Senior citizen maul

[indiaxman1]

Right off, the hydraulic log splitter is the greatest invention for wood users/sellers...but way back, the 6 and 8 lb mauls, wedges & sledges, axes ruled
Sometimes the spirit still moves me to hand split....and I grab  a 3 1/2 lb swedish maul....certainly saves the old back and shoulders...and those Swedes make a heck of a product...so to all those over 60 woodsmen..who still want to swing some steel, and not strain some vital part, check it out

[Magicman]

Picture....link?

[Sprucegum]

I split by hand - more fun than golfing 

[sparky]

My friend's family has a deer hunting camp in Upper Michigan. Each year they meet at camp in October to clean the place for the upcoming deer season. One of the tasks is to split wood for the following year. One year, when the camp boss announced that it was time to tackle the wood splitting chores, his cousin excused himself to go to town to work out at a health club. Can you imagine that! What better exercise that to cut, split, and stack wood?

Sparky

[chucker]

?? yep ?? its a laughing matter.. some times on the way home from cutting wood and the truck is full of cut,split and stacked dry oak..... i get the oddest looks from people that are at the same stop lights as myself!! others are from joggers that shake their heads as in why would someone work that hard just to keep warm ??   just finished a job for a local state trooper whoses buildind a new home in the spring, he started to clear his lot ? but figured it was to much of a work out? go figure some people!! gotta love that 6 pound workout.

[Gary_C]

Is this some attempt at some Tom Sawyer trick? Cause I have tried that 3 1/2 lb one as well as that 6 lb one and they don't fit my hand too good. So I quit trying. 

[James P.]

well I am not a senior but aches and pains are not exclusive to the older folks.swinging a maul on good straight grained wood is fun. I spit by hand for 9 years heating with wood nothing else. I split alot of gum and went thru alot of maul handles. I occasionally had some descent wood but mostly gum. I love my little 5hp log splitter. I should have gotten one 10 years ago. I always felt I was being productive but now I no I am. I know alot of folks question the effort for wanting to cut firewood. My response to them is. You have to understand the warmth and satisfaction of the whole process. Plus being self reliant is more security than money. In my opinion

[Magicman]

So far, the best splitter that I have ever used had a motor hooked to it......

[Dodgy Loner]

Hopefully by the time I get too old to swing a maul, I'll have a son who's old enough to do it for me . I've probably sold a hundred cords of firewood over the years to earn a little winter time spending money, and every stick of it was split by hand. Not to mention the vast quantities of wood that I've split for myself over the years. It's really one of my favorite activities. Grandad knows he can cut his firewood and set it to the side and wait for me to pay him a visit. He doesn't even have to ask me to split it

[chucker]

 now your a "great " grandson !!in full respect.................

[James P.]

Dodgy, you left out wants to. 

[indiaxman1]

Whoa, James...gum is tough stuff...right up there with sycamore and elm....but you hit it right, the satisfaction and grunt pleasure of splitting (gets that stress out) just can't be grasped by some folk.......but when the ice storm hits.and the..lights go out, us stumpjumpers become genius...throw the oak/hickory on....there is that self-reliance and security money can't buy...really enjoyed all the feedback....don't feel like a dinosaur so much now

[Ironwood]

My best splitter, is an ole outdoor Oliver 36" bandsaw. Short cycle time, and fairly clean not to much debris except dust.  Everyone should have an outdoor saw. It's just under the overhang of my little loading dock. Basically unlimited legnth of cut

 




    Ironwood

[Lud]

I've had a Sotz Monster Maul since the 70's.   bugger packs a wallop.  Twenty years ago , Pop and my older brother were loading a small hydraulic unit and I was doing the John Henry with the Sotz and I beat  'em......but was whipped!  

I pull it out now and then.  better than sledges and wedges.


When all is said and done, I'm glad we have a gas well here at the farm.....

[mad murdock]

though I haven't reached the ranks of "old fart" yet, I prefer to split with a 14 lb maul, (mega-maul at http://www.baileysonline.com).  I read a tip in farmshow magazine about how to easily split wood, using old tires.  Stand up your rounds inside old tires, as they lay on the ground.  The tires act as a containment ring, you can split away, and not have to keep standing up the wood, speeds up splitting about 10 times over using a chopping block.  If you have young 'uns to load and unload your tires, all the more faster.  Last 2 years I have used about 5-7 cords of wood per heating season, and it took about 4 good saturdays to put up that much wood, with some help from my 2 boys doin the stacking.  I have used hydraulic log splitters, and prefer the maul over the splitter, unless the wood is particularly knotty, then you need the hydro power to bust those knots up.  Using the tires, I stack up about 8 at a time, load split and unload, can pile up a bunch of wood in a hurry.

[Dodgy Loner]

Great tip, murdock. I'll have to try the tire idea. Standing all the logs on end time after time is more tiring than actually splitting the logs.

[Tom]

Mad Murdock,
I have one of those mauls that I bought before the price got to be $50.   I got it back in the 1970's for about $10.  I liked it when my shoulders could take the strain.  'Course I liked the old standby lighter mauls too.  After a session with the big maul, the little ones were almost fun to use.

The problem with the big maul is that the handle is round and the head gets twisted (rather the handle twists in your hands).  I invented a remedy.

I taped a twig to the handle, such that my fingers were comfortable wrapped around it.  It didn't have to be big because its only purpose was for my mind to be trained as to which way the head of the maul was pointing.  When the tape (usually electricians tape) wore or broke, I just picked up the first available stick.  The one that seemed to be the most comfortable was about the size of a pencil.  I could feel it through a pair of gloves.  I usually tried to line it up with the sharp edge of the maul.  I used a piece of plastic tubing too. That works good and you an adjust the directions it runs to fit your fingers.  It doesn't have to be as long as both hands either.  I am right handed, so my right hand is at the bottom of the handle and it is what "learned" where the stick was.

I got the idea from riding my motorcycle in Enduros.  My hand was always slipping off, or getting tired on the throttle.  A piece of tubing taped to the handle made it non-slip.  I could even hold it with little pressure, which kept my forearm from cramping.  I found it was handy on my Touring bike too.

That's saying a lot to say a little, isn't it?

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Getting into the Tree Service Business, after the day job, then splitting wood after dark after the 2 jobs, got me thinking about my younger days at the County Fair, and watching a "Lickety Splitter", brand machine, split wood.

  Immediately, I started gathering stuff, and it was my very first attempt at building machines.

  Y'all can have all them Mauls. I did do quite a bit of swinging a 20# Sledge, in my very younger days. 

[Shotgun]

.  I am right handed, so my right hand is at the bottom of the handle and it is what "learned" where the stick was.

Do you bat cross handed too, Tom?     I'm right handed also, but my right hand is placed above my left hand whan using a mall.

Wondering how others do it. Below or above your left hand?

Norm

[Jeff]

Right hand above the left so I can steer the thing.