Hakki pilke 42 12 way splitter any good?

[JJLogs]

I have had a hakki pilke 42 for 3 years now and fed up with opening the door to re split the logs to the right size I have a 6 way splitter at the moment but need a bigger one.

Does the 42 actually have enough power to split a oak log 12 inch long in to 12 pieces? 

 

[SbTVF]

13t max split by the looks of them? Can’t say I’d be too positive about putting the 12 way on our tajfun with 15t split. It would have to be perfectly straight grained stuff I think. Would never risk putting a knot through it, it can struggle with the 8 way at times.

I find the 8 way quick, even with 400mm diameter timber because even if you have to re-split half of the log you’re still producing a lot of logs all at once.

The trick is to get the logs at the bottom of the splitting knife at the correct size and only have to re-split the top few pieces.

[JJLogs]

Yeah I do the same trick sometimes yes only 13 ton.  I was thinking 8 way would be the way to go. 

Thanks

[SbTVF]

I had thought about getting a second 8 way and welding in some extra knives so the top half was the same as on an 12 way but I’ve barely had any timber that’s been 14-16” in the last 100t I’ve had. All seems to be sub 12” or oversize [emoji85]

[briquette_seller]

12 way works fine.

If its really nasty bits and its struggling i just lift it right up so it splits the bottom half then shove it down to do the top half.

 

I never use my 6 way i just lift the 8 way up and miss the top wings.

[gdh]

Worth mentioning that 12 ways are only any good with really big wood, any smaller bits produce a lot of rubbish because of the ring so we only use ours after sorting the timber first. 

 

Ours does split oak but that's 25ton force so not really comparable. They usually state they're designed to be used on softwood.