For those that split wood with a axe? Which axe do you prefer and what weight? Im not talking about mauls im talking about a axe.

I’m a proponent of speed over brute so I use a light head with a short handle.

Elm here a ax is about useless for the trees I cut heck the hydraulic splitter can barely do the job.

Fiskar.

Fiskars 27 ...is what i use when I don't crank up the gas splitter and what I used before I hade the thing. Its light weight but splits like nothing else I have tried so far. I split mostly oaks and some hickory

Nobody warned me about elm when I started burning wood. I kept hitting a piece until I saw yellow stars

Chopper 2

X2, best out there for splitting firewood.

Fiskars splitting axe for sure. The long one. You can swing it all day.

Fiskers

I like the long Fiskars and for splitting there are few that compare. However I'm a guy that'll finish driving an axe through a stuborn piece with a sledge. The hardened steel on the Fiskars will chip out if you do that... So for serious splitting, I prefer a light 6 pound maul with a long taper. Short, fat, dull mauls are crap.

ETA- The little Fiskars is fantastic for kindling and culling chickens.

We have 3 fiskers and a few mauls. The boys use the fiskers and I use the maul.

Axes are not for splitting wood . They are too light and will get stuck in the wood. Us a heavy maul its much easier.

Just a heavy convex axe with a long handle.Frozen spruce and birch split like nothing-just let the heavy head drop.
Tamarack is a bit tougher but easy enough when frozen.
There are two type of tamarack here-real big knarly ones with many heavy branches,and tall straight ones with smaller branches.
I cut the latter for firewood,the knarly ones are a pain to split even when frozen.
If I was heating my home with tough to split wood I would buy a log splitter.

For sure!I used the Fiskars 10+ pound maul until I bought/built a log splitter It is effective, but, danged heavy.

I still use a no name 5 pound splitting axe, as Boco described. That, to break the last inch or so of large longitudinally cut rounds.

Worth noting, I use a Fiskars for straight grain, easy to split wood. Water oak especially. That’s good exercise.


For gnarly grain hardwoods, I would definitely want to use a log splitter or be very selective of what pieces get split and which pieces get burned whole or trimmed

I used a monster maul, heavy but you don't really swing it , just drop it and drive it through with your weight, if you can read the wood you can split most logs.An ax will split easy wood like straight grained maple.

But...a hydraulic splitter never gets tired....

Most any axe in the 3 1/2 to 5 lb range with a 32 to 36 inch handle and heavy convex grind. Save the thinner heads for a felling axe. Handle should be good straight grained hickory or ash.

If you have wood with decently straight grain an axe works fine... But you'll rarely want to try to split the round down the middle or you'll work yourself to death... But if you bust slabs off along a chord line you can whittle it down without much work.

Mike