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GB LARGE SPLITTING AXE or 31" Splitting Maul w/ Collar Guard #450
- Thread starter warman
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2009
- Messages
- 1,946
well, i have the splitting maul. and love it. i/we go thru 6-7 cords a year (not face cords,real cords). so i split alot of wood.
GET THE MAUL if you rely on wood for heat. if your just going to use one or the other for the fire pit or car camping then the large spltting axe would probably suit your needs better.
it all depends on your needs IMO.
we heat and cook with wood so i/we (at my request the wife bought it for my b-day) decided to purchase the maul last sept. i used a sledge, wedge, axe combo for years. then decided to consolidate into one and choose the GB maul.
bottom line; it's worth the money with the 20yr warr.. and is a damn pleasure to use, i use it everyday with joy. a quality tool in ones hands makes one smile
i've been eyeing the small splitting axe just because i want it, but it will have to wait 'cause i can't afford it right now. don't need it anyway, i just would like to have it for camping and such... any ol' excuse will do
GET THE MAUL if you rely on wood for heat. if your just going to use one or the other for the fire pit or car camping then the large spltting axe would probably suit your needs better.
it all depends on your needs IMO.
we heat and cook with wood so i/we (at my request the wife bought it for my b-day) decided to purchase the maul last sept. i used a sledge, wedge, axe combo for years. then decided to consolidate into one and choose the GB maul.
bottom line; it's worth the money with the 20yr warr.. and is a damn pleasure to use, i use it everyday with joy. a quality tool in ones hands makes one smile
i've been eyeing the small splitting axe just because i want it, but it will have to wait 'cause i can't afford it right now. don't need it anyway, i just would like to have it for camping and such... any ol' excuse will do
I certainly can't NOT recommend the GB maul. It is very nice and works well. Having said that, though, I tend to use my Husqvarna splitting axe a whole lot, especially when I'm splitting aspen (which I burn quite a bit of, proportion-wise). What kind of wood are you going to be splitting? That might make the answer easier to come buy. If you're splitting something that will basically never need a wedge, then you'd be just fine with the splitting axe. Can't drive a wedge with it, so if you might have to, then the maul is the obvious choice.........in both cases, GB puts the metal collar on. Wish my Husky had one of those......
-ben
edit: I have both of the above, and tend to be less sore when using the splitting axe (lighter weight..........)
-ben
edit: I have both of the above, and tend to be less sore when using the splitting axe (lighter weight..........)
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I live in the NW corner of the Arkansas Ozarks. This is the home of American hardwood. Most of the oak railroad ties that helped build the US railroads after the Civil War came out of this area. We have lots of white oak, red oak, ash, hickory and elm. This wood can be a real b_tch to spilt, especially below a crotch or a piece that has a lot of old branches in the grain. The elm can be next to impossible, if you have a gnarly piece. I've been using a Fiskars with lots of success, but if I get a really gnarly piece of elm or other twisted grain wood, it's almost impossible to split. I just took delivery last night on a Big Ox splitting maul. My buddy who has cleared a site to build a home gave me the equivalent of 2-3 cords of wood from his site. I've split most of the 18" logs with my Fiskars splitting axe, but needed something for the big bad stuff and the Ox just wasn't able to split it. After bragging about my new $120. splitting maul, I attempted to split a piece of elm that the Fiskars and my 8 lb maul had laughed at. I gave a mighty swing of this 6.6 lb German splitting maul and much to my chagrin, the maul bounced straight up int he air 3 times. I tried it again and finally got to split around the edges of the 24" round, but the center with two whorls of grain resisted everything I attempted. So, I'm not sending back the Big Ox and am going to give the GB splitting maul a try and hope it does the job. I heat the whole house with hardwood.
Wow, old thread! As a note, if a maul is bouncing, ie not penetrating or splitting even a little, it is because the radial compression of the wood is too high. Flip the round on its side and whack the side a bit to open up the outer grain, then see if that helps the splitting. To split, we need a place for the wood to go, and if you don't have that, nothing is gonna work.
Square_peg
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
- 13,793
Use splitting wedges on the really tough stuff. Grind the edge very slightly concave and it will bite and never bounce out. That way every blow counts for something instead of just being rejected. This works great on elm and even works on London Plane (yes, there's a wood harder to split than elm). London Plane has a coarse intertwined grain that just won't let go with ordinary splitting tools. On the plus side it's super BTU rich and will light practically without any kindling. Best firewood I've ever burned.
Proper grind on a hardwood splitting wedge.....
Proper grind on a hardwood splitting wedge.....