I found the easy way to split the big wood is to get my son in law to do it , can watch him all day and I don't get tired .

This was excellent. I'm a single woman trying to split wood, after 45 minutes and virtually no progress splitting wood yesterday, I knew I had to look for advice. This is the first video that was truly helpful.

Thanks for this awesome video. You saved me from buying or renting a machine splitter so instead I bought a Kobalt Super Splitter instead of an regular axe and I’m using it with my hand maul which has been just as easy as you stated. I also use my old hand hatchet sometimes which works just as well. Thank you for putting real help on here for everyone, you’ve made a different to so many of us for so many years.

I was crying over a horrible delivery of what i though would be firewood...they brought me trunks cut in 4ths...I am SO GRATEFUL for this video. You are such a lifesaver, thank you🙌🏽💕

It's 3am and I need to finish coding my program so naturally I'm watching useful tips & trick to cut firewood even though the coldest winter in my country is 15ºC

Second best exercise with my hand I ever did. Both involved wood.

I thank you... my wife thanks you... my dog thanks you... my cat thanks you... my cabin in the Catskill woods thanks you... but most of all, my 73 year old back thanks you. Great video!

I mean this with the utmost respect, this guy sounds like slightly snarky Mr Rogers and I love it. Just, kind, informative, and encouraging. Now I want Mr Rogers for adults. “Hey neighbors, today we’re going to pour a concrete slab”

Did exactly as you demonstrated and it worked like a charm! I am a women and cut over 4 stumps in 15 mins. My axe is still in great shape. Thank you!!!!

What is the deal with these Youtubbers splitting wood by hand? I have been using a maul for over 40 years. (I am 66) Seldom do I ever use a splitting wedge. I have split oak, elm, mulberry, cherry, hackberry, hickory, walnut and what ever else would burn. I have handled chunks so big, I had to split down to 2 dozen pieces before I could load them to take them home to split down again. #1: If at all possible let green wood freeze before splitting. (Moisture inside the stick will freeze and make it easier. Don't worry about green wood wicking.) #2: Make sure your axe/maul is sharp. #3: Place the stick someplace solid, like a splitting block. #4: Read the wood. (Look at the grain. Decide where the first blow would do the most damage.) On big rounds, this will be in an area towards the side of the stick and NOT in the middle. Shave slabs off the sides. (You eat an elephant one bite at a time and splitting wood should be done the same way. #5: Relax. Take a deep breathe and do not forget to exhale when swinging. (You will probably grunt when the maul comes down. Just like tennis players.) #6: SWING!!!!!! Make sure you hit that sweet spot. At the end of the day, you will hurt all over, but it is a good hurt, because all of your frustrations have been vented through the work and you will be comforted by the winter heat that you have created. ENJOY YOURSELF.

Great video. My wife and I used this technique this afternoon and it worked fantastically. Thanks Harry!

I like this guys style. He is not arrogant or showy, he is smart and factual. Working smart not hard!

Good job! Thank you for taking the time to pass on your advice. I'm no woodsman and I appreciate that I can learn from what others have figured out already.

The wood splitting crackling sound is crisp and soothing

Man! Thankyou so much! God bless you. These logs were wearing me out because the wood was soft. So I bought a hatchet and use my axe like a sledge hammer and it works beautifully

That's brilliant!!! Thanks so so much. I've been left huge flat rounds not what I'd wanted but now I know how to deal with them. At 68 I think this is best way for me to rebuild my muscles. All good positive stuff

Cool how to split soft wood! Could of split that ten times faster with a maul.

If I was a nice plump chicken I would not be hanging around next to a guy with an ax.

Thank you so much for making this! Exactly what I needed with no nonsense.

My wife and I been doing wood removal for arborist tree service for over 15 years. Splitting mostly by hand. Over 500 cords a year. This is a great way to do it for sure. If you split your wood while it's green. It splits a lot easier!! Warning. When you chop as much wood as we have by hand it will catch up to you. Your hands and shoulders will pay the price. Great video.

