since i burn wood in a 1936 Kalamazoo cook stove; my wood has to be short and fairly small in diameter. i've been lucky enough to find a supplier thats a logger and sells me his shorts. I but it unsplit which is a lot cheaper. What i use is a splitting maul and and axe. I have a piece thats about 16 inches in diameter thats my chopping block. the maul is used to split the pieces to a managable size. Its quite heavy behind the splitting edge and has a long handle. No squatting..bending..trying to pull out a wedge. just a lift over the head and the weight of the maul does the work. If i need pieces even smaller then i use the axe which easily splits the smaller pieces. Before i found my current supplier and the wood was too long i just slpit it and used a reciprocating saw with an agressive demolition blade to shorten the lengths. And yes James its good for the mind and the body..Happy Splitting
