Splitting wood.

[MadJack]

Buy a Fiskars maul, cut with science instead of brute force! And occasionally spray the head with WD-40...

It's a better workout than the $100 per month gym too.
No need to get romantic about it, it's just firewood!

[Northern Maine Land Man]

MadJack is right. As to the science, it is much easier to split wood from the bottom up. A tree's branches are much stronger on the top side than the bottom side. This is nature's way of preventing the branches from breaking from the weight of their own fruit or snow. During a tree's life, there is little force bending a branch up.

If you have a stick of firewood that needs splitting and there is no evidence of a branch being cut off, it makes no difference which end you split from. One pop should do it. On the other hand, if the log has evidence of branches or the log is where the trunk itself branched off into two trunks or limbs, then you need to split from the bottom.

Which end is the bottom? Look at where a branch was in the trunk. Where the branch left the trunk there is a U-shaped pattern as though the branch was pushing up on the bark. The curve of the "U" points up. Set the log on your splitting stump or log so the "U" looks like a smile or a "U" that is right side up. The log will split much more easily. I saw a homeowner who had two splitting wedges stuck in a log. I told him to turn it upside down. One pop of the maul and it split evenly. This works. Nearly every species has these marks where branches leave the trunk. It becomes second nature to set the log upside down to be split.

I have split a lot of wood over the years. Now I use a wood splitter. I still set the bottom of the log against the wedge. The log splits more evenly and the wood stacks better.

[gcberry]

We rented a woodsplitter $35/day for one day. Less noble perhaps than hand splitting, but worth every penny!

[Northern Maine Land Man]

When the pile of split wood gets to the point there is no place to put it, I just pull the wood splitter ahead. I end up with a long pile of split wood. I don't pick up heavy logs. I just roll them into the Kubota bucket and lift it with the tractor. Then I roll the log onto the wood splitter. I have reached an age where I do not perform feats of strength. It isn't worth the risk.

Our wood splitter was a parting gift from George Bush. I call it my economic stimulus wood splitter.

[Revi]

We rented a wood splitter, which was awesome since we had to split up some elm. Elm doesn't want to split. The rest of it was all split up by a little after lunch. Great thing to do, since we don't have to own or maintain it!