So, I have a little backstory before I get to my questions. I run a small firewood business and estimate that I sell between 50 and 75 bundles a year and I've been doing it for 2 years. I sell them all in bags for 5$ a piece, it helps me pay for my gas during the summertime. I hand split it all and here are my couple of questions.

Does anyone have any experience with the Fiskars splitting axes? I have an 8lb maul, but swinging that for a couple of hours gets quite tiring. I see that they offer a 27" and a 36" splitting axe and I believe the 36" is around 6lbs. I would be using these on ash, oak, and those kinds of wood.

I'm also trying to find ways to save my back a little bit and have been looking at pickaroons and hookaroons. I do have to load the rounds up and unload them at home and get them onto my splitting stump so I believe it would help save my body a little bit to pick up one of these. What's your opinion on it? Should I go with a pick or a hook?

And here's a question that other guys who sell firewood can answer and that is how do you guys find people who want to buy more than a bag or 2 of wood at a time, like face cords, etc? Should I advertise more? Also, how would you guys market to sell more bags? Make a roadside stand? Contact more gas stations and the like?

Let me know if you guys have any other tips for me. Thanks in advance!

-TheYouthTrapper

Can't help you on the business side of things but I sure my Fiskars.

I have the 36" fiskars axe and it works great. It beats swinging a maul on the small to medium size logs.

I don't have experience with the other tools you asked about but have looked at a couple. The woodchuck is one and can't remember the other. One of them is a timber jack/can't hook in one tool. I'm considering buying 1 myself.

Gas stations are a good place to sell/advertise and signs on main roads. Once you get established it's a lot easier to sell bigger quantitys. Roadside stands work. I put out 1/2 face cords at a friend's stand on a main road last summer and sold 8 about as fast as I could put it out.

yep. go with the Fiskers, can't go wrong with that.

You sell 60 bundles a year,..put your mind to selling 120 next year.

In hardwoods I found a pickaroon works best. I made my own so cant help with a specific brand. The fishers splitting axes are the best things I have used for splitting by hand but I am lazy and now use a hydraulic splitter. Craigslist and Facebook market place are the places to advertise and should give you enough customers or more than you can handle if splitting by hand. But they want their wood delivered. If you are on a semi busy street, a road side stand is a good way to sell it as well. You get more per cord if you sell in bundles that you do selling per face cord or cord. So I would try that route first. if I was producing the product by hand splitting. There is only so much you can split in a day. Split it small enough so that the lady of the house can pick a piece up with one hand and put it on the fire. Do not make those big boiler wood chunks as that is not what people that buy small quantities want. They don't heat the house with that stuff. just want a nice looking fire in the evenings.

I have 3 fiskers from their 2.5 lb boys ax to their splitting ax. Also us an 8 lb maul. Got the fiskers for my boys several years back becuse they were light enough for them to swing and learn with and I got tired of broken handles. Turned out I like using them myself.

Word of mouth and a visible location are always the best ways I have gotten increased business in many types of business.

For example when I get a tree job ( removal or trimming) in a neiborhood it's very common I pick up several more jobs from their neibors stopping buy. Once I do the job for them and make a good impression at a good price I get jobs from their friends and family for years to come.

Facebook Marketplace is going to be the best bet for advertising. Splitting by hand is okay but maybe you could find someone who would let you use their splitting in exchange for splitting their wood or something?

If you can get really decent quality wood (typically aged Oak) and can find a BBQ place or restaurant that cooks with wood you can sell ALOT and have a steady contract. Also talk to campgrounds. Offering delivery is key to a higher value client, "Yes Sir, Yes mam, Where do you want me to stack it" are all good lines that will help you make a few dollars more.

Business, or pleasure?
Could be a good gig.
A friend of mine sold his small wood business for good cash.

There are better ways to make money off the wood bundles then a different mahl

work smarter

it depends how big your round are

I have a pickaroon and an axaroon these will lift anything you can one handed so for me that is like 75# and I like to carry one in each hand so I am balanced

I also have tongs Husqavarna makes timber tongs they are nice because they are so fast and your hands stay dry and you don't chew up gloves or bend over as much but they have a limit to the size you can grab I think 13 inches and about 50 pounds

I get the truck as close as I reasonably can to the tree I cut at about 14.5 inches because not every cut is strait and smaller wood is a touch more forgiving going into a small stove and easier to split and a touch lighter
I end up with a plenty that are actually more like 16-18 but those still fit in my stove.

anything over that 75ish pounds noodle most of the way in half then whack it with your maul to finish the split this keeps your chain out of the dirt.

now at the truck one of my first big rounds is going on the ground as a step I did this more with my old f150 as my current firewood truck is an S10 2wd and it is low so I don't need a step to walk up in the bed any more but on the f150 I would set a step then start setting them on the tail gate when I had them off the pickaroon flip them on the round side and push them forward when I had 6 rounds step up and organize stacking starting at the cab , have a head ache rack even if it is a sheet of plywood you prop up when you start loading , busted back windows are no fun.

I had side boards and I would way over load that truck a little over the cab and most of the way to the tail gait had to drive home very slow a few times. you should not do that it is dumb to way over load and can be dangerous.

