I have a gasoline engine-powered logsplitter. I don’t use it much.

I split firewood mostly with sledge, wedge and maul.

So do my sons, and my grandsons, and a son-in-law as well. In the Miller family, reaching an age, strength and maturity necessary to split wood by hand is an eagerly awaited rite of passage toward manhood.

If a boy is nearly old enough and asks to try, I will hand him a maul and let him have a go. Developing the body mechanics to swing a maul with enough force to start a crack takes practice. Hitting the same crack again takes a lot more practice.

It is a manly art, requiring a certain level of height, strength, balance, coordination, knowledge and acquired skill. It can be a thing of beauty, like watching the movements of a skilled boxer, but at base it is a violent and potentially dangerous activity. We men like things that go boom. Whacking a log and seeing the two halves fly apart qualifies as an explosion.

A wood maul swung overhead focuses incredible force when its blade edge contacts the log, making an opening for the wedge shape of the head to drive the wood apart.

How much force? Oh, 20 or so tons.

At least that’s what a hydraulic logsplitter requires to split a 24-inch oak firewood log, according to manufacturer literature. An engineer might dispute that my maul generates the same force as a logsplitter, but if I split that same oak log with only the power of my body, I think I win.

“Rather than wearing yourself out with an axe, you can split more wood with much less effort using a logsplitter.” That statement from an online article might sell some logsplitters, but it is misleading in a couple of ways.

Please don’t take offense, but you are either stupid or sadly uninformed if you attempt to split any serious firewood with an axe instead of a wood maul, which is designed for that purpose. And as for wearing yourself out, anyone who has spent a couple of hours bending over to lift logs onto a logsplitter knows what that does to your back. When you split wood by hand, you do it standing up. It’s much easier on the spine.

Can you split wood faster with a logsplitter? Yes, but logsplitters are heavy, noisy, smoky, cost a couple grand, and make your back hurt. With some patience and effort, you will find steel wedges, a six-pound wood mall and an eight-pound sledge at garage sales for under 50 bucks, total. Or, go to the Rogers dirt mall on Friday and get everything in one place.

Those simple tools will, with practice, split 95 percent of your firewood logs. For the other five percent, just section those suckers with your chainsaw.

Shark and Snickers, returning with their boys from a five-day vacation, the highlight of which was white water rafting on the Yough, stopped Friday night to brief us on their adventures before they even went home.

Lamppost Head and The 747 didn’t stick around for the travel stories. They said “Hi!” and ran down into the yard, where they saw I had been splitting up some nice-sized cherry and maple logs. The maple was green and straight grained. From a distance I could see them swinging mauls, and they looked to be having some success.

“Are they OK, dad?” Shark asked, a little worried. Lamppost Head is almost 11. The 747 is 9.

“They’re doing all right,” I reassured her.

The next evening the boys begged to come split wood, and Shark dropped them off after supper. First, we needed more wood. I got out the 1948 Farmall tractor, hitched on the trailer, loaded the chainsaws, and up we went into the woods behind our house, where I felled and sectioned a crooked cherry I’ve been looking at for awhile.

Exploring further up the old farm lane, I found and cut up an oak log that had been laying for years and was seasoned hard as a rock. We brought the load in and the boys happily began flailing away at the new stuff.

Ninety minutes later they had broken only one sledge handle and we were nicely weary, especially me. They did OK with the cherry and were not in the least discouraged that 20 of their best whacks with a maul had no effect on the oak other than to mutilate the end of the log.

As we worked I offered a few tricks of the trade.

Look for fine cracks in the log; split it where it wants to be split.

If a log gives you trouble, try the other end.

Wood splits easier when set on a hard surface, like my brick driveway. A soft lawn absorbs part of the blow.

When the maul sticks tight in the wood, don’t try to lever it out. You’ll probably break the handle. Now it is a wedge. Drive it on through with your sledge. If you bury it, use wedges to finish the job.

We talked and joked as we worked on our log pile, celebrating those that split for them and letting Grandpa persuade those that balked.

A logsplitter has its place, I admit. I use mine when I have to, like when I have a load of stringy elm or logs that are nothing but knots.

When I can and while I can, I’ll split with sledge, wedge and maul.

(Fred Miller’s third book, “A Dead Carp on Shadyside Ave.” is $10, available locally at Calcutta Giant Eagle, Pottery City Antique Mall, Museum of Ceramics, Frank’s Pastry, Connie’s Corner Restaurant, and Davis Bros. pharmacies.)