If you have spent a vacation or weekend in the countryside, then you probably know how exhausting logging can be. A few strokes of an ordinary cleaver ax are already able to make a city dweller sweat. To burn a stove, you will probably need to split more than a dozen chocks!
To make it easier to cut wood, a special device was developed – a wood splitter for kindling the stove at home. It will make the process of wood harvesting less dreary and tedious. But so many varieties of wood splitters have been invented, which one is right for you? We will look at what types of devices exist and what is the difference between them. And at the end of the article, a rating awaits you, which includes the 10 best tools for chopping logs.
Wood splitter history
Now, to decide which wood splitter is better, we read reviews and comparisons, because at present there are many varieties of this equipment. When the history of the instrument was just beginning, the design of the wood splitter was much less thoughtful and elegant.
The wood splitter appeared when it became necessary to optimize the manual labor of workers. In the 16th century, European enterprises used the thermal energy of solid fuel stoves, which required a large amount of fuel.
The first wood splitters came to replace ordinary splitting axes. Visually, they resembled the movable part of a water well, around which a chain is wound. In the case of this prototype wood splitter, not a chain, but a blade was fixed on the movable element. The wood splitter functioned according to this algorithm: a log is installed under the device; with a sharp movement, the cylinder with the blade unwinds, after which it meets the block, and it splits into two parts.
Wood splitter and the principle of its operation
A wood splitter is a tool that is designed to split logs into small pieces used to kindle fires and solid fuel stoves. An alternative name for the equipment is a wood splitter. Depending on the type of construction, wood splitters cope with workpieces of different lengths and diameters: it is this that most affects the performance of the equipment.
The main types of wood splitters for home
After talking about the history and principles of operation of the equipment, let’s move on to the most complex issue – what kind of wood splitters are for the home. We will focus on a manual, mechanical, hydraulic, and kinetic log splitter, as well as what mechanisms they use to split the chocks. In addition, we will answer the popular question: which wood splitter is better – hydraulic or screw?
Manual
If the types of wood splitters that take up a lot of free space and need to be connected to the mains are not suitable for you, pay attention to manual wood splitters. They are compact, extremely safe, and maintenance-free: after work, simply store the appliance in a secluded place until you run out of kindling material.
Wood chips
A compact and easy-to-use device for splitting small logs is a woodchipper. This small device is fixed, as a rule, on a vertical surface. Installation on the ground is also possible, but this is less convenient. The workpiece is fixed on one of the supporting bases, after which the user lowers the lever, and the blade passes through the log.
Mechanical
If a standard manual wood splitter is more suitable for a country house, where fuel needs are often not so large, and working with a sledgehammer is more of a leisure activity, a more productive tool for splitting logs is required in private homes. A mechanical spring wood splitter can be attributed precisely to such devices.
As the basis of the equipment, a frame is used and installed vertically. To split the block, this type uses a heavy cleaver fixed perpendicular to the bed. The log stand (which can be replaced by any immovable object) is directly below the cleaver. The movement of the latter is carried out due to the potential energy, which is formed due to the compression of a thick metal spring.
Hydraulic
A hydraulic wood splitter is a tool that ranks among the best since it requires minimal physical effort to work. However, unlike the previous varieties, this one has an electric motor. It is from him that the hydraulic pump necessary for chopping logs functions.
