I’ve got a pile of logs to split but I’m old and lazy, so I want something electric to do the job with ease. Nothing massively expensive, maybe £150ish.
Small enough to pop in the shed too.

Cheers in advance. 🙂

Any splitter you can buy for £150 would need wood so kind, it would be quicker and less effort to split it with an axe. If the wood is so hard to split that swinging an axe is hard work you are going to need serious hydraulic pressure to split it.

Failing that make your own DIY splitter. A few nice examples on Youtube 🙂

Mind you, this one is actually quite a good idea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGGH4XKNULU

Save your money and get some exercise splitting logs is great fun. Use a splitting maul not an axe axes are for chopping.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-splitting-maul-8lb/87268#

I’ve always found wood handles to be kinder to the the hands and wrists. It may be to do with tools that are only used occasionally, and perhaps a result of being older, but I’ll never buy or use a fibreglass-handled maul again.

A mate and I halved in for the 200 quid one on toolstation.com, fantastic wee splitter, can’t recommend it enough. Really worth getting the stand too, as it means not spending the whole time bent over.

A sub £150 log splitter will be painfully slow and possibly harder work than using a maul or axe.
I use one of these for the smaller straight stuff

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0001IWPE0

And a maul for bigger rings
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6LB-LOG-SPLITTING-CHOPPER-WOOD-MAUL-AXE-ORANGE-FIBREGLASS-SHAFT-RUBBER-HANDLE-/390799299570?pt=UK_Collectable_ToolsHasdware_RL&hash=item5afd7413f2

The smaller axe does 90% of what I need and is much nicer to use because it’s so much lighter.

Alko khs 5200

Outside your desired price but a good worker

I’ve always found wood handles to be kinder to the the hands and wrists.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ToNZSkmRg[/video]

I’ve got a splitting grenade and sledge hammer you can borrow Pete. You’ll be surprised how effective it is.

I’ve got the 8lb Maul Drac linked to above. You’d be surprised how easy it is. Half the time you can just let it fall onto the log. Hit it in the right place and it’s a doddle.

Plus it’s proper mans work.

You will strut like at no other time after splitting logs with a tool the wife can’t pick up.

/snigger

Splitting mawl is the way to go – it’s as destructive and macho as the chainsaw but just less noisy. I bought one with a plastic handle and took it straight back the next day, it was completely unfit for purpose.

What I enjoy about the mawl is that it WILL split any wood no matter how knotty – it just takes patience and a little skill in reading the direction of the grain.

Note for stove lovers: I dropped in to see my supplier yesterday and found him sitting depressed in his Landy staring at a mahoosive pile of split, unsold logs. The warmer winter combined with the storm damage means there’s an over-supply, so now would be a good time to try for a “three bags for two” offer or something similar.

@ drac – and girly thin wrists too. A five-pound felling axe with a hickory shaft is butch enough for me. Plus there’s an engineering thing, mass times velocity squared, that maybe makes a lighter tool more efficient because it’s faster.

@ drac – and girly thin wrists too. A five-pound felling axe with a hickory shaft is butch enough for me. Plus there’s an engineering thing, mass times velocity squared, that maybe makes a lighter tool more efficient because it’s faster.

+1 see the first link in my post above. Good for 90% of my splitting needs.

Hickory is recommended for striking tools for its shock absorbtion qualities and durability.

This is my weapon of choice: Gränsfors Bruks Splitting Maul

A joy to use and will split anything even rounds with junctions between major branches.

splitter maul, hickory shaft, mine was about £30 from local DIY shop.

a session with that and you don’t need the stove!!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPDwyghLRgs[/video]

Maul here also, less than a tener from the local DIY shop, I use a splitting bomb for knots which has been less than 10% of the wood.

I don’t get it. Have got a maul, and it is fine if I want to spend all weekend splitting logs. – but I don’t, I’ve got grey things to do to fill my shallow existence.

The last time we got a drop of logs from the tree surgeon they dropped two loads (4 tonne pick up) of split rounds, and we filled 15 dumpy bags with the unsplit timer. No way would I tackle those volumes with a maul….but I’m only a slip of a lad…

Surely someone out there has a splitter…….

Axminster tools do one for £210

Get an 8lb splitter like the one linked by drac, much better than a 6lb one.
The heavy bits with cross grain that wont split I just cut with chainsaw.

I don’t get it. Have got a maul, and it is fine if I want to spend all weekend splitting logs. – but I don’t,

What’s wrong with you man?

Splitting logs with a maul is what men were invented for!

The heavy bits with cross grain that wont split I just cut with chainsaw.

Everything will split with a maul, it just takes a bit more effort!

Everything will split with a maul, it just takes a bit more effort!

Nope. I had some big rings (70cm x 50cm) from some damn conifer type thing and where every branch came off the trunk there was in internal cone of wood twisted into the centre of the trunk. I had huge problems with these even with this
[url=https://flic.kr/p/ecjeHd]Splitter & 4230[/url]