Splitting wood PPE

[trapper]

I have a peice of steel in the back of my hand that came off a mall when splitting with steel wedges.  Sawed the handle off so I wouldnt be tempted to use it again.

[Roxie]

 Tacotodd you did indeed use the summons correctly and I am very grateful for the heads up because apparently there is a thread in the chainsaw section I need to avoid that involves thongs and flip flops. I am vehemently opposed to the use of flip flops by any grown man. 

Back in the day, it was not uncommon for me to get home from work and be out in the yard in my Jonathan Taylor suit and 6 inch heels splitting enough to last till morning. For safeties sake, I kept my sunglasses on. 

So yeah, be careful, it's a jungle out there.  :D

[Ed_K]

 If your going to use a steel wedge to split wood keep it sharp and grind any mushroomed steel off. Don't stand a 4' piece on end and hold the wedge in one hand an hit it with the maul short sticked :( .

[mike_belben]

Tacotodd you did indeed use the summons correctly and I am very grateful for the heads up because apparently there is a thread in the chainsaw section I need to avoid that involves thongs and flip flops. I am vehemently opposed to the use of flip flops by any grown man.

Back in the day, it was not uncommon for me to get home from work and be out in the yard in my Jonathan Taylor suit and 6 inch heels splitting enough to last till morning. For safeties sake, I kept my sunglasses on.

So yeah, be careful, it's a jungle out there.  :D

So what i read is that roxie loves a man in thongs.  Should his thong match your heels is the 64 million dollar question..  You could both look the part splitting wood together! 
;D

[sawguy21]

Roxie, I spit my coffee envisioning that. It must be a PA thing. :D

[Tacotodd]

I love it!

No wedges, just an 8lb splitting maul, but my personal experience (just me) an axe works better. Again, just me.

Now I can't get my mind off of high heels and thong. Thanks guys! 

A wedge n sledge maybe. But broke Todd, I have ZERO of either. 

The really knotty pieces go to the outdoor burn pit for parties 🎉. That's the ORIGINAL hotsaw!

[SwampDonkey]

I usually am wearing my logger boots, helmet and screen goggles. I split pretty much where the tree lands along side a trail or road. I have no way to forward firewood logs or load them, so she gets blocked and split on site and either tossed in the pickup or the SxS firewood buggy. ;D

I just split with a Collins. I will need to forward rounds of tamarack home in the pickup to bust up on a hydraulic splitter. So far I have not cut the bigger ones to split, just the wimpy skinny ones that the bears climb and bend down.

[doc henderson]

and wearing some man's suit, named Jonathan Taylor.?  is does conjure a visual @Roxie .

[Tacotodd]

Doc, yes it does.

Swamp, I've been cutting a lot of sweet gum lately and it's almost impossible to split green, but dry it's as easy as red oak. With that said, splitting on site is not an option. Why gum? It's not for cooking, only for burning 🔥! Besides, nice and dry gum is REAL easy to get lit.

[doc henderson]

well @Roxie you may have avoided the thread on chainsaw safety, but you seem to have really jumped into this one.  all in fun of course!  8)     DOC

[SwampDonkey]

treat the handle of your axe with sticky stuff.

Will fir pitch do? Some people waste money on pine tar and turpentine. Get some nice fir pitch on there, it's even UV resistant since it's used in window repair and don't yellow none. Fir pitch on topper windows hasn't yellowed in 7 years now. (fir pitch blisters and sapwood end grain rubbing on glass)

Gotta smile sometimes. :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

Doc, yes it does.

Swamp, I've been cutting a lot of sweet gum lately and it's almost impossible to split green, but dry it's as easy as red oak. With that said, splitting on site is not an option. Why gum? It's not for cooking, only for burning 🔥! Besides, nice and dry gum is REAL easy to get lit.

You know what it takes to get'r split, so take the easiest path I say. ;) Up here maple and yellow birch splits easiest green and frozen if doing by hand. My uncle used to split 6 cords every winter that way for the kitchen stove, for next season. White birch, aspen and fir are a dream to split. Not the BTU per volume of sugar maple or oak, but never froze to death yet. ;)

[Tacotodd]

Swamp, it SEEMS like gum and pine have ABOUT The same BTU but keep in mind my case, I'm burning it outside so no real way to compare. The oaks that I've cut, I can tell have a lot of BTU in them. Pine and gum are great for a summer time party where you like the light but don't need the heat. Oak is great for heat but not so much for the light on a dark winter night 🤪 Just my perspective.

[mike_belben]

Spiral gum can jam even a hydraulic splitter if its multi wedge.  


Some stuff you just have to quarter up by noodling with the saw. For hand busting big rounds that wont pop, cut a pair of kerfs into it one bar height deep in a criss cross so as to make a phillips screw head.   

Now pound a steel wedge into the far side until you hear crackling fibers.  Then wack a few times with your maul on the close side.  If it wont pop put another wedge in the center and work the two.  But dont try to use your maul between two wedges or your bust a handle by hitting the closer one. 


If you dont wanna wedge em try to knock pieces out from the perimeter with your maul. The outer wood is straighter than the inner a lot of time and will chunk out easier. Just keep going around making a big round to a smaller round before trying to split in two.   On spiral gum is may be impossible. 

[Edvantage]

In my thinking the word accident comes from the dangers of careless ax use. I've knocked myself out with a splitting maul. A builder had cleared a lot and left firewood length pieces scattered around the building site. As I worked from one pile to the next I ended up with a clothesline behind me. The maul bounced off the clothesline and hit me in the temple. I crawled to the house not knowing if I had split my skull or not. Apparently I'm not the only one to do this. E.H. Kreps writes in his book "Woodcraft" (1920) about this very thing "I have known several men who have cut their heads splitting wood under a clothesline" same applies to low branches. I believe this is also mentioned in the older boy scout handbooks.  Knowledge and awareness of the hazards is the first step towards ppe. 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

PPE can make a fatal accident not fatal.  A serious injury accident not so serious and a minor accident no injury at all.  
I fall timber 5 or 6 days a week weather permitting. Good boots, six anchor web quality helmet with screen and hearing protection, don't start the saw without chaps on and quality gloves.  
You get used to it even in hot summer weather.    Just part of the only job I ever wanted to do.
I have a three inch scare across my forehead from a junk of wood that kind of blew up on the wood splitter one day.  Never saw one go quite like that before or since.    Now I at least wear eye protection running my splinter.     To many pretty women to see so I don't want my vision impaired. :D