I can if its a piece of lodgepole.

Throw a piece of hickory pr an apricot stump in there and things would go considerably slower.

That's a good lookin maul, though.

I"m so doing this next year.

I do not burn wood that soft.

buckhunter: much to my surprise, seasoned softwoods have more heat value that hardwoods. Look it up.
I burned 10,000lb pellets this winter, nearly a ton more than in each of the past 5 years. Long, cold snowy winter, I guess.

Very cool. He's also got an excellent splitting maul and has excellent control with it. That's really the other half to the trick. Without his skill with that fine maul, the chain wouldn't work very well. [heads up to everyone looking to use this idea.]

After a second look my guess is he is splitting kindling and not firewood. I see no use for small pieces of soft wood unless it is for a cooking fire.

Brian, you are correct. Some soft woods can burn hot but just not for long.

never thought of that. gonna have to try it.

when I was growin up we used to do all our wood cutting and splitting in the winter
fell the logs into "clean snow" keeps the chain saw sharp longer by not coating the log with mud.
cut the log into what ever lenght you prefer, then let them freeze overnight. the next moarning, they would split like ice cubes

Gerber's/ Fiskar's so called "super" splitter suffers from a short handle and and doesn't split much better than their ax. On oak and hickory it does NOT outperform the 8lber. The method of containing the log is a good one as well as using a tire in your designated splitting area.