Favorite wood splitting wedges

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Jan 15, 2007
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554
For splitting firewood ...
Do you buy anything better than the simple hardware store versions or vintage flea market wedges and then tune the profile? Do you like the additional ears like an Estwing? Ever use the center point wedges? How about the expensive spiral wedges?
 
I use a log splitter and an axe personally. As for fancy vs simple and old vs new, I have used some new ones my dad got in the late 90's and some old ones that I've found and I can't tell a difference except with styles/profiles. Some are thinner and "bite" better for starting a split and some just bounce out. As for fancy ones such as log grenades, they aren't that great. Later today I'll try and take a pic of the ones I use in use.
edit: The estwing looks like a nice one and the only one of the three I'd get. I'd just try one first, though. But number 3....:eek: $72.00!!!!!!! Its a wedge, people!! Hand forged on not that's still too much
 
My favorite has to be a Ludell triangular wedge like this one (pic not mine, though.) Extremely rare for it to ever get stuck and it's pointy enough that you can just stick it in the top of most logs without needing a starting tap whatsoever. Just watch your toes in wood that likes to blow violently apart! :D

vintage-ludell-splitting-wedge-stock_1_03c271e8f6664096cbf3e5f00c457bbd.jpg
 
I have the Estwing wedge with ears and like it. The one weakness is sometimes it wants to bounce out when it engages the sharper angle of the ears. I'm thinking about grooving them on an angle that helps them grab the wood and not slide out.
 
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My favorites are re-profiled standard wedges with a slightly concave bevel to make them stick better. There are a couple threads about them on this forum.
I have a wedge like the one in your first link. It's OK, but I re-cut the barbs with a cut-off wheel to help them grap better. It was popping out.

The Estwing wedge looks pretty good for a Made in USA wedge at that price.

The price of the Helko is stupid. $70! Yeah, with the twist it will open wider. But couldn't you open wider still with two $10 wedges?
 
I have a pointed wedge also but was not overly impressed with it. I think I need barbs in my Estwing. I was on the other wedge threads. Just wondering what everyone else likes--always looking for new ideas that I might have overlooked.
 
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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.
 
We get all of our wood cut and split. But as we have only a fireplace, sometimes my better half needs/wants smaller pieces. I usually keep a handful of kindling pieces for her, which I split using a wedge in hand and a 3# sledge hammer. The other day, looking for something completely different, I ran across a short handled maul, or wedge on a short handle as I thought about it. https://www.amazon.com/Truper-32691-3-Pound-Splitting-16-Inch/dp/B000KL0WXY Are these (in general, not specifically this one) of any use? I thought instead of holding the wedge in my hand, having it 16" away, I might be less likely to catch a body part if the wood happens to slip. I'm guessing the poll on these is intended to be struck.
 
I use a 20" miner's axe for making kindling. I've tried numerous other options and definitely prefer this one. It has sufficient weight for generating energy with a short swing, a short handle that works well when choking up, a long cutting edge to minimize over strikes or the head popping out the side as it travels down the kindling, and a thin sharp edge profile for making small starter wood. It's also the only combo that really works well for my wife to use. A long handle and she will sometimes miss on small pieces, a short handle on a light hatchet and she does not get enough momentum into it--whereas a short handle with a full-size head solves resolves both of those issues.

I've never used a wedge to make kindling. With a heavy head you can simply hold the head on the top of the wood where you want it and drop the wood onto the chopping and block and the weight of a full size head with a sharp edge will go right down through the wood. Just wear leather gloves for safety.
 
I have hardware store 3 and 5 pound wedges, and a 'wood grenade' winged wedge. For the longest time I hated the wood grenade because it always seemed to pop out. I got more aggressive with the 12 lb sledge and really making that first hit count and now I'm rather enjoying it. For the other two wedges I've reprofiled them to be convex edged and a bit thinner behind the edge so they initially stick better. Or maybe I just got better at making firewood with my Fiskars and my sledge and wedge(s), that's also a distinct possibility.
 
Depends on the situation sometimes but prefer the the cone style wedge. Goes in easy opens a crack for another wedge if needed. Though the cone is usually enough.
 
I think the premise behind 'wood grenade' style wedges is flawed. The idea is that you stick it in the middle of a round and let it find the easiest place to split the round. But already the middle is the toughest place. A wedge should be placed close to the near edge the same as your axe blow would be placed (unless you relish broken hafts). And you should have predetermined what line you wish to split, it may be through the center or it may be to some other point like splitting 1/3 off the right side of the round. On large rounds it's sometimes helpful to take a weak side off first. Then pick you next line, which again may or may not be through the center of the round.

When you've resorted to wedges you're already dealing with a big tough piece of wood. At that point you're going to have to be mindful of how you split it. All the youtube wood grenade 'how-to' videos show guys splitting little straight-grained rounds that you could make minced meat out of with 5 pound axe. Of course the wedge will split those. A boys axe would split them.

I've found that after 1 or 2 wedge splits the rest of the work can usually be done with a heavy axe.

Examples of some wedge work. These are 36" rounds of black cottonwood with a twisted coarse intertwined grain. Axe or maul won't touch it. Note how I start with a pair of wedges close to the edge. Once it starts to pop open I drive a 3rd wedge in on the far side of the split.
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You don't get nice straight splits out of this stuff. I try to plan my saw cuts through the largest branch crotches to make them easier to split.
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After they split the intertwined grain still holds them together. I used that big wrecking bar to pry them open so I could cut those strings with an axe.
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Dealing with a crotch. I split off the weak side first. Then I start 2 wedges on the near side wood directly centered on the crotch.
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This was some gnarly stuff to split.

All split.
All%20Split.jpg
 
I have a wood grenade, got at a yard sale. Wasnt impressed. If I'm using wedges to split, which I'll admit I rarely do, it's as shown above.

Usually though, I just cut a few sissy cuts with my chainsaw, and an axe will easily handle it after that.
 
That's some brutal looking stuff square_peg. i agree with the the idea of starting the grenade in the middle is flawed i always start it at the edge to open the round. It all depends on the wood, it can all be so different from one another.
I was bucking some 40" hickory into rounds the other week, it was green and a yard tree, the the cone (grenade) wanted nothing to do with that, just kept popping out. Did a starter saw cut and then used traditional wedges to finish them into chunks just so we could use the 2-man log carrier to lift them in the truck. It was fantastic.
 
I basically split the way Peg illustrated though I don't know if I ever split any quite that large and nasty looking. I started splitting large hardwood rounds with a wedge when I was 12. I had split a few each day after school. We just used the typical dull wedges you see farmers use. lol

I think the conical wood grenade has value for opening a split in the sapwood in order to start a split for conventional wedge if it keeps bouncing out. I have one but typically do not use it. I would still like to try a twisted wedge sometime. I'm wondering if the rotational force and the barbs would help eliminate the bounces that sometimes occur even after the conventional wedge is set.
 
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