[Greenbuilding] Splitting wood

[YankeePerm at aol.com]

OK, I can't stand it, I'll chime in again.   I really tried to forebear!

First, I don't have a name for my maul, but it is a small one (6 lb.) and it 
has an unusual head.   The blade is narrow and sharp but after about an inch 
or so rapidly spreads out.   It does a much better job than my 8 lb. maul, and 
of course my ordinary 6 lb. maul.

People who split logs in four whacks are splitting easy wood.   I have a 
chunk of wood right now, by my woodshed, that is no thicker than four inches, and 
maybe roughly 8 inches in diameter.   I've split everything possible from it.  
 I'll now have to chainsaw it up by hand, which is tricky as the wood tends 
to pull into the saw and jam the blade.   A wood splitter would have taken this 
log full length.   We have oak trees here that are harder to split than elm, 
maybe 3 times as hard.   I can cut them into nuggets with the chain saw, not 
entirely a safe operation and using too much fuel and causing too much 
pollution.   I could spit them quickly with a mechanical splitter.   

One other point about splitting with mauls.   (I was splitting 14 cords a 
year back in the early 70s.)   The two most important factors in splitting are 
accuracy and speed of the maul.   Remember:   F = MV(squared).   It is easier to 
swing a lighter maul fast than a heavy one.   Same formula backwards.

An experienced wood cutter will also cut the lengths so that they are easy to 
split.   If you cut just below a limb, and trim it flush, often you can get 
that split from the limb end of the log on the first stroke.   You split that 
limb knot right down the middle.  Since we only need a small cook stove, which 
provides all the winter heat we can stand, I end up doing a lot of splitting 
even though I doubt that I go through two cords of wood here in Florida. But 
almost all of it is spit.   I try to cut from my woodlot areas material that 
needs no more than one split, but most of our wood comes from windfalls.   I 
filled half the woodshed with one branch that came down a month ago.   This 
particular kind of oak splits hard but not impossibly hard, except where there are 
knots.   But it took two weeks during the cool of the day (2 hours in the a.m.) 
just for the splitting, after it was cut up.   A splitter would have done the 
job in one morning.   Then I could use the time planting my fall garden.

DH 



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