This dude is hilarious, He should start his own sitcom, I would definitely watch it lol

We had a Douglas fir tree cut down a couple of days ago and we decided to keep the wood for the fireplace. The biggest pieces are about 30 in. in diameter and 15 in. high. I will try the method you're showing in the video. It is very helpful and I appreciate your tips. Thanks!!!

You Sir, are a hero! You just saved me the equivalent of $100 for the hire of a log splitter and the inconvenience of collecting and returning it. Great tip!

I just want to say thank you. As a five foot something woman living in the woods, I paid a man to cut down two trees and he said he’d come back to split the rounds. He not only stole some wood he never came back. Lesson learned. I have an axe and a mallet. I’m splitting those rounds myself. Hugs💕✨

Thank you so much for this video, I was able to split some very big logs doing this technique and it worked so well!!! You're awesome!

Thank you so much Harry. It took me 30 minutes to cut just one half of that and I was so tire. Thank you for showing the right and easy way!

Brilliant! I've waited over 40 years for this video. Just cut through a two foot long log with knots in seconds. Thank you Harry!

I have extremely bad carpal tunnel in both of my hands all the way up to both elbows. I'm a single mom with four kids and I live in the mountains some money is a little tight with everything being considered right now at this point in time and I watch this video and tried it myself and was so extremely happy at how easily I was able to do it myself.

Thank you for teaching me this skill. You no doubt will have saved my back this fall.

I could watch that kind of work all........day............long!!! Thank you, great tips and ideas there - especially your tip "If you don't know where the knots off, remove the bark first". Top class tip, simple but not immediately thought of.

I watched this video yesterday afternoon and gave it a try. It worked! I am a 75 yr. old female. My log wasn't as large but I would not have had the strength to use a maul or sledge hammer. I'm heading back out this morning to work on some more logs. Thank you! Sometimes if you want something done, you just do it yourself.

I never knew it could be so easy. I’ll have to try that this weekend. Thank you for the great lesson and watching out for those chickens. 🐓

Thank-you so much for sharing this ! This is going to make my life so much easier !

I learned so much from this video and started splitting all my wood this way. No more mis-hits and slaving away with an axe. Just perfect cuts with my 4 lb sledge and hatchet.

I’m impressed. I just showed my husband and informed him he should be able to split our wood very fast now. 😉🤣

I've never been so excited to go out back and split a large log. I can't wait to get off work

This is the finest example of the misuse of a tool I have ever seen. There are wedges and sledgehammers for this task, or better yet, an electric wood splitter.

Nice one Harry. An old boss of mine once said, “I like lazy people ‘coz they always find the easiest way to get stuff done.” Not that you’re lazy Harry...just smart! 😜👍

Those are firewood fashions from the 1500's. Thanks for the video.

Thank you. I am a 63 year old widow and need to figure out for to cut my own firewood as that is the main way I heat my house! I will try this!

LOL, I spent 2 hours with axe today and finished it with chainsaw, then decided to check KZfaq:) Thank you. I had exact same size log to crack. But it was a good workout anyway.

This is my uncle. You shoulda seen him trying to teach me to ride a bicycle. So demoralized I never got up after I fell. “So easy” he said. My life is ruined.

I have moved into a house with no Central heat and a Big Jim wood heater. I also have a fallen pecan tree from this summer. You just did me a huge service and don't even know it. I can keep us warm now. Thankyou!!!

That worked unbelievably well. Thanks!

Those poor axes, makes me want to cry

Super cool. I’ve had these big pieces of wood stored for two years while trying to figure out how to split them… a quick KZfaq search later and the first one is already split. I can’t believe how easy it was. (I used a normal sized log as a hammer I nstead of a sledge or second axe, because I only have one axe at hand here)

I love this guy's saucy attitude towards chopping wood.

Only AFTER I had every wedge I own and 2 axes stuck in a big log I found this omg Thanks sooo much for posting!!! I am a 100lb female and the spectrum guy fixing the neighbors wifi was super impressed 😂😂😂

At one point KZfaq wanted me to watch Family Guy.... like all the time.... Now I think they want me to season some wood...

