Since moving to McBride in 1977, I have split a lot of firewood. Once I had the firewood cut and unloaded, I grabbed my splitting maul (sort of a cross between an axe and a sledge hammer or an ax with a really heavy thick head), and began swinging it down on the wood, thus splitting it. It always worked pretty well, unless the piece of wood had a lot of knots in it, which meant multiple swings, or pounding on the maul’s head with a sledgehammer.
Splitting firewood can get tiring, but I would just work on the pile little by little. Friends and relatives, after looking at all of my finished and stacked firewood, often asked me, “Do you have a log splitter?”, to which I would answer, “No, I use a maul.”
After hearing this the response was always, “You should get yourself a wood splitter, its so much easier,” but I guess I am a bit of a luddite when it comes to splitting wood, and I just kept on using my maul.
When I was away, visiting down in Indiana, a friend contacted Joan to tell her that Costco was having a good special on a small electric wood-splitter, and she ordered it. A day or so after I returned she came home from town and told me to go out and look in the back of the car. I was totally surprised to see what she had bought me. It came just in time to deal with the big pile of firewood that Gary Moore gave me.
So now I am a high-tech wood-splitter, and instead of swinging the heavy maul, I put the firewood on the rack, and press two buttons. The wood-splitter does all of the hard work.
Take a look at my paintings: www.davidmarchant.ca
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