wood splitting

[msemanuel]

Any suggestions on how to split wood that is 12" long by 30" in diameter? I have looked at wood splitters and can't afford one at this point.

[vicki in NW OH]

Wood splitters can be rented.

[Callieslamb]

There's a way besides a sledgehammer and a maul?

[PyroDon]

if its not elm a sledge and wedge or more than one wedge

[NE Agrarian]

Splitting maul, sledge hammer and wedges. Depending on the species of wood, 12" long should split by hand pretty easily. I use a 12 lb "monster maul" and a 12 lb sledge with wedges but I split stuff a lot bigger than what you have. You should be able to get the job done nicely with an 8-10 lb maul and sledge.

[meanwhile]

Wedges and ax. Or we have a thing the boys call a "Go Devil" and it is like a sledge hammer with a wedge on the other side. Just stick the wedges in, hit it. Find a kid and let them whack at it. Or better yet, find a kid who is on "restriction" for something and let them work their selves off restriction by splitting the wood.

[brody]

axe, maul and my husband

[mustangsally17]

[Hoop]

Splitting wood "manually" is highly over rated. Beg borrow or steal a gasoline powered woodsplitter.

[Forerunner]

It would depend entirely upon the species, or more specifically.....just how tough the wood is. If it's an easy splitter, 12 inch length is a piece of cake with a good maul.
Tough species like elm I split with a chainsaw into pie slices. I carve a "v" into one of the stumps and lay the pieces to be sawn on their sides, ripping with the grain.
A sharp chain makes efficient work of this and you get a quantity of beautiful shavings for animal bedding, garden mulch, chicken nesting box fluff and fire-starting tinder..... take your pick.

Sidenote: splitting wood manually can go much quicker and cheaper than mechanical.
Unless you are partially invalid, it is excellent exercise.

[MELOC]

i had luck splitting big stuff be starting a crack in the edge with a wedge and using another wedge or two inserted into the crack on the side. try to start the first edge wedge towards the outside so it starts a crack on the side where you can insert other wedges.

[msemanuel]

I am splitting spruce and ponderarosa pine. We took out three trees this spring. I cut them down into 12" lengths. But the diameter of the pieces range from 12" to 30". The smaller ones are no problem. But the big ones just not sure how to tackle them.

[gone-a-milkin]

This is the tool you need. Well, and a large sledge hammer.

[GoldenCityMuse]

2 wedges & a sledge.

Helps to let it dryout a few months.

[MELOC]

Originally Posted by gone-a-milkin

This is the tool you need. Well, and a large sledge hammer.

i had one of those once. it did a good job until about an inch of the tip broke off. maybe i had a bad one, but it was a total loss when it broke.

[rider]

yes the grenade is a wonderful tool we also broke one it was my fault tho we had some wet cotton wood that i wanted to split it had been -20 for about a week so i figured that the frozen we wood should break real easy so i went to work on it and the smaller pieces did just explode but a large one just ate the grenade ended up with no tip and yes they are then useless except for a paper weight we split all of out wood by hand i find it kind of relaxing to just go out and split wood dont have to think about anything just keeping your fingers and toes out of the way and we burn alot of wood oct to may usually

[ozark mike]

12 inch pine?? single bit axe is more than enough

[txcajunla]

I use a splitting maul, three different width wedges, and a couple of good sledge hammers. This southern timber tends to be pretty inconsistent, so there is no one strategy, but the tools mentioned seem to almost always split everything up. ....The exceptions are big knots and seasoned live oak. Some of that stuff will stop a 20 ton hydraulic splitter dead in its tracks.

Luckily I just split a little for campfires and such, but the last hurricane we had come through I split 7 cords that took an entire winter to get through. A friends' hydraulic splitter made a big difference on a lot of it. ..I just couldn't bear to see all that wood burned up in piles of limbs and debris.

[HermitJohn]

Wedges and sledge work fine, but unless tough knotty grain, just use common maul and split chunks off on outside perimeter, just keep going round and round until you have it whittled down to size where you can bust through the middle. This is easiest way to do large diameter chunks by hand.

[celticfalcon]

start on the outside and work towards the middle with a maul.
tom