Against the huge piles left behind by the felled old man pine
Originally posted to mimismum.wordpress.com
My choice of weapon [5]
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Against the huge piles left behind by the felled old man pine
Originally posted to mimismum.wordpress.com
I could never master splitting. As a matter of fact, I am a very poor axeman … they called me “Lightning”: I never hit the same place twice.
I used to get so mad watching my dad split wood … he could spend all day, popping those logs apart with one blow, and all I could do was get my axe stuck. It would take me half an hour to work it out of the split. And don’t talk to me about wedges!
And the type is still greyed-out.
Yes. I have the same problem of not hitting the same place. I also have a problem with keeping the angle of axe blade vertical at impact. And of course, being a small person, I can’t raise the axe head as high as as when in hands of taller people; so it lacks momentum/speed at impact. I had a choice of buying a longer but not much heavier type, but wasn’t confident if I could handle it safely.
When I bought my first one some four – five years ago, I didn’t know the difference between felling axe and splitting axe (maul). So I chose the wrong one purely based on how balanced it felt when I held it horizontally (which is the totally wrong reason). When I finally learned about the difference several months ago, I checked out some splitting mauls at hardware store but didn’t feel confident if I could handle one safely. Then recently I found out this particular type of splitting axes had a much better design: axe head not much heavier than regular felling axes but more roundly shaped so less likely to stuck. A kind of hybrid between felling axe and splitting maul.
The old man might have looked beautiful in picture. But his wood is a pack of beast! Even smallish round of smaller boughs have many hidden knots, still giving me hard time splitting even with the new axe!
PS
I’m not seeing greying out of text. Is it bothersome?
Causes a lot of squinting and annoyance, but it’s basically readable.
The boys out West splittling mesquite (a very twisty wood) used dynamite on the thicker trunks, and just sawed up the smaller stuff. You might consider the purchase of a small chainsaw (even an electric one), or even a good bowsaw. A chainsaw would chew though a trunk section the long way pretty well.
Hmm. Not sure what’s causing the font colour to misbehave at your end. When did you start having the problem? I’m wondering if it has anything to do with my choice of theme.
I do have a small electric chainsaw. I’ve cut some rounds to halves & quarters and stack them up to make room. The bigger rounds are too heavy to move into a good sawing position and/or too thick for the short chainbar (so I have to cut out chunks from edge rather than cutting in the middle)
So basically I’ll wait until next summer for the big ones to dry out and became lighter. If they develop good cracks, I may try driving wedge first.
I’ll start by saying I’m not having any trouble with your WordPress theme. Nothing is grayed out. I didn’t know that there were different axes for splitting and felling. We have an axe in our garage that I haven’t used in ages, and I don’t know which of the two types it is.
A felling axe has curved handle and head is thinner and wider along edge, while splitting axe has straight, longer handle and thicker head.
Just spent another afternoon splitting. I think I’m getting the hang of splitting axe swinging.
I also had to spend some time with chainsaw cutting some “rounds” as they were too long and too knotty for me to split. I’ve pretty much done most manageable pieces (not too big, not too knotty) for now, but made a big mess by collapsing the stacked wood to hunt for manageable ones. Now I have to clear the woodshed and stack the split wood properly as well as re-stack the collapsed pile of unmanageable pieces.
If you want to see what it’s like now, go to http://mimismum.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=78 (Not sure how to put pics in comment or if such a thing is possible. MyOpera was so great in small things like that.)
PS
Ah! Once I’ve posted the comment, then I can open “Edit comment” page and add image from there. Let’s see ..
Hey, MM … What’s going on? I know it’s coming on winter there, but that should give you some time indoors. Are you OK? I know you’re in pretty good shape, but all that axe work could pose some problems.