Winkler Axes

[WDW]

Winkler is good. If you want heirloom quality, check this guy out. His stuff is spectacular at an awesome price http://www.north-river-custom-knives.com

[Cookie Monster]

You split more than I do, as we only use a couple cords a year. 6 cords by hand these days is good work.

When we lived in MT, splitting big wood was pretty easy, but here in the mid west, the wood is much more difficult to split. I have been thinking about a splitter...just not sure I want to commit to that, and I have no idea which one to look at right now.

I am on the edge of needing a splitter. I treat splitting wood as a gym workout so it keeps me off the streets and out of the Crossfit gyms which is good. I have had some late fall days where I am trying to get the wood in and split wood for 6 or so hours with the next day being unable to lift my arms. Most of my stuff is lodgepole pine and Douglas fir and I keep my rounds at 14 or 15 inches although my stoves will take 18 or 20 inch stuff.

I also view splitting axes and mauls as sort of having a golf bag equivalent, the right iron for the shot/drive/putt.

A good splitter is going to cost but this is the one (or the one model up), make sure to get the log cradles:

http://www.timberwolfcorp.com/tw-p1-log-splitter/

It is my future. We heat with wood both the shop and the house.

[SLG]

I am on the edge of needing a splitter. I treat splitting wood as a gym workout so it keeps me off the streets and out of the Crossfit gyms which is good. I have had some late fall days where I am trying to get the wood in and split wood for 6 or so hours with the next day being unable to lift my arms. Most of my stuff is lodgepole pine and Douglas fir and I keep my rounds at 14 or 15 inches although my stoves will take 18 or 20 inch stuff.

I also view splitting axes and mauls as sort of having a golf bag equivalent, the right iron for the shot/drive/putt.

A good splitter is going to cost but this is the one (or the one model up), make sure to get the log cradles:

http://www.timberwolfcorp.com/tw-p1-log-splitter/

It is my future. We heat with wood both the shop and the house.

What about the DR stuff? Very fast cycle time.

Does that Timberwolf go vertical as well? How much is it?

[Cookie Monster]

Looking at between $2,200 to $3,000 depending on what you can find. The one step up in the Timberwolf line goes vertical. With the Honda engine it is something that I would definitely consider possible to buy used although you don't see many of them.

I am not familiar with the DR log splitters.

[JV_]

Other than a splitter, what's the best setup for chopping up an elm, for firewood?

[Chuck Whitlock]

I'm definitely out of my lane here, but if you're looking for efficiency instead of exercise:

[Drang]

Other than a splitter, what's the best setup for chopping up an elm, for firewood?

My father would say "A teenage son."

[Maple Syrup Actual]

My father would say "A teenage son."

That worked for my dad. By the time I was 10, he'd managed to assign himself nothing more strenuous than "tool maintenance duty" which was sharpening all the saws (which to be fair he's absolutely excellent at - you wouldn't believe how sharp our bow saws were) and knocking the mushrooming off all the wedges with a cold chisel once every couple of months.

Which actually reminds me: as a kid I did a ton of splitting (literally at least a ton of wood a year, mostly gary oak and bigleaf maple) with wedges and a sledge.

The nice part is you're not swinging a big bladed weapon around. If you screw up by, say, swinging the sledge in your front yard underneath the hazelnut trees with their springy branches that are apparently lower than you thought and the handle catches on a branch and launches backwards and hits you in the kidney...well, you're bruised up. But if you'd have been using the double-bit like you were before your mom yelled at your dad and your dad yelled at both of you and smashed the edges of the good double-bit into the concrete block at the end of the driveway, wrecking it in a fit of rage and then chucking it at the wood pile and warning you to have the rest of the wood done by the time he came home and then heading out to fish the salt chuck, well, you'd have needed stitches and maybe surgery. I'm not sure if that particular situation is 100% universal but anyway, points to ponder.

The only thing to watch with wedges is that the striking surfaces will mushroom out and make these little shrapnel bits that blow off unpredictably when struck sometimes, so you have to take a chisel and knock them off once in a while.

But you can split some really tough wood that way.

[Drang]

...The only thing to watch with wedges is that the striking surfaces will mushroom out and make these little shrapnel bits that blow off unpredictably when struck sometimes, so you have to take a chisel and knock them off once in a while.

My mother was an ICU nurse.
So when I came in the house to clean up the spot where the splinter of metal from the wedge was stuck in my shin and she asked me what was wrong and I said "I need a bandaid" she teleported into the half-bath by the back door.
"DON'T EVER SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!"
I guess she thought I had missed with the axe...

[FLC Knives]

Sounds like good exercise anyways guys
I used to split wood for a boss with a splitting maul welded to the end of a piece of schedule 40 pipe. He said it was better than breaking handles......