Wood Splitting Assist

I've never understood why people chop the pieces so small?

My uncle would have tanned our behinds if we split the wood up into such small pieces.
Sure for kindling but that is a very small amount of the woodpile.
 
I'm with Stu on the sizing, that block would of been split twice at the most here, & only once up at the camp, as we have a huge old 'Franklin' stove up there that could 'possibly' accept* that block whole if needed {*door size}.

I'm not as fit as I never was{lol} but I like the wedge & sledge splitting myself, good workout, and I feel a tad safer, only because I watched an uncle take off a couple of toes with an axe.

But it was a cool watch Ted, Thanks!


Edit: ^^^ Referring to your posted video Ted, not so much my uncles bit :rofl:
 
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I've never understood why people chop the pieces so small?

My uncle would have tanned our behinds if we split the wood up into such small pieces.
Sure for kindling but that is a very small amount of the woodpile.

He must just have a little stove, Stu. For my purposes (hungry, ineffecient, 30+ year old forced air furnace) I would split that size block in half, no more than quarters. As for splitting by hand, it's nice work on a fine winter day and the bunji and chain idea would save quite a bit of bending and re-positioning. I've seen people fix a tire to their chopping block for the same purpose.
 
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I like the tire idea, Peter.

When I was using it, my fireplace took three sizes: 5% dry kindling about 1/4" thick that I cut on the bandsaw from bowl blank offcuts and keep stored in the garage, then 15% of the size he is splitting in the video that went on after the kindling to get a good burn going, and then 80% the size of a third of the log in the video. The fireplace is was just for atmosphere and not heating the house so the fires were designed to last 2-3 hours and then quit. I think he's just cutting his kindling.
 
I haven't split wood in 60 years, but as I remember my dad's work (he did most of it 'cause 60 years ago I was pretty scrawny and just barely into my teens)... Like Frank said, we split Texas oak most of the time.... Dad used wedges and a wooden maul that he carved out of a length of oak log... split it twice along the check lines and get the next piece. Half the time our "kindling" was corn cobs and shucks... maybe soaked in kerosene.
 
Our fires are for warming up outside on nippy days, cooking a bit, or just socializing around. Happened that I had a big pecan log propped against another one planning to just burn those hard old logs that have been air drying for ten years. Playing around I diced it like an onion with my chainsaw, cut it into chunks about brick length or a bit longer and several times the size. Works great for a beautimus several hour fire and of course can keep throwing chunks on until an hour or two before we need the fire to die. My brother paid to have his new shop built so all we had to do was stand around the fire, drink coffee, and stir trouble! Mike heard one man say he would work for free if he could come stand at the fire awhile. Nice little 28x30x12h shop with two overhead doors lined up and a 12 foot overhang out front to sit under or possibly do a little work sometimes. That plastic garbage can is filled with the chunks and a few are tossed around. The saw noodles so much faster than I split wood that I'd rather noodle and the noodles make excellent tinder.

Hu

Low light, a cell phone, and overprocessing created the boogered up metal, it isn't really.
 

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Hu, That is one nice looking shop! Pecan usually turns as well as it burns, but I bet that dried stuff is hard as a rock.

Ted,

You probably know that the old pecan wood is often referred to as peconcrete. This last I cut was surprisingly moist inside all the way through. I stole a couple blocks to turn and am going to cut some more for turning as well as burning. I was going to try to just get rid of the logs but using them is seeming like more of an option. The first cuts off of one end, I wasn't sure if I needed a chainsaw or metal cutting equipment!

Hu
 
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