Heloise! I commiserate. You, and I , and Miss Manners keep getting
the same questions no matter how many times we give the correct answers: Do you tell if… “I’ve got spinach in my
teeth?” A little harder: “Do I have bad
breath?” And the ultimate, “Do these
pants make me look fat?”
Anyway, there a few questions that sometimes need to
be asked and answered over and over again, and today as I split a couple of
cords of firewood, I thought of us. Well, everybody thinks that a powerful log splitter
makes everything super easy, well, they might not be experienced… or they aren’t
pushing 80 (like you and I are). Anyway, as I worked through a pile of 24, 26,
28, and 30 inch diameter 18 inch long oak rounds, I thought of you.
Even if you don’t often respond to my notes to you, I
know that you and I are kindred spirits.
WE know that “easy splitting” isn’t always the norm, even with a
powerful splitter (and we know and insist that it be a vertical set-up). So, as I encountered a few of those rounds
that have a fork, or a large branch, or a hidden knot, I thought: “Let’s remind
folks of the right way to attack this situation.”
AND, since we’re trying to deal with 100 pound logs
(as we sit on a log and don’t bend and abuse our backs) we do so as safely and efficiently
as possible. Sometimes you should flip
that sucker upside down, even if that’s hard to do.
SO, “split from the bottom up” is the almost perfect
rule. I mean, if the fork looks like it
was when it was on the tree, flip that round upside down and split from the
root end. This works almost 100% of the
time, way better than the other way around.
Splitting from the top down can result in a situation where the damn thing
just won’t split… the hydraulics are straining, or worse; an explosive “success”
and a split that throws stuff at you. I
always hate it when that happens.
