Wood splitting wedges

Post by **mikepepler** » 31 Dec 2010, 15:33

To be honest, I'm usually wearing my chainsaw boots when using the maul, so there is some shin protection too. However, I've never had any shin contact from a maul, not sure how I would really? And I've only ever had a couple of glancing knocks on the toes (when splitting 2m logs, standing astride them), and probably would have been fine even in normal shoes.

lurker · Post by **lurker** » 02 Jan 2011, 00:53

I like chopping wood

It keeps you warm & is good exercise & everything splits if u wack it hard enough even gnarly stuff & seasoned oak etc. But its loads easer to chop all your wood when its still green.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 16 Jan 2011, 13:26

I heat exclusively with wood so have split a lot of it over the last forty years. The best method depends on the quality and quantity of wood to be processed. Ten plus cords of narrly twisted grain cull wood and a hydraulic wood splitter is the way to go. A pickup load of nice straight grained ash and a four pound axe in experienced hands does the job as fast as the kids can stand them up on end and step out of the way.
For wedges I like the traditional flat sided wedge as the round cone type spreads force in all directions instead of just two. A moment to look at the block and see the easiest way to split it between the knots and using any check cracks that are already forming and you know where to start your wedge. Pieces do fly off wedges as you pound on them so the points about safety equipment are well taken. I use a six pound mall to drive wedges and test blocks with the wedge end of the mall first to see if that is all that is needed.
If you do enough of this you will at sometime strike over a wedge and snap the handle off. Just whittle it down to the right size and rehaft it a couple of times until the handle gets too short to use. Take care while doing any of this with any method. Glancing blows seem to fly directly toward shins, chips go straight to the eyes and wood splitters will mash a hand as well as split a log.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 16 Jan 2011, 17:53

I bet that keeps you warm

!! Marvellous other 1/2 splits wood with an axe, and occasionally resorts to a sledgehammer with a splitter ("wood grenade").

We have some about 14" diameter beech (or something very twisty anyway) chunks which look as if they're beyond this system, mind.

Since I wear (sport-proof) specs I tend to forget about the eyes thing. Given that Fils is rapidly learning to do all this, perhaps we'd better get him some!

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 16 Jan 2011, 18:05

Splitting logs on a beautiful January day is definitely a good use of one's time:

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 16 Jan 2011, 18:07

Gah wood porn (drool drool...)

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 16 Jan 2011, 18:11

I understand, Candy, I understand.

It was made an even better day with the fact that I was on form - a piece split into, say, 10 required no more than 11 or 12 hits. The tiredness is quite nice too!

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 17 Jan 2011, 03:07

emordnilap wrote:Splitting logs on a beautiful January day is definitely a good use of one's time:

`

I can't relate to your pictures. January with no snow??I'm having a "mild AGW" winter here. Just under two feet of snow on the ground and as I write this at 10:00PM local time its +2 degrees F.
Wood does split very well when it is frozen solid but I'd have to shovel off the pile to find it first. .

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 17 Jan 2011, 09:41

vtsnowedin wrote:
emordnilap wrote:Splitting logs on a beautiful January day is definitely a good use of one's time:

`
I can't relate to your pictures. January with no snow??I'm having a "mild AGW" winter here. Just under two feet of snow on the ground and as I write this at 10:00PM local time its +2 degrees F.
Wood does split very well when it is frozen solid but I'd have to shovel off the pile to find it first. .

We have some absolutely marvelous days in January and February here. That particular wood splitting day was quite cold but crystal clear. The climate is generally damp or, to use the tourist office description, 'equable'.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 17 Jan 2011, 21:42

Marvellous Other 1/2 found the snow-free winters a bit unsettling, too. I've just had to look up 2 degF...about -16? Sorry, for some bizarre reason I use degF for hot days and degC for everything else, including the stove and the washing machine.

The worst of these stories happened on a 'plane coming in to somewhere in the Middle East when the announcement said "Temperature at the airport is 32 degrees" and I put on my heavy coat expecting one of those cold clear desert nights...security gave me some odd looks I can tell you

!

Such is life when you're the piece of string in the cultural tug-o'war between the States and the EU...

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 17 Jan 2011, 23:55

RenewableCandy wrote:Marvellous Other 1/2 found the snow-free winters a bit unsettling, too. I've just had to look up 2 degF...about -16? Sorry, for some bizarre reason I use degF for hot days and degC for everything else, including the stove and the washing machine.

The worst of these stories happened on a 'plane coming in to somewhere in the Middle East when the announcement said "Temperature at the airport is 32 degrees" and I put on my heavy coat expecting one of those cold clear desert nights...security gave me some odd looks I can tell you !

Such is life when you're the piece of string in the cultural tug-o'war between the States and the EU...

I must remember to do the conversions to Celsius myself. As the quest here any less would be bad form.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 18 Jan 2011, 23:10

Oh I dunno...it adds a bit of olde-world charm

PowerSwitch

Wood splitting wedges

Yankee point of view

why won't this post