Hi Folks,
I have one of these, and wrote about it on
this thread.
It's brilliant for kindling. No more holding small bits of wood with another bit, then trying to hit it as it wobbles around, and no more lost fingertips in the process
.
HOWEVER, for me, it doesn't replace a splitting maul for doing actual firewood. I personally found that if I couldn't split it with a maul, I had no chance with the smart splitter, and the maul was decidedly quicker if used with a half decent technique.
We have now settled on splitting easy stuff like pine by hand whilst letting the other stuff stack up over the year. We then hire a professional quality petrol driven hydraulic splitter for one weekend a year, which works out pretty cost effective given the huge amount we can process in a couple of long days. For example, the pile below will have taken about an hour to do:
Hope that helps!