I have mostly be using the hydraulic log splitter I set up at the tail gate pull logs at me with the hookaroon or pickaroon and split as the the come off and they go for me into wheel barrows I have 3 I will position right outside the wood shed and split till I have them full then stack for a bit or if I am splitting of the trailer they go in the back of the little S10 and I drive that right up to my wood shed and unload

for you this would be back up as close as you can to your splitting stump

I tried selling bagged firewood for a little while I had a bucket with the bottom cut out that a bag fit over load the bucket up then pull up and the bucket slid out of the bag and the wood stayed in it. might have to add a piece or two to fill our the bag but it made loading them easier

you make more per piece selling bundles , face cords and cords people want a bulk discount on say your 30 bags to the face your getting 150 for 30 bags at 5 dollars around here a face runs about 75 to 100 some a little higher some a little lower quality and deliver change it some. and a full cord is 200-250


I don't sell any any more , never sold much , I also haven't heard my furnace turn on once since I tested it in November.

I've never heard of selling firewood in "bags". How big is a bag?

Try marketing it to condo dwellers in a city. They pay crazy prices for firewood. I know that in Seattle the going rate is around $750 a cord (4x4x8), but in quarter cord quantities.

Try selling on WhatsApp or Craigslist, I also hear the Facebook Market Place is good for those types of sales.

The 36 inch Fisker's splitting axe is the best manual wood spitter you can get. You have to be very careful using the fiskars as they are much sharper than a maul and will often blow right through a log and can hit you in the feet. Gotta keep your feet spread apart good when facing the round to be split. Also the fiskars can sometimes bounce back at your face if you hit a hard piece of wood or a knot(I've come close to getting the back of the ax in the face more than once, and have seen others lose teeth from a bounce back. The fiskars handle can withstand over strikes without breaking the head off like a wood handle maul. I cut dead or dying oak in the fall and cut into 16 inch logs then wait till freezing weather to split it (it splits much easier when frozen) then stack it somewhere dry and use it the following year. Advertising on marketplace should get you business for face cords or cords. Also, if you get the 36 inch one, get the one with the all black handle not the one with the orange towards the end of the handle. That orange plastic/rubber over mold they put on that one makes the handle slick.the all black one is much grippier.

Get yourself a Fiskars and a tire on the chopping block and split to your heart's desire!

I've always split by hand except for the years I don't have time to process the five cords I burn each winter, then I by some that is already split and dried.

I've always used a variety of tools. I use a regular axe for most stuff, a maul for the bigger or knotty stuff, a monster maul or big wedges and a sledge hammer for the huge goonies.

I don't own the Fiskars axe but have a bunch of their other tools and they are all top quality. I would guess you won't go wrong with their axe.

I use a Stihl pickaroon for a variety of operations; pulling firewood out of the truck, loading splits off the ground into the wheelbarrow, picking blocks up onto the splitting stump.

I often see bags of firewood for sale at gas stations and convenient stores that are close to campgrounds. You could ask the store manager/owner if you could put a stack of bags in front of their store. Charge six dollars a bag and give the manager/owner a dollar for each bag sold.

I use a variety of Pickaroons and hookaroons some I made myself and some are commercial made. They are a back and time saver for sure. I wouldn’t and sometimes couldn’t work wood without them due to an iffy back. Menards sells a Pickaroon for 20 bucks now, it’s far from the best I’ve used but way better than working wood without one.

Also, imo I would invest in a gas powered splitter if you plan on supplying gas stations and heating wood for several homes. I doubt you will be able to keep up with those type of accounts splitting by hand. Too much business can be as bad as too little if your not prepared to handle it.

Good luck! Love your initiative!

A bundle of wood around here boils down to $1 per piece. Insane but money means nothing to the guys from the city.

I don't sell firewood but as far as selling goes, how close are you to campgrounds? Do you know anyone that has a place on the roads close to the campground where the out of towners have to go by? If you do and they'll let you, build a little small lean to/shed and get a couple pallets to set the wood bundles or bags on. Put up a lock box for the customers to drop the money in. Most will not steal from you and in most rural areas/small towns the honor system still works. There are several homes around here that sell firewood that way. Most of the roadside stands dont use bags they get a roll of stretchwrap and wrap the wood that way. See what is cheaper that works for you.
Also check with the stores that are in the campgrounds as most have them. They may bundle and sell their own wood or they may not. See what they say, if they don't do it themselves they probably have a supplier.

I live in a campground heaven. Right on the Mississippi river in a tourist area. I think half of Iowa comes here every weekend in the summer. City folk get to be annoying but I guess if I lived in their area of Iowa I'd want to get away too.

Get yourself a helko dosnt even compare to a fiskar an yeah if you want to sell more wood advertise common sense there

Another great option for an axe is Husky at home depot. Also lifetime guarantee. I bought one on the spur of the moment one day and it's been great. I know several people who love them too.

The way people sell wood here.... load your truck park next to major road have stacks displayed a wheelbarrow full and a truck full. People will pay extra if you deliver. Lots of people don't have the room in the cars for more than few bundles.

Remember, a long bed is a half cord