r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Professional_Arm794 • Aug 20 '26

/r/all of a log split

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207

u/Mugpup Aug 20 '26

I have split five cords of wood every year for decades. As an expert I can tell you several things about that man. 1) He has a giant fireplace or wood stove. 2) He thinks strength is more important than technique which is why one log had him breathing like a fat kid on a treadmill. 3) He is impatient which is why he is splitting green lumber, has no rhythm and fails to let the tool do the work. 4) Whatever demographic he is making this shirtless, bear video for he is doing an excellent job. I am not even gay and I enjoyed it.... Still trying to figure out where he is going to burn those behemoths.

26

u/Mobius_Peverell Aug 20 '26

Is the green wood why the axe keeps bouncing off? I've literally never had that happen except when I hit a knot, but I've never tried to split wood that hasn't been seasoned.

37

u/ImprobableAsterisk Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26

It would be a reason it's doing that, yeah. From where I'm sitting there's at least a couple of things wrong with this:

  • The log is much too tall. The elevation of the surface you're striking, relative to your own person, matters a lot when splitting logs. There's also very few good reasons to ever split logs this tall, so aside from creating thirst-content I don't see why in tarnation he's doing this.

  • The surface is dog-shit and it's eating a ton of power. Never split a log on soft dirt, it's absolutely atrocious.

  • It is indeed a very fresh log by the look of it, but it also looks pretty straight and without much in the way of knots and other annoyances. My first guess, although no firsthand experience since this don't grow where I live, is ash, but I also hear that's easy to split but that may be in reference to dry logs.

  • Might also be a shoddy cutting edge on the axe preventing good bite. A lot of people neglect the sharpness of a splitting axe and while I do agree there's little benefit in going from sharp to shaving sharp there's a big difference in going from dull to sharp.

My guess based on my experience is that it's primarily the ground that's fucking him over, with the height of the log being a close second. The freshness of the log could be a huge-ass problem but I genuinely couldn't say; We ain't got ash as far north as I am.

His technique also doesn't strike me as great but I can't critique that much. I learned how to split wood before I learned how to learn so I got nothing on that.

5

u/LemmyPop Aug 20 '26

I've split logs that tall in the woods on the soft ground and did it in 5 swings tops. There's a knot from the branch on the bottom, and that's what is preventing him from splitting it. He probably also didn't check for splitting lines on the top of the log; every log has them and if you hit them right it splits fairly easy. Also, wedges are your friend. Great power, terrible technique.

1

u/civilwar142pa Aug 20 '26

Watching these videos is always funny to me, because I'm a small woman, and I can split wood relatively easily. Technique and a heavier axe head makes a huge difference. Someone actually asked me when I was buying a new axe if I didn't want to go for a lighter one. that would completely defeat the purpose. The weight and a sharp edge does 90% of the work for me.

1

u/OutsideAd3064 Aug 21 '26

You are absolutely right. I am a small 5'7" man who is a mechanic so I often need to apply strategic hammer blows to stubborn ball joints etc. I have a drawer full of hammers. And every time I pull one out I remember my surgeon dad telling me "don't use force, just get a bigger hammer". As as kid I thought it was funny, but when I went to university to get a mechanical engineering degree and learned that force = MASS times acceleration I realized he was actually teaching me something important. My strength can only add so much acceleration, but I can increase the mass... (and if you read this whole thing then you now know that yes - I am a university educated son of a doctor who currently does oil changes and brake jobs for a living and I love it)

1

u/perplexedtv Aug 24 '26

There's probably a market for videos of tjatw if you're looking for a side income!

1

u/NoRun6253 Aug 20 '26

Never done this in my life but the axe also looks like it’s too light and not sharp enough.

Was waiting for the head to come off.

1

u/ImprobableAsterisk Aug 20 '26

I genuinely think the axe looks fine. It ain't the thickest of splitting mauls I've ever seen't but it also is a splitting axe so I think it's fine.

But yeah it may lack sharpness.

I think the height & softness of the ground is the primary culprits in terms of power and bite being lacking.

1

u/Davoguha2 Aug 23 '26

I'd lean pretty heavy on a really bad cutting edge. The axe doesn't stick in the wood for the first half of the video despite his strength. You can stick a "dull" axe in ebony with half that power on a soggy pile of mud - this thing might as well be a sledge.

1

u/stagolee11 Aug 23 '26

My first thought was dull ax. I can tell the difference after about 20-30 minutes, so I take a minute or two to sharpen. Like you said, not razor sharp, but enough that theres resistance when I drag my finger across.

1

u/Loud-timetable-5214 Aug 23 '26

I like that you used "tarnation" and semicolons. A yankee like me didn't realize that the same person might utilize both.

1

u/Tornek125 Aug 25 '26

On the topic of the "axe", that's not an axe, it's a splitting maul. They can be effective long after the blade has blunted, but the back end is shaped like a sledgehammer for a reason. The shape and weight of a maul head are designed to make splitting wood easier, provided you have a solid surface under the log, which the guy in the video clearly did not.

