biggest round split by hand

[spitter]

This is for hand splitters only .What is the biggest round you guys ever did by hand?I get tons of free wood all the time its always from my friends with splitters that dont want to pick up large butts [that don't sound right]:laughingr one's that were bucked to long.I have a plethra of wedges especially like the stihl aluminum one that I got last year.Its kinda soft and it gets beat up from the 30# sledge and at 50$ its kinda pricy but it works great .Bought it for my son for his birthday and a bk9 he loved it .I also like the old wood grenede Its about 30 years old and i split alot of big sh/' with it. Last load had some red oak 3' across and 2' long thats going to be fun thank god the kids are getting older and we can make a race out of it to bad im getting older to.For regular sized stuff i use the stihl splitting maul I like the best had others wood and fiberglass but they just wern't balanced right. the absolute worst thing someone gave me was a maul with a steel handle .Vibrate the freaken filllings out of head.:thumbdown:Ok happy paul bunyan day everyone!!!!:drink:

 

[square1]

48" x 5' long red oak into 5 pieces with a 3/4 swing of my X27
and your blue ox too!

 

[Baby Grand]

While I was struggling to pay for engineering school, a friend told me about a friend who wanted a tree dropped, cut and split for fire wood. Sounded like more fun than doing my geek homework, so I took the job. It was an old, white oak, about 34 - 36" at chest height. It must have been the only tree growing in a clearing that had grown in to become woods, owing to it's squat, sturdy trunk and broad, symmetric crown. With some effort I was able to drop it with a borrowed Jonsereds with an 18" bar. Blocking went smoothly, but I discovered that the grain of the trunk was twisted at what seemed to be a 45 degree angle - never seen anything like it, before of since. This meant the wedge had to enter the round at a fair angle, which caused the round to jump around when struck by the sledge. It also spit the wedge out with maddening regularity. Needless to say, the job took forever. I think I later figured that I made about $1.30 an hour on that one.

 

[peterc38]

Probably about 32-34" Red Oak for me with a Fiskars Super Splitter. it was very straight grained , no knots at all.

 

[Oaktree]

I never could split wood worth beans with a maul. Before I got a splitter it was a sledgehammer and wedges. Probably largest I ever split was a couple maples 30" +/-.

 

[s219]

Around 30" with my Fiskars X27. For big stuff, I normally work around the outside.

 

[atsah]

I watched my dad for years split 4 foot hickory logs with an ax, two wedges and a 12 pound sledge hammer, 30 cord per year to be exact, stacked them in a row and cut them in the fall with a PTO cordwood saw off the back of a International 350.. He was tough..

 

[spitter]

Do them fiskars work on knoty spirally grained crap wood?I never realy liked any tool with plastic or fiberglass handles:thumbdown: Just don't feel right in my hands . Mostly by them for my kids because they destroy my good wood onesDon't touch daddy's tools.Or babe the blue ox's food!!!!:drink:

 

[s219]

Do them fiskars work on knoty spirally grained crap wood?I never realy liked any tool with plastic or fiberglass handles:thumbdown: Just don't feel right in my hands . Mostly by them for my kids because they destroy my good wood onesDon't touch daddy's tools.Or babe the blue ox's food!!!!:drink:

The Fiskars is a completely different animal, with a completely different construction. The idea is to have a light (partially hollow) handle, with all weight focused at the head. And the handle is very long, especially on the X27. So compared to a normal splitting axe or maul, you can build up a much faster swing with higher velocity at the head. That's what allows something with such a small and relatively light head to split so well. You can dig up some older threads (search on X27) so see how many skeptics have become believers. It's a pretty amazing tool. I know I will never go back to a maul or wedges.

In terms of knotty wood, I'd say the Fiskars has the same limitations of a maul. My biggest challenge is normally oak crotches or pieces with big bowls. I normally give it a try, and will split what I can, but no splitting tool can work a miracle on that type of grain, especially crotches. If I can't make progress with the splitter, I will put that piece aside and just saw it later on. Ends up being a more productive way to use my time.

As far as durability, my X27 is going on about 4 years old, and seems to be holding up just fine. I have had more than a few overstrikes, and the handle shows no sign of stress/strain. It seems to be molded around the head, so it will take a lot to break that arrangement.

 

[gladehound]

48" give or take. Many different types of wood using a cheap home depot splitting mal. (I was younger then). Just work around the outside and it seems just about anything can be split if as long as the grain isn't all twisted up.