Thanks so much for this video! I have been struggling with splitting three century-old trees and it has been a struggle for a petite, older woman. This makes sense to me, along with the tire technique so I won't have to chase the pieces around.

I just split a 20 inch round of green ponderosa. I am a woman 120lbs with no wood cutting experience! Thank you for teaching me this! It didn't take an unreasonable amount of time either!

Wow great video I’ve been doing it all day wrong. I would put my axe in the middle and try to split the round and end up just getting it stuck. I tried your method works like a charm!! 👍🏻

Axes aren't really meant to be struck like a wedge or a splitting maul and like your axe obviously shows, it will get damaged. It's your axe so do as you please. I can understand though that because of its thinner profile, it can be a lot easier to drive down an axe through tough hardwoods than a wedge. It would be safer however to file down and bevel the mushroomed poll of your axe to avoid any potential problems down the road. Better yet, just use a steel wedge and re-profile if you must. Some wedges cost only about $7.00 or less. There was one person who commented below about the Myth Busters episode that debunked steel on steel contact "explosion" but they really should have used different steels (hardness) such as in your case, a hammer and an axe or an old mushroomed axe such as yours. Be safe.

Great video. I bought the Fiskars 8lb iso core 36 in maul as well as their 3lb iso core hammer to bust up some excessively large rounds using your technique. The iso core maul opposite the axe end has a flat anvil shape designed for hammering. Definitely is a great technique. I like seeing different styles versus brute force wasteful energy. I have a kinetic log splitter but many pieces are oversized and not worthy of breaking my back. I get my round free from several local tree services. Your technique is the ticket.

Thanks Harry. Your time and efforts are appreciated

Way late to this but recently fell into a situation and had acquired property, one of which had a tree of heaven sitting on it that was pretty much dead and barely hanging on. I called a bunch of different companies and eventually found a guy locally who came by and worked out a deal to bring it down, it was pretty big. He offered to remove the felled tree once chopped but I was fairly budget restricted and could only work with what I had. Guy did a great job and I recommended him to a lot of friends but the problem was I now had a 48"ish tree downed and needed a really big chainsaw to cut through it or at least that is what I thought until I found this video. I had thought about the idea and then was like well hell, maybe I could split it and wondered if anyone else had done that. Thanks a million, you saved me even more money. I've got time, so I can afford that.

I split quickly and easily also. My log splitter goes through it like butter 😆

This hammer weighs about as much as a.....Hammer! hahaha. .I love this guy...loves to bust his tools and doesn't care if he dies in the process. ..my kinda you tuber

I own two splitting wedges and a splitting maul. I hit them with a sledge hammer and I wear safety glasses while I’m hitting them. Right tools for the job.

This is the best and safe way to split a large trunk. I tried it on my 26 inches diameter tree trunk. It works great without exhaust myself like those big guys. Fantastic way to split super large fire woods.

I will add to the hazard comments. Had a friend get a bullet of metal in his leg from the mushroomed steel. Grind off all mushroomed tools

I am a woodturner and this is going to make life SO MUCH EASIER!!! thank you for sharing:)

Larry, simple hacks like these are exactly what we needed! Its funny I call it a hack because its not a hack, it is simply the fact that people don't grow up knowing basic skills like this anymore lol kinda sad but very grateful I watched this video. Thanks!

Did this today on HUGE HUGE HUGE Ash rounds...thanks for this! 💪🏼 🌲

this is why i love engineering so much, the concept of discovering a procedure that can achieve an ordinarily laborious task, by just changing a few variables amazes me

It's 2019. He's still splitting the same piece of wood

Many years ago I bought a 7.5 lb American felling axe, I had bought it for slitting logs, I eventually mangled the handle, took the axe back to the hardware shop to buy a new handle. The shop owner had a go at me for using it to split wood, I had mashed the back of the axe head like the one in this video with bashing it when stuck with a small sledge hammer. He convinced me to buy a splitting maul, much much better for splitting logs. I ground out the battered axe head and never hit it again. Of course you can use your tools just as you wish, just do it safely. Cheers, John.

