Log Splitter / Sledgehammer

[Silverhooker]

I’ve broken several grenades, they aren’t very good. Sounds like you need to get yourself set up with a maul a proper splitting axe and a few odd wedges for the awkward stuff. I’ve a Wetterlings large splitting axe and a husqvarna maul, have the block at a good height with a tyre attached to catch the shrapnel and then just I just hand load in to a big plastic barrow.

Really crappy bits I either chainsaw if I can be bothered or just burn whole in the garden fire pit as they often aren’t worth the time and effort ! 

[openspaceman]

22 minutes ago, neiln said:

The poll on most axes isn't hardened.  It's soft and easily deformed. The eye is also easily deformed.  Some axes have a hardened poll but the eye will still be softb so pounding on an axe like a wedge is always bad

Prior to cheap  steel of known grade I think many axe heads were made of a folded piece of iron with a piece of high carbon steel then forge welded between the ends. I've never seen any evidence of this in any axe heads I have come across so guess by the late industrial age and the coming of Bessemer steel of a known carbon content became available and axe heads were made from that in one piece.

[neiln]

But hardness and toughness is then produced by heat treatment.  It's 25 years since I did metallurgy, but the martensite/austenite form is not down to 'ingredients' alone, it's the time, or not, given for crystals/carbon precipitation to form, the heating and quenching.

I'm not saying you can't get shards knocked off, you can, just that the poll is rarely hardened.  So don't use the poll to strike anything more then a plastic or wooden wedge.

[openspaceman]

18 minutes ago, neiln said:

But hardness and toughness is then produced by heat treatment.  It's 25 years since I did metallurgy, but the martensite/austenite form is not down to 'ingredients' alone, it's the time, or not, given for crystals/carbon precipitation to form, the heating and quenching.

I'm not saying you can't get shards knocked off, you can, just that the poll is rarely hardened.  So don't use the poll to strike anything more then a plastic or wooden wedge.

I agree, yes the modern axe head will be hardened at the cutting edge only, as it can be sharpened by a file it will have been tempered to take the brittleness out.

 

Even mild steel can throw shards. look at how a wedge gradually deforms and mushrooms as it is struck, if the lip isn't regularly dressed it will eventually fly off. I started work in the industry a bit late, I worked with two old guys who had worked as woodsmen in the war and they were both 64. Fred had lost a calf muscle when he slipped onto a running saw and Ted an eye missing when they were felling and Fred hammering the wedges when a shard flew into his eye.

[Dazza95]

I used to use the 6lb Roughneck maul and grenade from Screwfix, the grenade was useless but I thought the maul was OK until I had some large and knotty field maple to split. After a bit of reading on here, I now have a Ochsenkopf Big Ox splitting maul which is absolutely fantastic, although it might be a bit overkill/tiring for lighter strain grained stuff. I also have a Stihl rotating splitting wedge which is much better than the grenade. I believe the Ochsenkopf maul is the same as the Sihl Pro Splitting maul which was only available in the US when I last checked.

 

 

[drinksloe]

Must admit I quite enjoy splitting with an axe, and really really like the X27 split some stuff with it.

 

I now have set up a splitting bench, with a sleeper laid about waist hieght in a banking, I find it a far nicer hieght for working and swinging an axe ( but spent a lot of time fencing swinging mels, so very familiar muscle memory at that hieght.) Before that just had a big log cut at that hieght for splitting.

Rarely need to bend down at all, a tyre really works well

Lucky I have a banking I tip logs on the top to cross cut/log them and they roll down towards my splitting bench.

Letting gravity do as much work for me as possible

 

My record is filling a 6T dumper skip in 45mins, was fairly easy splitting wood thou, usually takes around the hour mark.

No idea wot tonnage/M3 fill a 6t skip thou

[neiln]

1 hour ago, Dazza95 said:

I used to use the 6lb Roughneck maul and grenade from Screwfix, the grenade was useless but I thought the maul was OK until I had some large and knotty field maple to split. After a bit of reading on here, I now have a Ochsenkopf Big Ox splitting maul which is absolutely fantastic, although it might be a bit overkill/tiring for lighter strain grained stuff. I also have a Stihl rotating splitting wedge which is much better than the grenade. I believe the Ochsenkopf maul is the same as the Sihl Pro Splitting maul which was only available in the US when I last checked.

 

 

Snap! Except I hated the maul very quickly too.  Yes the Stihl stuff is the ox with red paint.  The stuff available state side and here she's differ.  I have the 8lb pro cleave hammer which isn't available over there.  It doesn't split.  It smashes.  I just get it out either to start a big round or to smash a knot apart.

As I said, take lots of axes to the pile and if one doesn't work try another.  X19, x27 and the Stihl cleave hammer is my basic arsenal. 365 xt if it still won't go after a couple of swings.  And because real axes are cool and I wanted little projects over the summer I've got a gba, about 3 HB, 2 saw, a sandvik and an unnamed Swedish head.... Some I've hung, some I've yet too.  Also a Kelly the t temper, elwell, 2 Gilpin and a brades.... They all get a go occasionally and the 2 5 to 3.5 lb range on a be 28 - 30" head can be great for rattling quickly through a lot of stuff.

[neiln]

For the odd occasion I do resort to a wedge, I've a couple of roughneck twist wedges and another straight one I forget where from, are the ones I reach for. And a 6lb sledge is ample.

[echoechoecho]

The Fiskars X27 splits well but I'm a bit disappointed with the quality of the steel as the edge of mine rolled over and eventually chipped off while splitting a couple of m3 of particularly gnarly oak. I ended up having to grind the edge back so the angle's not as acute as it once was.

My favourite combination is the Fiskars iso core 8lb maul I bought from German Amazon for a good price (they called it a builder's axe?) and an old 6lb Elwell felling axe. The Elwell is sharp with a big thin head, so it either splits astonishingly well or gets stuck. Nothing inbetween.

If the Fiskars maul and Elwell can't do it then I'll plunge the tip of a saw a few inches into the end of the log to cut a slot for a twisty wedge and bash it in with a sledgehammer.

[NJA]

Looks like I've been beaten to it... I've got a log grenade which is useless and a fiskars X25 which I'd recomend every day of the week not been defeated yet