28 inch Hookaroon

Best tool my hundreds has bought with a bad back saves bending and picking logs from floor.

Macht was sie soll

Fiskars scores another win! I am the caretaker for a big old house with an old pre-EPA woodstove, we burn about 6 cords of wood a year for heat. I am already a big fan of Fiskars, having six or seven of their outdoor tools in my collection. To save money, I scrounge all of the wood needed for heat, meaing I go on Craigslist, find trees people want removed, drop them if needed, cut them into rounds and haul them home on a trailer. I'm not getting any younger, and my back seems to take the brunt of the strain from all that wood cutting, hauling, splitting and stacking. I read about the hookaroon on my favorite firewood forum (firewood hoarders) and decided to give it a try. I've gotten a few good sessions of use in, and the XA22 is a keeper! My most recent firewood scrounge is a huge maple tree, with most of the rounds being larger than 20" diameter. To move them before meant I had to crouch down and push, but now with the XA22 I can just stand and pull, easily steering the rounds as needed, or flipping them end over end without any strain. This made my splitting session so much easier, I think I really got more wood split with the gas splitter, just becuase I didn't have to crouch and stand over and over getting the rounds to splitter deck. (I use a ramp instead of lifting them) The next night I stacked the splits, this is where the hookaroon really shines! Instead of having to stoop and stand, or work bent over at the waist, I didn't have to bend over much at all. Instead I hooked each split and lifted it with the XA22, using my other hand to grab the spits and stack them. Some of the splits were not easy to sink the hook into, but even those were no big deal as I could easily get the hook under one end of the split and pull it up to vertical, 16-18 inches above the ground is an easy reach with my other hand. Yesterday I was cutting a monster tree trunk up, with the diameter of almost three feet. As I cut each round off of the trunk, I could hook it with the XA22 and roll it out of the way. Each of these rounds was 400 pounds or more, and the XA22 moved them without any problems. I will never cut or move wood again without a hookaroon, in fact I may buy a second one to help move the big rounds around even easier. I'm already a fan of the Fiskars X27 splitting axe, preferring it over an other wood splitting tool as it is easier on my arms and joints than any other hand splitting tool out there. The XA22 uses the same hollow plastic handle as the X27, meaning it is super light, and doesn't transmit the shock of hitting the wood. Some people see this as a downside because it takes a quick flick of the wrist to sink the point into the wood. Since I never used another type of hookaroon, I don't have any comparision to one with a solid wood handle and heavy steel head. Some people prefer all that weight, as they can use gravity to sink the point into the wood. If you prefer more weight for your hookaroon, it is easy to add some plates of steel and a bolt through the hole in the head of the hook. Fiskars sells the XA22 with plastic sheath that has a toggle to remove it and a built in carrying/hanging handle on top, very similar to the one their axes and hachets come with. For the price and warrenty I don't think you could do any better.

Great for older people in rural areas. It saves your back, and your eyes if your dragging fallen branches out of shrubs that have grown around them. Great in Australia with deadly spiders as you don't have the grab with your hands. So impressed I bought my old dad one for his property. Probably not worth while if you only chop some would for a BBQ say now and then. Great on 5+ acres.

Awesome for firewooding. Super light great hook. Works fantastic on softer woods. Other say not so great for hard woods, but can't verify that. Would recommend.