[Telos]

No more than a two stage jack on a rail generating ten tons of pressure, I consider these an essential labor saver, and much safer than a splitting maul. My current one has been the workhorse in the wood lot for the past three years (no complaints), Nor do they require fuel, or electricity, and are transportable. Just toss it in the back of the truck and go.

They also make it easy to split starters...

 

[Horned One]

I got my wife one of these:

She uses it to split kindling and smaller logs inside in the winter. She's not really safe when swinging a hatchet or axe.

 

[JonoUNC89]

These would be great after SHTF.

Think of all the calories you would NOT burn (i.e. food you would not consume) as opposed to splitting with axe/maul.

You could potentially save tons of stored food over time.

Probably less noise than using an axe/maul as well??

 

[charliemeyer007]

I have seen the horizonal one work but with out gas for the chainsaw and truck wood is low on my list to cut split and haul.

 

[Hodawg]

Interesting looking splitter. What is the name/maker/model #, or do you have a link?

Beers y'all,
Ken

 

[Horned One]

Axe splitting isn't that loud and the manual mechanical splitter takes longer, but yes, it would likely save calories.

 

[Al Diehl]

My Dad had 2 manual wood splitters....Me and my brother!

Al

 

[Hawkgirl70]

No more than a two stage jack on a rail generating ten tons of pressure, I consider these an essential labor saver, and much safer than a splitting maul. My current one has been the workhorse in the wood lot for the past three years (no complaints), Nor do they require fuel, or electricity, and are transportable. Just toss it in the back of the truck and go.

They also make it easy to split starters...

My husband and I have been talking about buying something.

Where did you get that? Do you have a price? A link?

Kathy

 

[MattB4]

My husband and I have been talking about buying something.

Where did you get that? Do you have a price? A link?

Kathy

You can get it at Harbor Freight. I have had mine for about 2 years now. It is a handy wood splitter but not terribly fast. You want to watch HF price so that you get it for under $100 when on special or with percent off coupons. It is not for those people needing a lot of wood split quickly.

Read the reviews on it.

 

[Dixielee]

We got ours from Harbor Freight too...great splitter!! However if you are able to "toss" it into the truck, you must be superman!: That thing is very heavy! We just keep ours on a little trailer on back of the 4 wheeler so we can head to the woods with it. Very sturdy and reliable piece of equipment, I would also highly recommend it.

With 2 people it goes even faster. My husband would load the wood onto the splitter, I would split it, he would remove the pieces and reload, I split and repeat process! :thumb:

 

[smokinthelast1]

Takes to long for the amount of wood I use in a year. Guess you would be doing 2-4 cords a year?

 

[Telos]

I split 8 - 10 cords a year with this splitter with little effort. An hour or two every evening starting in the spring, and ending in the fall, and I'm set...kinda nice in the cool of the evening listening to tunes while you work....

Now, to back up the chain saw, use a one man cross cut saw...good for logs 6 to 8 inches in diameter....here's a link

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2003092/226/One-Man-Crosscut-Saw.aspx

add a saw buck, and a timberjack, and you're good to go, as well as no longer dependant on gasoline, and 50:1 mix.....

 

[BetterSafe]

Got one that looks just like it at Northern Tool - on sale and with a coupon was about $100. I have used it and it works well enough - the only issue I have is that it can only take logs 18" or shorter

 

[ackbob]

I have one and got it off of Northern Tool -- no issues with it and been using it for 3 or 4 years. think the maximum length is either 16 or 18 inches so do note that

 

[SnakeRanch]

My neighbor gave me one a year ago cause he found it too slow and more work than the axe. Me too. I gave it to a friend and he welded on a couple of plates and made it into a press. Makes a good little bearing press...

 

[smokinthelast1]

I split 8 - 10 cords a year with this splitter with little effort. An hour or two every evening starting in the spring, and ending in the fall, and I'm set...kinda nice in the cool of the evening listening to tunes while you work....

Now, to back up the chain saw, use a one man cross cut saw...good for logs 6 to 8 inches in diameter....here's a link

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2003092/226/One-Man-Crosscut-Saw.aspx

add a saw buck, and a timberjack, and you're good to go, as well as no longer dependant on gasoline, and 50:1 mix.....

8-10 cords a year with that thing I would rather pick up wet crab bare handed....I burn 8-12 cords a year if your pulling that off with that equiment my hats off to you!

 

[Ringer]

I burn 10 cords a year and I've never used anything but an 8lb. maul. I'll beat any gas log splitter. If you had to cut with a cross-cut saw and split with that thing, 10 cords would take all of your time. By the time you threw the wood in the stove, you'd probably have 5 minutes or more with every piece. Not a wise use of time.

 

[Yrch]

I also burn wood exclusively for heat. I split with a 8lb maul. Sometimes you get really knotty pieces but over time you learn how to split them by looking at the grains and where to hit. Aim for the side with out the knot and take corners off with the maul. Eventually you will have a chunk thats all knots. Put that aside for what I call an 'all nighter'

You will just be wasting your time with a manual splitter. Waste of time, money and energy.

What does concern me is how would one burn wood post SHTF? No gasoline = no chain saw to buck logs. Using an axe or saw to cut up wood would be very time consuming and a full time job within it self. Would also need to get a couple mules to drag logs to the house.

To me... Its impossible to plan for permanent SHTF. My only real strat around this one is to always have wood on hand before such a situation. Stack it in the spring, burn it next winter. Stocking wood for longer then 1 season is pointless, it drys out too much and burns too fast.

This last season I went to pre-split. I spent so much time, gas, energy last winter that it wasnt even worth it to get log length and split it myself. I got better stuff to do then waste all my time bucking, splitting, stacking, carrying wood up to the house.

 

[John Rambo]

Northern Tool sales them. I'm not convinced enough to buy one.

 

[Freeholder]

Interesting piece of equipment, I'll have to look into it. I don't mind hand splitting it's the gnarly, twisted grained and knotty stuff that will get you. Doing a lot of hand splitting with an ax or maul is tough on the shoulder joints from the constant shock.