Pretty keen Marty, thanks.
Splittin across to the far side is the best way to break out a handle tho. (even steel)
That's the only thing I'd do different.
Cool

your welcome.

Thought the same thing.when I was a kid if you would of done that you would have less butt to be carrying around.

I have the same maul. Good tool. Steel handle. Works good.

That is a good idea!

It would have to be some really straight grained wood for that to work.

Good idea. I chuckled when he pushed all of the split wood onto the ground. Would be much easier to pick it up from the height of it on the block.

I use a tire to keep the splits from flying off.

Same here.

I just cut my wood like hockey pucks,no need to split.

When it'd large diameter and or hard splitting I will cut it thin also. Not hockey Puck but 6 to 10" but I don't split much. If my boys can pick it up it's small enough to be put I'm the outdoor burner

Yup,,looked like a chunk of ash there.

Certainly not Elm

I'll stick to hydraulics

Interesting

try that with whiteoak, or elm

The best wood splitting hack is to get someone else to do it....

That's what I used before I went down the lazy route and got a hydraulic splitter

I could have it pretty much split in the time it took him to put the chain on. Splitting across the diameter is for small pieces only. Split slabs off the sides and whittle it down and it is done in no time. Generally one swing of the maul per piece and most are of a size that is ready to stack. Especially with a nice piece of ash.

Me too, and a more sophisticated maul than that stone age thing.

Very interesting responses, as usual.

Agreed

Thank you for sharing, Marty!

Your welcome...

Been using a Tire for years, at home. While camping, I use this method. I hate chasing chunks of wood.

I wonder if it catches most of the incidental schrapnel/kindling scraps

Only trouble I’ve had is that the bungee expands and tightens up, enough that it’s hard to grab the wood.

Does everyone have such small stoves they have to split stuff into such small pieces!?!?

That was a four piecer at best!

Watch Buckin' Billy Ray on YouTube. He has a really little woodstove.

Small seasons faster. If planning on using it soon.

I have a painted wide red line on my splitter starting 16 inches from the end painted back a few inches

if it is less than the line16 at inches then the largest piece I can hold with 1 hand

if it is in the few inches of red split it to a 4x4 or less

if it is past the line split it 2x4 size

if it is way past the line toss it on the saw buck to be cut in half

in my stove 16s can go left-right or front to back

18s can only go front to back

I can go to about 24 diagonal but they have to be thin and the splitter is a 24 inch max

you have to understand most people are cutting recreational fire wood not heating wood
recreational fires you light and let burn out so you basically burn kindling they aren't letting it burn for days maintaining a bed of coals

I am cutting heating wood but for a fairly small but efficient stove

some people also freak out about short or long or pieces that don't stack well . for me anything that fits in the stove with the goal being largest piece I can pick up one handed for the bulk of it and everything else just happens you can always split the bigger stuff down inf you need kindling , no need to move any more pieces than nessicary

I cut 8" and 14" lengths for the floorless shelter stoves...gonna try this before xmas day.

Story. Made a deal with local Amish man. He cut in chunks ,bot out to me to split. First load. Time out! He cut 9-11” length. Changed some rules after that. lol

I cut/split 12" firewood for an elderly lady that heated her house with a pot belly stove in the center. I asked her if she would take the off-size pieces from log cut offs and she said yes. The pieces were 4" to 12" so they fit in her stove.

probably every piece they had that was an odd size that they couldn't get a 13.5 to 15.5 inch piece that most firewood buyer want

Don't most buyers around you want 16"? 16 is what I sell. It seems to make a traditional face chord.

I tried the tire trick tonight, with some success. Do you guys put a large flat piece of wood in the base of the center of the tire, to set the chunk of wood on?

Best hack I have found is find someone with a prosser (sp) (for spelling police)
Cost me 80 per hr and they do 20 cord in 6 hr, if the wood is clean

Work smart not hard

they want 16 but many don't want 16 1/2 so 13.5-15.5 is good

some of the smaller stoves will take a 16 but if you try a 16.5 the door won't shut and that is no fun.

