Splitting firewood by hand

One of my favorite fall chores on the ol’ homestead is using my trusty log splitter. It’s an old 25 ton Craftsman that will smash through any size log in mere seconds, and using this beauty is always a joy every fall. When I’m through splitting the deadfall or half-dead trees that I’ve collected and cut down over the summer, it’s a sad day. But wait! I can always make kindling, and a big pile of it!

Using my log splitter is not only fun, it’s a huge time and labor saver. I often think about what it must be like to do this chore by hand, especially for those who prefer to manually split the many cords needed each season to get through our cold winters. Made me want to give it a try.

Every fall I buy my firewood from a guy I’ve depended on for 25 years, then I supplement this with what I harvest and split. There’s a very old splitting maul tucked away in a corner of my garage, and it has clearly seen better days. The business edge is so dull that it’s significantly rounded off, a baby’s teething ring is sharper than this thing. But it did get me thinking…...what if I tried splitting a few pieces with it?

I’m rather inelegant in front of a camera. But to make the point that we are never too old to try something new, I will demonstrate how splitting wood by hand is done. Well, sort of.