[Closed] Axe reinvented?

Gotta love the tyre chopping block. Anyone who hasn't tried it and splits a lot of wood should do it. Transformed my winter splitting activities... 5x faster than without one.

Jury's out on the axe. Like to try it myself though.....

Seen it before looks ok on straight grained wood, don't know about knotty stuff though. I bet it plays havoc with wrists and forearms until you remember to relax your grip!

Is there a left-handed version?

Looks much easier than the 7lb splitting maul I was using all day yesterday (desk-jockey during the week, so feeling it today!)

Unfortunately only about 20% of my wood is knot-free like the bits he's chopping 🙁 Some of it has defeated me and will instead be dissected with a chainsaw next weekend.

The tyre trick looks good - half of the effort seems to go on picking split wood off the floor, but I'd need a truck tyre for some for the bits I'm splitting...

Not sure about the fancy axe, but well impressed with the tyre concept 🙂

The tyre trick looks good. The axe looks functional, but as said above he's using it on straight grained logs. Since I made my hydraulic splitter my maul has sat unused in the shed. I have no regrets. 😀

It looks axe-ceptional and right at the cutting edge. Not sure most will want to chop and change though. Heavier than normal? Could require a fair bit of lumbering up....

I reckon that axe will give you blisters and or borked wrists really quickly...

Where can I get an old tyre?

Actually I am due for new ones soon, can you just ask to keep them? dont you actually have to pay for disposal anyway?

they will give you tyres for nothing as they have to pay to get them taken away

I kept mine at Kwik Fit or similar and it was a nightmare as the bill autocharged me £1 for disposal of the tyres I took away

IS that axe not a solution to a problem that does not exist?

Showing chopping on straight [ i will guess its not a proper hardwood either] is a bit pointless

If you do a lot get a hydraulic splitter is my advice

Anyone used one of these, or similar:
[img] [/img]?

Powered ones are mucho expensivo, and not worth the outlay considering I could really do it all by hand, given enough time. Some tougher bits are a real bugger though, especially knotty ones. The one pictured is a 10t splitter, so is it too puny? Or would it be too time consuming compared to a powered one?

I think that manual hydraulic spltter would be slower than a glacier. The most expensive part of a powered splitter is the power/ hydraulic part. I made mine in a couple of afternoons, my old grey Fergie's hydraulics weren't up to the job so I found a second hand hydraulic power pack on eBay for about £250. All in with the ram, valves and hoses it probably cost between £5-600. I've split a mountain of wood with it.

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/mcmoonters-scrap-heap-challenge-log-splitter

[img] [/img]

Yes, looks great with that nice fast-grown straight-grained softwood but how would it cope with a gnarly knotty branchey piece of English beech, birch, oak or ash?

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.

That axe would definitely give you sore wrists after an hour or so.

Gotta admit though, I take perverse pleasure in taking far too long and using too many wedges in splitting those really awkward pieces. I take non-splitting personally 🙂

An old boy up the valley has got an old Macgyvered splitter like mcmoonter's one (though not as nice) - it's ace, except when it decides to fire out the tough pieces at random angles at around a million MPH.

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.

Since I made my hydraulic splitter my maul has sat unused in the shed. I have no regrets.

Since getting my screw splitter the splitting maul is redundant and I actually enjoy splitting wood now!
[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8111/8660677578_1103770950_c.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8111/8660677578_1103770950_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/59103763@N08/8660677578/ ]Splitter & 4230[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/59103763@N08/ ]Metal-Chicken[/url], on Flickr

That axe up there just looks weird!

hnmmm, splitting maul £10

PTO tracteeeeerrrr & hydo splitter £££££££ 🙁

Anwyway, Im still only splitting coppice poplar so I dont need anything serious. I will certainly do the tyre thang. And I have a new Grunsfors for one handed splitting which works fine for <12" poplar.