Hobbies And Interests
Safety
The first trick to wood splitting is to do it safely. Injuring yourself will only make the process of splitting wood longer and more difficult. You could even give yourself a life-threatening injury. Before splitting wood, put on a pair of safety goggles to protect your eyes from any wood splinters or sawdust that flies into the air. If you're using a chainsaw, wear a pair of ear muffs or ear plugs to so the noise of the tool doesn't damage your hearing. Avoid blisters, abrasions, splinters and cuts by using a pair of work gloves. Also, protect your feet from falling logs or mishandled tools by wearing work boots with steel toes.
Equipment
Make cutting wood easier by using proper, well-maintained tools. Use a handsaw with a sharp blade that's in good condition. Also, make sure the handles are securely attached to the blade. If using an ax, keep the blade sharp and the handle in good condition. Ax handles with cracks and loosely attacked heads can cause accidents. You can also use a wedge and sledge hammer to split wood. Your wedge needs sharp edges to be efficient. Like the ax handle, examine the handle of your sledge hammer carefully. If you split wood with a chainsaw or wood splitter, always follow the manufacturer's service and operation directions. Dull blades and otherwise faulty equipment will only slow you down, frustrate you and possibly injure you.
Wood Type
Not all wood splits or burns the same. Don't invest time and energy in a wood that splits easily but provides little heat. Know your woods. You can cut aspen and white pine easily, but both woods give off a poor heat value. Ash and willow split easily and give you an average heat. You'll find white birch and yellow not too difficult to cut and they'll give you good heat value when burned. While apple, beech, ironwood and white oak are difficult to split, they offer the best heat. However, sugar maple burns like apple or beech wood but splits with the same difficulty of white or yellow birch.
Wood Length
Save yourself some extra wood splitting by splitting your firewood to the correct size the first time you do it. Don't make a second trip outside to cut the wood again or waste your time trying to jam the ill-fitting piece of wood in your fireplace or wood stove. Shorter pieces of firewood dry out quicker, making them burn better, and you can handle them with more ease. Split your wood to approximately 3 inches shorter than your fireplace or wood stove.