whats your favorite splitting axe?

[rbuck351]

I was splitting wood with a normal splitting maul when my wife came home from a shopping spree. She told me to look in the back seat of the car. She had bought a 5 ton electric log splitter. After a quick look I asked her if it was some kind of joke. I had to eat a bit of humble pie as it turned out to be a very good splitter. That was ten or twelve years ago and it's all I use now.

I built a stand to set it on about chair height and I use it while sitting in a chair. I don't have much hard wood in my area so most firewood is pine, fir, larch or spruce. It has worked well on the little hard wood I have used it on. It was $250 very well spent.

[Hannibal]

The kind I like the best is the one someone else is using....LOL

This echoes my thoughts precisely.

[Markopolo]

That monster maul looks heavy…. I don’t know how long I could swing something like that. That’s what I love the fiscars. It is light enough to swing for hours, and strong enough for old growth trees.

[Mk42gunner]

I've never really found an axe that totally satisfies me for splitting; it seems like all the ones I find around here are built for chopping.

Robert

[justindad]

Stack multiple logs up inside a car tire, so they’re held together while you split them.
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If you can’t split the log in the first cut, stick a wedge in the cut and drive that with the blunt end of the maul. The wedge is amazing.
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Make kindling by using a hatchet as a wedge, and smack the back of the hatchet with a 2lb mallet.
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Don’t use an axe, unless you’re cutting the tree down.

[NyFirefighter357]

Years ago we used a Monster Maul, it had a huge wedge shaped head, and a steel pipe for a handle. I think it was sold by the Sotz company, that made those barrel stove kits. Probably out of business by now. It was only used on the worst piece of elm or big cottonwood. Now I would like to try one of those screw style splitters.

I have both these items. The screw splitter was called the stickler, it's in my garage attic. The Monster maul I got from my friend. I use the maul a couple times a year for fire pit wood but that stickler hasn't seen a log in 40yrs. It's in the original box with 2 size mounting plates. If I split more than a few logs I use a gas splitter.

[Alstep]

I've been using one similar to that described in post #14. Around these parts we call it a "go devil".
My father bought it around 1950 and we're still using it. The handle's been cut down to around 2 feet long. Makes it a lot handier.
The go devil has been retired since I've been retired, and replaced with a 28 ton hydraulic machine. That thing will go through the nastiest piece of hardwood with ease.

[ulav8r]

The good things about the 12 LB monster maul is that it won't stick and you don't have to swing it. Just get it vertical above your head and give it a slight push down. I quit splitting wood about 25 years ago.

[trebor44]

Harbor Freight "axe" makes for a great splitting "maul". Not something I would call an axe for cutting down a tree etc. Note: it would be lightweight and you could 'baton' it with a 'mashie' (small sledge)!

[white eagle]

I have a 27 ton Hurricane that I use
however when I do pick up and ax I use a double bit most of the time

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Depends on the wood. I mostly use an 8lb maul with a fiberglass handle. I like the fact I can leave it by the tree I am working on, and split a few rounds when I have a little time. Nice that you can also bang a wedge with it, if needed.

I do have a small forest axe I use from time to time. Not sure why, but sometimes the narrow profile and higher speed just seem to do the trick, especially in cherry.

I tried a “Chopper” axe, the results were dramatic, as the wings sent the wood flying, but it didn’t seem any easier and transferred more shock to my hands than a maul.

I’ve heated my house with hand split (by me) for nearly 20 years. I’ll keep doing it by hand for as long as I can. I refer to it as my “gym membership”. I recently added storm windows and weather stripping to hopefully reduce the amount I need to split each year.

[Misery-Whip]

As long as your wood isnt twisted, or big knots, or soaking wet here is a 3rd vote for the fiskars splitting axe. Its actually engineered, with a light head and long handle I dont have trouble swinging it all day. I get more tired from bending over than swinging this axe. Every well placed swing in good wood is a split.

Start getting into big knots it doesnt have the weight to plow thru. Then the 8lb maul, the wedges and the real work starts.

[Rapier]

I use log splitter wedgs and a 10# sledge- mall with a 12 # sledge hammer. But any more, now 76 after open heart, at the new house I use the remote control and the fancy gas logs. I hooked up gas to the new fire place. It is much easier.

[georgerkahn]

well friends its about time to get the woodshed filled for winter. do any of you have a favorite splitting axe design or does everyone just use a gas driven hydraulic splitter. ive got a real good pile of oak and hickory trees dried out and ready to be bucked and split. as the weather cools a bit its time to get to it.
several years ago I got this hybrid design splitting maul with about a 1/2" rib coming up through the sides that has worked pretty good.

I've been heating with wood since 1976. I started with hand splitting Stihl cut wood, using a bevy of "splitters" ranging from mauls to wedges to pointy-cone devices to even one which attaches to a tractor wheel and spins to engage/split. After a decade I invested in a DR Electric which worked remarkably well. Almost simultaneously with it getting tired, a colleague at work was being divorced and wanted to turn many of his "toys" into cash -- so I got quite the deal on a TroyBilt 27 ton Honda-powered gasoline splitter. This is my "main-stay". However, I still use a Gransfor Bruks maul -- 'specially when I cut one or two trees and do not wish to bother getting out (from shed where it has been run out of fuel and sprayed with silicon) the TroyBilt. A note which may be a good hint for those who hadn't -- I have an automobile tire lying on it's side and stand the wood to be split in it. If I "miss" the maul hits the ribber tire side -- no foul!; and, when the wood is successfully split it doesn't fly all over -- making the job quicker. From the photo you can see the Granfor Bruks has a metal protector on handle, too. A tad costly -- BUT -- imho, compared with more than four decades of "trying everything"... it is (to me) the best.

[atr]

A "Plumb", single edge

[imashooter2]

An 8 pound maul with fiberglass handle from the Home Depot. Best balance between head speed and momentum for me.

[GregLaROCHE]

^^^+1^^^ I was going to say the one in my brothers hands.

I enjoy work. I can watch it all day long!

[Milky Duck]

true temper canadian
plum
a hydrolic splitter is great..but an old school hand axe is a wonderful thing.
that block of wood that is just too big to fit in fire can be sorted with a couple of strokes .wouldnt want to have to crank up a motor to do that.

[bedbugbilly]

I used a splitting mall for years as well as a wedge if needed.

Now these days - my "favorite" is the one somebody else is using.

[brass410]

after cutting and splitting semi-truck loads of log firewood for 35 yrs I got a wood proccesser, cuts splits and dumps to a pile, best thing I have done, in two days I can do what used to take nearly 2 weeks.