Most times it's cuts your splitting time in half. With pine 12" to 16" you barely have to get into it and you have 4 pieces. Paperwork states to split up to 16" or something close to that. I used it on pieces 28" diameter and it worked fine, gives you 2 nice bottom pieces, the top you flip onto the log catcher, stack the 2 split pieces, then roll the top piece back on the splitter and split it. Definitely worth the investment. I doubt I will put the original wedge back on. Though if needed it's very easy to swap them. Take one bolt out, lift the ram up, slide the wedge out and slide the other one in. To make it super easy, use a winch to lift the ram and hold it up while you swap them.