Favorite wood splitting wedges

The thing I'm starting to like about that wood grenade wedge is it's so easy to get the little point down into a pretty thin or short crack if you have one. From there a couple of taps sticks it well enough that a full blow from a sledge should start that log apart so long as you're accurate enough. That being said, I've never seen a piece blow apart like they would have you believe.

If the wood isn't already checked and if it won't go with an axe, I start a 'normal' wedge (the 5lb being my favorite) at a 45 degree angle on the edge of the cut face of a round, like you would if you were splitting rails (not that I've done that but I watched a bunch of videos on it one day).
 
thunderstick said:
Never tried coming in on a 45 degree from the edge ... would have thought the round would move with each blow.
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Normally by the time I have to resort to that it's because it's a big honking round that's been really stubborn and it doesn't tend to move much. Or I just get enough friction from the dirt in my backyard, however it works it seems to do the trick.
 
A17 said:
I've made large wedges for continuing splits made with steel wedges out of a pine round using a hatchet. The only 2 size limits are practicality and the size of the rounds near you.
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I often do this same thing with what’s available. I think those are more “Gluts” than wedges though.

Steel wedges are something I pick up when I find them but I also have a couple of old maul heads that are softer on the striking ends that get used as wedges. Appropriate? -probably not but they mushroom as opposed to chipping. I have a larger Council Tool one I haven’t used yet but looks the part after putting a good edge/bevel on it.

Here is a short video clip showing gluts in a Choke Cherry “singing” while being split.

 
So now I got some striations cut into my wedges. The first is just behind the sharpened ramp and the second one about 3/8" up slope. I cut them in with a down sloping angle so they bite when trying to bounce out when setting the wedge. On my Estwing I put 2 striations on the wings as the wedge often bounces when you go from the main shank and start up the wings. I need to get some more big rounds cut to test my work.
 
What I found worked best varied widely depending on the species of the wood I was trying to split.

In general I got tree trunks from the town I lived in by making a deal with the guy who got the contract to remove the trees the town forester had condemned from the street side shade trees, by the simple expedient of giving him a place to dump trees without requiring him to truck them 100miles out of state.

Most of those trees were either hard maple (sugar maple) or Norway maple (swamp maple) with an occasional white oak.

I once had to cut up a fallen Black Oak that fell on Post Office property. and splitting that was a breeze, as black oak (also sometimes known as "swamp oak") was rather wet when it fell "blown down by a tropical storm. and usually requires prolonged curing, but cold weather intervened after I had it cut up and as it was a rather tall straight tree when FROZEN in the single digit temps it split easily with a firm tap of my 6# maul. I had a 30ton log splitter, but that Oak was so easy to split when frozen, it simply wasn't worth the work to drag the individual chunks to the splitter.

But I did also learn to NEVER cure Oak indoors!
 
For large oak logs (4 ft+ diameter) I use a couple of wood grenades to get it started, then put a conventional wedge between them. Then move one of the wood grenades down and start another conventional wedge. Walk the crack down the log and then start working on the end. Then start levering with a splitting maul.
 
My procedure for dealing with "large rounds" (24" or larger) was to use a large chainsaw and cut them lengthwise into quarters so it was not as much of a ball buster to get them under my 30ton vertical splitter.

If cutting large chunks of maple lengthwise, I'd always save a few garbage pails worth of those long thin curls, because with a few glowing embers, as much of that shredded curls as you could grab from the bucket with one hand and a forearm sized bundle of "finger" wood I once went over 120days without lighting a single match in my wood stove
 
Just in case anyone doesn't know above and beyond the fact that firewood needs to "cure" ("curing" is more than just drying out it actually gets into a "fermentation" process where sugars in the wood convert into various "Alcohols" Which sadly evaporate, but also help carry water away) each species of tree makes a distinctive smell when it does so and Black Oak smells like urine as it cures and dries, after cutting it with a chainsaw you will REEK of urine and if you try to dry it indoors everything in that building will smell like urine too.

The wood burns well after it is well dried, but I recommend against burning it in an airtight stove, because it tends to make smoke even when "cured" for 18-24months, and against burning it in open fireplaces, because it spits sparks almost as much as hickory does.
 
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