JUNK maul gets the job done

[gben]

Handle; rotting, cracked, split, chipped and loose. Head; chipped, broken, rusty. Price; Free.

An old maul that was stored in a leaky basement for decades. I decided to see how long it would go before the handle broke or the head came off. After a few splits the head moved up about a quarter-inch then stopped. The handle took one partial hit below the head on one swing that went a bit far.

I don't know what tree this was. It had leaves like a Walnut, but the wood was very heavy and was not dark like Walnut. Where there was no knots it split easily like Ash. I was able to stack two clear logs end-to-end and split them both at once, and I was able to make a lot of splits just swinging the maul like a golf-club and hitting the pieces on the end. Lots of fun. If I get the time I will re-wedge the head onto the handle and give the handle a good soaking with Linseed oil and we will see how long it can go.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

Back around 1975 I chipped a Snap-on 32 oz. ball peen hammer on the very first strike after I bought from the Snap-On tool truck salesman. The chip was very small, perhaps like a capitalized O on a page of newsprint. It has not chipped since and has served me well. This little chip was quite sharp! It went through a denim work shirt and lodged about 5/16 of an inch in my fat belly! Thanks to a old awl in my tool chest I was able to remove it and went back to work. Now looking at that chunk missing from your splitting maul causes me to wonder if the "chip" took place during use and did it knock the guy down swinging it or just send him to an early grave?

 

[gben]

[QUOTE="Hairy Clipper, post: 19542497, member: 242877" Now looking at that chunk missing from your splitting maul wonders if the "chip" took place during use and did it knock the guy down swinging it or just send him to an early grave?[/QUOTE]

Good question. I figure someone either did something really stupid with the maul, or it had some sort of defect. I knew the previous owner and he died from diabetes complications about three years ago. I think the maul was HIS father's though, who died in 1967, at the age of 67, from a sudden heart attack. Too bad none of them are around to talk to anymore, they were interesting people.

 

[FLINT77]

I don't know what tree this was. It had leaves like a Walnut, but the wood was very heavy and was not dark like Walnut. Where there was no knots it split easily like Ash. I was able to stack two clear logs end-to-end and split them both at once, and I was able to make a lot of splits just swinging the maul like a golf-club and hitting the pieces on the end. Lots of fun. If I get the time I will re-wedge the head onto the handle and give the handle a good soaking with Linseed oil and we will see how long it can go.

I'm pretty sure your trees are Ailanthus, also called, Tree of Heaven. It is an invasive species from asia. Good to cut all that you see before they produce seeds. They have compound leaves like Walnut - and it may be heavy now, but when it dries, it will be lighter than poplar. Total junk wood. I noticed the tree in your other post with the yard sale Flint edge where you cut it down, and thought to myself that it looked like ailanthus.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

I'm pretty sure your trees are Ailanthus, also called, Tree of Heaven. It is an invasive species from asia. Good to cut all that you see before they produce seeds. They have compound leaves like Walnut - and it may be heavy now, but when it dries, it will be lighter than poplar. Total junk wood. I noticed the tree in your other post with the yard sale Flint edge where you cut it down, and thought to myself that it looked like ailanthus.

Thank you flint for identifying, it was giving me no end of trouble, (actually I just couldn't figure it out).

 

[Blackcloud]

After years in home construction, remodeling and repair there is no way I would have a tool that beat up, abused and damaged laying around for someone to pick up and take a chance with. Handle would have been removed and the head used for a door stop in the shop or regulated to the iron scrap pile. I have seen too many accidents over the last 50+ years. To each their own however.

 

[Square_peg]

I'm pretty sure your trees are Ailanthus, also called, Tree of Heaven.

Around here they get confused with Oregon Ash because the leaves look very similar. But the leaves on the Tree of Heaven grow adjacent while the leaves of the Oregon Ash grow opposite.

Tree of Heavan.

Oregon Ash.

 

[garry3]

I ounce worked for a guy that planted some of them, actually he paid me to help him plant them. Seems we just stuck some cutting in the ground and they took root. He also later paid me to try and get rid of them, unsuccessfully. They sprout suckers from the roots, fuzz up my hay fever handling them too.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

G gben , love that maul, the older a tool gets the more character it seems to have.

Unlike some people .

 

[gben]

I am just cutting them down because they are on a fence-line that might get a new fence in the near future, and also because they are shading some hardwood trees that I don't want to see die. If I can save a nice beam or something out of one of the trees it will be interesting to see how it seasons and what I can figure out to do with it. It may not be good firewood but all wood can be used for something and has it's pluses and minuses.

 

[garry3]

I am just cutting them down because they are on a fence-line that might get a new fence in the near future, and also because they are shading some hardwood trees that I don't want to see die. If I can save a nice beam or something out of one of the trees it will be interesting to see how it seasons and what I can figure out to do with it. It may not be good firewood but all wood can be used for something and has it's pluses and minuses.

From the wood data base...

Workability: Easy to work with hand and machine tools. Turns, glues, stains, and finishes well.

Common Uses: Cabinetry, turned objects, and paper (pulpwood).

https://www.wood-database.com/ailanthus/

 

[Hairy Clipper]

garry3-Thank you for posting the link to the wood-database website. It looks like it has a lot of good information.

 

[gben]

From the wood data base...
Workability: Easy to work with hand and machine tools. Turns, glues, stains, and finishes well.
Common Uses: Cabinetry, turned objects, and paper (pulpwood).
https://www.wood-database.com/ailanthus/

At some point many thousands of years in the past, there were primitive people living in some region where wood like this was all that was there, and they did not sit around and curse that they did not have the woods that people in other parts of the world had, they knew nothing about anything beyond their horizon, and they used whatever they had for whatever they needed. It is easy to be a snob about wood and many other things. Some woods may work better in different conditions and use, but they will all work to some extent under any condition and use.