A more modern way is to pull the roots through the claws of a framing hammer. The bark slips off easily. Cleaning the hammer claws is not a problem. After the roots have been stripped of their bark and root hairs, they need to be split. This is not hard, and is even fun when the method is learned.
Most roots have a dark line or dent in their surface.
Start the split with a knife or teeth along this line. Hold one side of the split in your mouth, and the other side of the split in one hand, placing the other as shown in the picture below. The trick is to keep the split pieces equal in thickness. Keep the thin side straight. Once you master this, there is nothing hard to splitting roots.