WOW! I should try that next time I split wood!!

I don't know about hardwoods, but with conifers like douglas fir, I try to split it where I fall it. I then buck it up in place, and as I am splitting it I stand each piece upright with what was pointed up when growing, pointed upward while splitting. Some trees, especially small one, it doesn't make a difference, but on many trees it can be much easier splitting from the top, downward.
Maybe everyone already knows this??

Waggler is right. I was taught just like a woman, you start at the top.

Ive cut and split a lot of wood and have never heard this before or paid attention to it. I will observe this on the next tree felled. Thanks

I have two Monster Mauls. One is like the one in the video. The other one is called the Ladies model. You will never break the handle on either maul. They are really well built.

Right. You'd never do that with elm; too stringy.

who is splitting elm?

looks like basswood ,

I bought that identical maul yrs ago with big ideas, yea right! It kicked my butt after about five minutes His way is for amateurs splitting a few pieces for a campfire. For serious splitting, I've yet to find a better ax than the Fiskars X27. Its lightweight but extremely efficient with an unbreakable handle. Here's how me and X27 spent the afternoon today.

Holy crap that's a lot of wood Reaper. Nice looking wood.

I'm all ears when it comes to Fiskars. I have a Fiskars claw hammer and I love it!

Anyone willing to try this method?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1T5Kb4CPFQ/?igsh=em12YzR4OGt6am83

That's a level of stoopid I can't even comprehend.

NO

Looks like an accident waiting to happen.

I didn't even see it is a 2 station setup notice the second blade to his right

I figure that is basically an axel with 2 large saw blades mounted where wheels would be and a bed built over it to make 2 cutting/splitting stations

I also suspect the CCP had a guy to replace him with when he slips and bleeds out or it throws a log in his face and splits his skull.

they seem to place a bit lower value on life over there.

I've sometimes thought a person should wear steel toe boots when splitting wood

I have never had a problem splitting wood. A fresh cut piece splits easier than one with "seasoned" ends so I cut as I go. The colder the better for splitting. At below zero you don't even need to stand the blocks up, just whack them good laying down. If a piece is knotty or stubborn, just move on to another piece. I have a splitter with a twin cylinder Wisconsin engine and it is a BEAST. You can stick a block in there cross ways and it will cut it off but I find hand splitting WAY faster.

X2, if the piece does not pop in 3 wacks,goes in the hydraulic splitter pile.

this is one of the best ideas I came up with for splitting wood.even though this splitter will split vertical and horizontal, I didn't like being on my knees kneeling in wood chips.so I installed a wheel chair lift on my splitter.put a set of log tongs on to lift the big chunks up.should of done it years ago.

I've never heard of a drill bit designed for wood splitting, but apparently they exist. Some online videos look too good to be true.

Here is an example of such a bit

https://www.amazon.com/Firewood-Spl...YSErIMyQg-Pwe7DCWvKmpRG6fO0aAr6eEALw_wcB

Shorter the log, the easier the split!

I have seen a number of log lifts , some like yours , some tip up type

what I run into is I seldom split where I cut , I used to drag my splitter around I would wrestle the rounds some times I would have them so big I moved the splitter to the round and flopped it into the vertical

even then I had to wrestel it around for the second split and so on

now I drop a tree buck it into rounds I can roll a round off to the side and noodle it
the biggest tree I did I had to noodle each round to 1/4s then I split them because I could lift the 1/4s the 1/4s became 1/12ths those I loaded on the tuck and I could get 3-4 more out of each 1/12th for actual burning size when I split at home

if I have trouble lifting it , it gets noodled in half

many ways to do things just what I found worked for me

After I'm done splitting, I use left over chards of wood to make a kindling (cardboard) box which I mix with newspaper &/or straw to use for starting brush piles on fire. It works, & is resourceful.