Hard to share advice when each region and trees species are so different. But I tend to not use a hydraulic wood splitter because they're so slow and boring.
If it's a massive tree that would be difficult to split, that gets saved for a saw log. I tend to keep firewood at 18" diameter or smaller.
I don't typically upright bucked pieces of wood to split. I just bust it open where it lays. It's really fast, if u can deal with your heart wanting to explode out yer chest towards the end of a tree.
It's a game of handling the wood as minimally as you can. The less steps, the quicker the cord. A pickaroon really speed up my unloading. When delivering, can pick n chuck an entire cord out of the bed in about 10 minutes.
I honestly can't run 40-50 cc saws, they're too slow and 20" bars are silly, fatigues my lower back. Also, I can't run fancy expensive bars/chains, cuts into profit. 24" versacuts on 60-67 cc saws and a cheap role of EXL seems to be my money makers.
I'm usually making $800 a day (2 cords). If someone backs out, I just park the load at the grocery store in town with a for sale sign at lunch time. It's sold before I finish my lunch.
