The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: alang on February 24, 2018, 02:17:17 pm
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Whilst i love the physicality and enjoyment of swinging an axe to chop my wood i have to admit it can be frustrating and inaccurate at times. For that reason i bought a Roughneck wood grenade. What a joy! All i need is the sledgehammer and a couple of hits. Yes an electric/petrol/pto wood splitter would be faster. But it's also more expensive.
So if any of you want to easily split wood without a mechanised unit then i can highly recommend this bit of kit.
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I didn't want to buy one of these as I saw it as a sign of failure with the splitting maul, but when I brought home some fresh birch, I couldn't split it at 15" for the stove.
In short - they definitely have their place and I'm glad I have one. The neighbours don't seem to like it much though, as it's a touch loud!
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I have a couple but only use them on the worst twisted or knotted stuff.
This week is a good week to be splitting wood ... leave it out to freeze and it splits really easily :)
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Is it much better than a regular wedge?
I can split most things with my Gransfors maul so the wedge only gets used for troublesome stuff.
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Never tried a regular wedge but i got this after watching reviews on youtube. I'm pleased with it and it's just split a load of 2 year seasoned elm my sister had in storage that my axe hardly touched.
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Am I allowed to be controversial and say that I found it no better than a splitting maul? It was probably because the wood I was trying to split was too damp, but I often found that the grenade just got stuck, without actually causing the wood to split!
We now have access to a hydraulic splitter, so if anybody would like to try the grenade, I'll cheerfully sell it on for half of the new price (assuming I can find it!?) ;D .
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You controversial? Never :innocent: lol
Never tried a splitting maul and i'm trying to save up for a hydraulic splitter. At the moment i have an axe and the grenade. It's a good back-up for when i get the splitter
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Day to day splitting I use a maul.. which paradoxically helps my back problems. When there's a real mound of tuff (after trees fall down or need topping/cutting down) then chap from village is hired and brings his tractor hydraulic down. For the day rate (£70 + diesel) he gets through a few cubic metres.