wild Willie]

As I focus again on the mindless task of prepping firewood, I can't help but contemplate what others keep next to their splitter for those stubborn stringy pieces.

All of the old timers I've split wood for over the years have at least had a hatchet nearby, and usually an axe as well.

For me it's my imacasa round eye and an old Emerson cqct that I ground the spike on to act as a pick (that part of the project still meeds work, it doesn't exactly do the greatest on gnarly hardwoods). Since a large number of the removals we're called on to do in any given year are huge yard trees, it's helpful having a something or 2 nearby to finish difficult splits when the time comes to process firewood. This saves me muscling huge rounds in circles on the splitter, I can just flip them over and give the sides a whack.
Or I can just smack the stubborn stringy stuff without moving the round at all.


It goes without saying that occasionally these can be he-manned apart, but as an edged tool enthusiast I try not to leave any opportunities on the table.

I'm curious to hear and see what the denizens of the axe forum keep near to hand when processing wood.

 

[Square_peg]

A 5 pound rafting axe for most of my splitting duties. When that fails I have a 10 pound maul with long thin axe like bit. If that fails then it’s a sledge and wedges. Nothing made of wood will resist a sledge and wedges.

 

[Square_peg]

Hatchet or Silky saw for stringy crossover fibers

 

[Wild Willie]

A 5 pound rafting axe for most of my splitting duties. When that fails I have a 10 pound maul with long thin axe like bit. If that fails then it’s a sledge and wedges. Nothing made of wood will resist a sledge and wedges.

I break out the wedges on occasion, but that's only when I'm feeling my oats... I've only had a couple of pieces through the years the splitter wouldn't handle (all honey locust), they just get rolled to the side and burned with the stuff we can't have milled or use for firewood.

How much firewood are you putting up in a year with just the maul and wedges?

 

[Square_peg]

I don’t burn that much anymore. 1-2 cords most years. Almost all split with the axe.

 

[garry3]

I break out the wedges on occasion, but that's only when I'm feeling my oats... I've only had a couple of pieces through the years the splitter wouldn't handle (all honey locust), they just get rolled to the side and burned with the stuff we can't have milled or use for firewood.

How much firewood are you putting up in a year with just the maul and wedges?

I'm surprised by your experience with honey locust. Is that the modern ornamental version that doesn't have spines on its trunk and branches?

 

[Wild Willie]

I'm surprised by your experience with honey locust. Is that the modern ornamental version that doesn't have spines on its trunk and branches?

Yeah, the particular one in question was a big sunburst (30+ inch dbh and about 60 feet tall), the section where the leads started coming out of the main stem was the worst I've seen.

I might have been able to get it eventually, but at about 65 pounds per cubic foot when green, and the splitter stalling out I just quit. It just wasn't worth the struggle for a few splits.

I didn't have the connections that I do now to guys with saw mills, it's a shame, would have been beautiful lumber.

 

[catspa]

I split with an axe also. Most of the wood I split is fairly easy, straight grain red alder and big leaf maple. Don’t have a hydraulic splitter, although I could borrow one from the neighbor.

What I do have, is a bad habit of welding a hatchet bit onto a pickaroon (or welding a spike onto a hatchet) to produce a “hatcheroon” or spike hawk. I’ve made them in small, medium and large, and find them quite useful for loading, unloading and stacking firewood. There’s always some little staub I want to knock off.

Also makes a good truck axe when I encounter blowdown across the road.

Parker

 

[Wild Willie]

What I do have, is a bad habit of welding a hatchet bit onto a pickaroon (or welding a spike onto a hatchet) to produce a “hatcheroon” or spike hawk. I’ve made them in small, medium and large, and find them quite useful for loading, unloading and stacking firewood. There’s always some little staub I want to knock off.

Exactly what I was going for with grinding the spike down on the tomahawk. I don't always think to grab my pickaroon off the truck when I decide I'm going to do firewood, and it's handy for reaching out the back door to pull splits out of the sled I bring wood onto the porch with during burn season.

 

[The Old Dog]

I turned 76 last August, and have burned wood to heat my various homes for around 50 years, and when growing up it was the same. My Dad at times (often) was a logger and would bring home the nastiest elm, yellow birch, and maple crotch pieces and twisted pieces he could find just to torture me and my brother. We had a maul and 2 steel wedges and a heavy double bit axe. The elm would swallow the wedges and we would axe it the rest of the way. They weren"t all that way but enough to make you appreciate the easy ones. I did not know what a splitting axe was til I got married (1967) and started my own home. I cut and split and piled 12-14 face cords per year for 50 years and used a hydraulic splitter one day in that time. Granted not all the wood I cut had to be split, but the majority did. If a big round would not readily split, I would toss it to the side and when done with the rest, I would saw them in half or quarters with my power saw. Now days I use wood in my fireplace at home and in a small wood stove in our cottage, approximately 5 cord per year. I use a 6lb and a 4lb hardware store splitting axe. I like to make wood (old kentuck saying) and it's a pretty good stress test. Thanks for letting me rant. By the way, I'm in forest county, northern wisconsin. Dog

 

[Square_peg]

The elm would swallow the wedges

I also had the pleasure of splitting a lot of elm as a youngster. The nightmares have mostly subsided. It's tough stuff to split. 4 wedges will generally bust a round open. 2 wedges likely won't. London Plane is even worse.

 

[The Old Dog]

I also had the pleasure of splitting a lot of elm as a youngster. The nightmares have mostly subsided. It's tough stuff to split. 4 wedges will generally bust a round open. 2 wedges likely won't. London Plane is even worse.

Our area had millions of elegant Elm trees years ago. Dutch Elm disease wiped it out (99%) but there are a few stragglers out in large farm fields and a few days ago I found a large one around 2 feet in diameter in the woods on a 40 that my great grandad lived on in the 1920-1930's. My cousin now owns it. It has been coming back and around my place they get numerous, but when they get 8 -12" they die. A friend who had 3 sawmills told me at one time Elm was 60% of the cut one of his mills. Dog

 

[Wild Willie]

Our area had millions of elegant Elm trees years ago. Dutch Elm disease wiped it out (99%) but there are a few stragglers out in large farm fields and a few days ago I found a large one around 2 feet in diameter in the woods on a 40 that my great grandad lived on in the 1920-1930's. My cousin now owns it. It has been coming back and around my place they get numerous, but when they get 8 -12" they die. A friend who had 3 sawmills told me at one time Elm was 60% of the cut one of his mills. Dog

I still run into a few here and there, and American chestnut on occasion. They live long enough to start producing progeny and die. We'll be looking at the same situation with ash soon.