Hi All.

I’ve got 3 metric **** tonnes (approx.) of wood to split. I’ve got a decent splitting axe and I can get through a tyre’s worth of wood fairly quickly, but it’s occasionally bit faffy depending on the wood and fairly hard work with the splitting and the carrying and the stacking.

I can hire one a Camon Turbo 7 for a day for about £35. Any bigger and it would be tricky to transport, and 30cms breadth is the absolute max I’ve got to split, so it’s probably the right size for what I’m using it for.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJoayf-LDSU[/video]

It looks fairly pedestrian though. I don’t know if I’d get through the wood any quicker, and although it would be less effort splitting, I’ve still got to carry and stack. If it’s still going to take a 2-3 days, I’d rather not spend the money and just fit in a few hours with the axe when I can.

Any experience?

Ta!

The big advantage of them is accurate splitting, which means better stacking and sizing the logs to your wood burner. And the saved effort, which doesn’t really bother me, as it’s a good core workout, and you still have to bend down to pick the logs up.

Me and a mate halved in for a 200 quid effort from screwfix, been a good investment.

I suggest you watch the Rocky IV training montage before you spend any money on a wood splitter.

Length needs to be right for the wood burner, but I can’t say I’m that bothered about accurate splitting, I’m happy with some being up to twice as big as others. Any bigger and I ‘ll split them again. Any smaller and I’ll put them in the pile for kindling. They seem to stack fine with what I’ve done so far, and what I’ve got left is more uniform than what I’ve done.

Unless I don’t know what I’m missing with uniformly split logs? Got an open fire at the moment. Burner going in shortly.

jon. Good point well made, I do want to punch people more effectively.

That’s pretty slow! I lot depends on what wood you’re splitting – if it’s arb waste then there could be all sorts in there and knotty wood is going to make the splitting pretty painful. Nice straight wood and you’ll prob be fine with an axe.
I get deliveries of some pretty big, knotty stuff so i went and bought a 22 ton petrol splitter which makes me smile!

Unless I don’t know what I’m missing with uniformly split logs?

Nothing really if your logs are 30cm max as they’ll be tricky to stack nicely anyway!

Mostly laurel, 10-25cms thick, mostly straightish. Some holly, straight, but knotty as hell.

Stacks OK, but I guess I’m not going to be building world class holz hauzen with it.

I’ll stick with the axe for now. Ta. It’s going to take **** ages. will probably take a day or more to cut to length with a chainsaw, never mind the chopping. Sorry neighbours!

Get a sawhorse that holds multiple logs off eBay (or make your own). Couldn’t imagine not using mine now – must be many times faster than doing it a piece at a time. Just processed a van full of branches in a couple of hours last week in fact, the cutting up was only a fraction of that time.

That splitter looks like a complete waste of time and money. An axe and tyre would be far quicker.

Just bought a 4 tonne jobbie (Clarke version, but they all look pretty similar in that price range). Brilliant bit of kit and that’s from a die-hard-axe-traditionalist! Faster and more accurate than an axe in my opinion. I split about a tonne and a half of mixed chestnut, oak and beech on sunday and didn’t pick up the maul once.

Two things that he doesn’t do in the video above – set it on the right height table (back breaker otherwise) and set the return stop (stops the ram returning the full length if you’re only doing short logs – makes it much faster to operate).

Get a sawhorse that holds multiple logs off eBay (or make your own)

Good shout. An hour or two making one would quickly pay the time back.

Or way less than that: 8 stakes banged into the ground in pairs, slinged together at the tops, 2 big rounds between them to support the logs. hello time savings.

Thanks thecaptain! I’d have been doing them one by one in the end-grab log holder I carved into a 5″ tree stump.

Have a beer.

dashed. hmmm.

Pretty sure I’d get through more in an hour with an axe, but maybe I’d do more in a day with the splitter given the effort required.

Your wood looks pretty chunky, though. I can see a splitter being definitely worth it for the length and the girth you have (fnar). Most of mine splits in one blow. Think I’ll crack on with the axe for now.