Best height for splitting block?

[SimonFisher]

What do people find the best height for a block on which logs are split when using a splitting maul or axe?

My current one I have at home (rather than in the wood) is a piece out of an oak trunk but is only around 330mm (13 inches) high and I'm thinking something higher is probably more comfortable to use so I'm wanting to replace it. Yes I know I can start big and cut it down till it feels right but big bits of oak are heavy and thus difficult to move around, so some pointers would be helpful. What sort of height do others use?

[Dexter's Shed]

I would have thought the correct height is by the height of the person using it, surely being higher for tall people, lower for short??
maybe wrong of course but I tend to build stuff for my stature, which my wife then hates to use as shes shorter and finds them too high

[SimonFisher]

Okay ... so how high do you have yours and how does it relate to you?

Is there a rule of thumb - waist high, thigh high, etc?

[Dexter's Shed]

I've found your normal size person (if there is such a thing) does well with 19" where as I myself prefer 22" to 24"

[oldclaypaws]

The higher the block, the less space the axe has available to travel. Also, unless contained by something like a tyre, bits can fly off, and I'd prefer them to scoot along the ground rather than at the height of the family jewels. I get by fine with a big stump no more than 12" high, but then I am 6' 2" and have a long reach which makes things easier. I use a fiskars 36" X27 splitting axe, it looks like a stealth fighter and rips through anything, great for tall users. Don't know if its any easier to get now, but I had to get mine from Germany via Ebay, it was about £60 from memory. Highly recommended toy.

122500-Splitting-Axe-X27_product_main_large.jpg (8.9 KiB) Viewed 19944 times

If I have any sort of frustrating day, I always take it out by splitting logs. It really should be an NHS therapy, few things are as satisfying.

[SimonFisher]

Fortunately I'm not so tall, which means http://www.gransforsbruk.com/en/products/gransfors-splitting-axes/gransfors-splitting-maul/ is an OK length for me, and much more to my liking

[oldclaypaws]

Prior to my Fiskars, I used a £14.99 demolition maul from Wickes. It does what it says, it uses brute force to virtually wrench logs apart with a sickening cracking which sounds like Thors hammer going through a foe's shoulder blades. It was heavy, but I reckon you could break into a bank with it, straight through the wall. -Now don't put ideas in my head.

[Dexter's Shed]

keeping to my beliefs, I've just picked up a splitting ax from aldi's, it's most probably a copy of something, but at £12.00 my sort of price, coming home and trying it on some oak logs that our other ax had bounced off, it split them like a hot knife through butter

[oldclaypaws]

split them like a hot knife through butter

Not unlike a £50 Ying Tong Ltd Chainsaw on a pair of kneecaps then?

[Terry]

I would go with a block that suits your particular stature and preferences - what suits me at 2m or 6'6" will not suit a lot of other people so not a very useful answer for the OP.

Paws, as with many things in life, technique can make up for the loss of a few inches............ of swing and as you are using the x27 you will have noted how well it gets through most lumps of wood with less effort than other axes
I find the biggest problem being the bending down all the time.
PS the x27 is available again from the states via amazon for a tad less than your £60.

I have tended to use free standing rings of timber as chopping blocks, but am going to dig a dedicated chopping block into the ground to steady it and use a tyre - as mentioned by Paws - to help stop the firewood from flying around too much. Quite a few examples on the internet video sites that seem to work well. As we are landscaping and terracing anyway, this will be placed to limit bending down all the time and gravity will be employed to feed the logs to me at the block.