Hahah joiner 30 years and been trying to split a log ring today nearly killed myself ....... thanks mate it’s a true saying you learn something new everyday ..... nice quick easy video ...... thanks

I love reading all the comments. People will criticize no matter what. If it's not the way they do it, it's wrong. Nice video man. It's always nice to see it done different ways.

I have one arm and I do this daily with a hatchet and hammer. He's exactly right, on the edge of the wood.

Thank you so much for your video. I learned how to split wood the easy way. Cheers!!

You just made my day so much easier!! Thank you!!!!!!

One of my good friends is an eye doctor. He told me the MOST COMMON eye injury results from just what you see here. Striking metal with metal. Wear EYE PROTECTION!

Steel against steel no glasses .when that "hammer" or axe loses a bit it will stick in you A $30 maul is cheaper than an emergency room visit.

Thank you for the vid . Made my morning more satisfying!!! Worked like a charm

You are definintely right that hitting the outside edge of the round is the easiest way to start. I think you should also wear eye protection and ensure that people do NOT strike the back of a axe with metal. A maul is built so you can hit the back of it with a metal sledge but most axes are NOT. So this technique might work fine most of the time, but when a piece of metal comes off and strikes you in the eye it'll be a bit off putting.

A bunch of keyboard warriors on here claiming their godhood in this matter. I say to each his own, whatever method works for you is fine by me.

Just tap tap tap it in 🤣 made me think of Adam Sandler on "Happy Gilmore" 😂

This is the best video I have seen on how to split wood easily. Thanks for making it!!

I've always wanted to help my husband as he whacks away at all the wood around here. This technique may week work for a small fall like me! I'm gonna give it a try. We had lots of large first and cedars come down during a wind storm. I think he's be proud of me if I came out and helped clean up the damage. Thank you for sharing!

When you said, "Is that hard? It's easy!" you looked like Doug McKenzie from Strange Brew. It's easy! Eh? LOL

that is a badass chicken

I tried it your way - and it was great. Thank you!

the Bob Ross of firewoodz . Loved it, thanks!

Most axe heads are hardened steel and are not designed to be struck, since the tool that is striking them will likely also be hardened steel. Your axe appears not to be hardened steel, since it is mushrooming from beating on it. This is the exception, not the rule. Proper splitting wedges are made of non-hardened steel so that when you hit them with a maul or sledge hammer (hardened), the wedge deforms and the maul or sledge does not.

Been chopping wood my whole life (53) but recently had some trees come down, so have a LOT of logs just like the ones above....all hardwood (Ironbark) will definitely give your method a shot...I was using a rotary saw to cut a channel down the side, and inserting my wedge into that but this looks easier than even that! Thanks for the tips.

your coworkers are smart, you do the work, they reap the rewards.

Thank you! You have saved me LOT of energy!

lol the chickens don't even give a shit xD

Dear Sir, I strongly advise you to use a proper splitting maul for your splitting. You risk the chance of a shard of steel breaking free from that axehead and putting your eye out!, esp since I noticed that you also are not wearing safety glasses to go with your fancy vest...

Lol!!! Thank God someone invented a log splitter for simple men living simple life's.

I came in late to this and I’m SO GLAD I DID! Talk about a lightbulb moment. Thank you!

know whats easier ? using a wedge and a maul. they are designed for doing that. an axe is not meant nor designed for that use. it can shatter the back of the axe from the hardened high carbon steel. a maul is softer so it takes the brunt and a wedge is solid so does not deform.

next time show us how to split same size of firewood but with lot of knots inside, please

Awesome! Just what I was looking for. I think the chickens were just as amazed as I am! Thanks for the tip!

Watched this yesterday.Tried it today .Fantastic.got a few blisters,but have a pile of split wood.many thanks🤗

Great vid man! Wow! I would've a used 6lb splitting maul (there's a reason they're called that) and had all stove sized pieces in the time it took you to make the first 30 deafening pings. To each his own.

No way in hell its less work when you have to beat the shit outta that thing to get it through...

Great! I’ll let my son know since his dad doesn’t teach him anything. Thanks from a divorced but happy mom with videos like this😊✌️

Glad i’ve found this video, made my wood chopping life so much easier, and cheaper😄