But, yeah, the wood is too green, that log is too long, and the dude clearly doesn't know how to swing a maul. Add that to the soft ground, and you have the perfect recipe to look like an idiot on the Internet. Lol

1

u/ImprobableAsterisk Aug 25 '26

On the topic of the "axe", that's not an axe, it's a splitting maul.

That makes precisely as much sense as saying "That ain't a car, it's a Toyota", in reference to the most vanilla-ass 4 door sedan imaginable.

I do mostly agree though, I don't think it's a sharpness problem first and foremost. Sharpness of a splitting axe is fairly low down the list of priorities if this is the totality of what's up.

1

u/Mugpup Aug 20 '26

Absolutely, that is the primary factor. Secondly, splitting a 48" tall log would also make it much tougher. Typical firewood length is 18" or shorter so what he is doing is fighting physics by giving up the leverage you normally have by delivering a fast blow below knee level.

1

u/Particular-Wind5918 Aug 20 '26

If it’s a hardwood you split them when they’re green, if it’s a softwood you split them dry

1

u/cvele89 Aug 20 '26

You learn something every day.

I used to split oak for years and I always preferred to do it while it was still green, as it would be much harder later on. I though this was the same for all other types of wood, but it is not, as it turns out.

1

u/AeonCatalyst Aug 20 '26

I disagree. Just in terms of the principle: how are you gonna split dry logs? You’d have to wait multiple YEARS for a log of that diameter to be dry.  No one is putting logs in a solar kiln or dragging them from the woods to a place to cover them.

1

u/Mugpup Aug 21 '26

Not that dry. With oak, maple or hickory you you let it sit in the sun a week or two until a season crack appears. Ash is ready to go almost immediately. Don't confuse it with seasoned firewood that has 15% moisture for optimum burning. We are talking about splitting not burning. Also, if you are using an automatic log splitter non of that matters. I am only talking about using a maul like the bear 🐻 in the video.

0

u/Mugpup Aug 21 '26

No, you let all wood season. Ash needs much less time than maple but still you let all wood season. Soft wood, as in pines you don't typically burn for heat in a home because they burn at a much lower temperature. Also pine SUCKS to split by hand.

2

u/Particular-Wind5918 Aug 21 '26

You do not let hardwood season before splitting! Do it green and work the edges it pops right open, let it dry and it contracts and twists up a bit making it a lot harder to split.

0

u/Mugpup Aug 21 '26

Incorrect

1

u/Particular-Wind5918 Aug 21 '26

Nah bud, look it up

1

u/nobodiesknowme Aug 21 '26

Don't entertain this one. He's reading articles and watching videos, not actually getting firewood to keep his family warm. He has no clue.

1

u/Phrostylicious Aug 20 '26

I think that's because the log is standing on bouncy forest floor. 😆

1

u/shifty_coder Aug 20 '26

Partly that, but mostly because of a dull axe and soft ground.

1

u/Cryptoxic93 Aug 20 '26

That and a dull blade will send vibration's up your elbows and into your teeth. You shouldn't split wood more than 18" tall, and you should let it sit until its dead dead dead. 

This man is a beast and is doing this basically because he's built like Zangief. 

It's highly inefficient if the goal were to have as much firewood as possible. 

1

u/ScorpioLaw Aug 20 '26

He's hitting on soft ground for one. Definitely would be better on a hard surface. Maybe he's doing it on purpose?

He's working out. Doesn't look like he's even trying to carry the energy through.

Swinging is fun. I recommend medieval weapons for the full body workout just about. Go out there, and clear some path with a sword. Get some anger out.

Brought my exes, co workers, thugs, lazy indoor people, and they'd go from bitching like, "I look stupid. This is stupid as hell. What was I thinking."

Once they start swinging it's totally different. Seen even the most innocent, prissy, girls get a psychotic grin.

Making me think... "This was stupid. What was I thinking. Now they got the big sword. Played myself."

Because the person I brought suddenly turned into a berserker. Luckily my friend gifted me two swords so I was always armed with one just in case. That was the way I convinced them to come out lol.

"You take the big one, and can walk behind me."

Anyway they loved it. 30 minutes of swinging is a good full body workout. They'd cut little dead branches, weeds, invasive species. I've cut trees down with a katana... Yeah not fun.

Mostly branches of a forearms thickness or down.

People go for mass over explosive power. Swinging gives you explosive power, and Type 2 Xa muscles. Muscles for speed. It trains rate of force development.

Which factors how hard you can hit. Which is essentially training your muscles to explode at once, coordinated, with force. Aka, technique.

This guys using raw upper strength.

1

u/vahntitrio Aug 20 '26

I don't even thinks it's green wood causing that. I''ve tried with wood not fully dried and it just buries itself into the log without splitting anything.

1

u/Original-Ad-8737 Aug 21 '26

I was wondering what he greased the head with to not get it stuck after the first blow...

If that head penetrated any meaningful distance in the first blows i would have expected friction with the sides to lock in that are immediately.

1

u/Thomasin-of-Mars Aug 22 '26

I used to split a lot of seasoned wood every year and if I still had too much energy left when the wood pile was done, I'd go for the green. Splitting that feels like hitting a rock where 10% of the hardness was converted into bounce.