McMoonter, a DIY splitter would be ideal, except:
1. I have no idea where to source cheap metal bits (I’m in NZ, not UK)
2. I don’t have welding equipment
3. I can’t weld
4. Taking into account how much I faff during projects like this, and how much spare time I have to build one, it would take years.
I watched a few youtube videos of manual splitters and they certainly are slow, but seem to do the job.
Northwind – Member
Those manual splitters are seriously slow- good for doing problem logs and quite satisfying (though really twisted logs kind of explode rather than splitting, has the potential for trouble!) but I wouldn’t want to do a lot of splitting that way.
I actually quite enjoy chopping wood by hand, so I think this might be the route I end up taking – getting a cheap manual splitter for the tough stuff but doing the majority by hand.
I might even look into renting a powered splitter for a few hours once I’ve done everything I can do by hand.