Rick, when you say hedge, I suppose you are talking about Maclura pomiferia, it is called several names, bois d'arc, osage orange, horse apple.
A very hard , yellow wood, a super pain to cut, the latex sap gums everything up, you need to use kerosene or diesel to lubricate the saws.
It is about immune to rot and termites and is very hard to split.
On the subject of splitters, the fastest and most low maintenance powered splitter I have seen is the conical screw type, they make one that just installs on the PTO shaft, no hydraulics and no valves, just push the wood on the starting screw and stand back.
Search for, " screw type log splitter for tractor", there are a number of different ones available, including a bunch on ebay, $99 and up.

Yes, Osage Orange. And it does all those things to mentioned. I have never used one of those round splitters but I understand they have a poor safety record. However, for the amount of wood I'm going to burn, that just may be the ticket. Regards, Rick.

A neighbor had one, he loved it.
Another friend had one powered by a 5hp gas engine, he said he cpuld not stall it even with a 24" piece of sweet gum, which is about the worst wood to split I have ever seen.
I did not hear of any safety problems.

Here's a link to an interesting place about firewood: https://electrosawhq.com/how-much-is-a-cord-of-wood/

Paul

At lease I'm still fit enough to cut my own....Sometimes John has to help me split the big pieces. I've looked a various splitters but almost all of them are a 2 man operation and I am a one man show!