Hard wood splitting showdown

P

phantomknives

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Mar 31, 2016
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as you can probably tell, i'll be testing as many patterns as i can on what i think is white oak, i'v been called to split for some relatives and havent seen the tree. i'm going to find as many comparable sized rounds as possible and test them one by one. i will not be testing a Connie, michigan single or cruiser as i dont have any axes of that nature well suited for splitting.

Please add on to this thread if you'd like to conduct your own testing. take all results with a grain of salt as we all have different levels of strength and lengths of handles.

The contestants from left to right : 6 1/2# Kentucky on 36" (not fair but it's flat cheeked and i'll find a knot for it) 4 pound KP Jersey on 36", 3.5# Sager Puget sound (olympic) on 36", 3.5# Plumb Western on 36", 3# illigetimus on the dubious 32" House handle (apparently they'v never made a 32" handle) 2 1/4# Plumb Dayton Boys axe on 24" handle, last but not pictured, a 4# Legitimus Dayton.

and of course a sledge with a wedge.
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Now i Would love for one of you west coasters to conduct a similar test on a ubiquitous wood because they're different, as we all know.

I will hopefully find myself chopping tomorrow and return with results
 
Obviously the 6-pounder is at a big advantage. Amongst the rest I'm betting on the PS falling axe if the twist method is used.
 
Another criteria might be how much your body aches after swinging for a while! Just getting that 6 pounder on the 36 inch haft moving in a forward direction with any force might be a taxing challenge. :mad:
 
My money is on the Kentucky and Jersey. White oak is not difficult to split but more than Juniper or Spruce. I think Mulberry is harder than white oak, then live oak as you go on up. I'll check in tomorrow. Do you sharpen your axes with a file and stop? DM
 
Square_peg said:
Pay attention to the various grinds, too. Which release the best, which stick the most, which split the best.
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David Martin said:
My money is on the Kentucky and Jersey. White oak is not difficult to split but more than Juniper or Spruce. I think Mulberry is harder than white oak, then live oak as you go on up. I'll check in tomorrow. Do you sharpen your axes with a file and stop? DM
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All of them have fairly steep cutting bevels, except the illegitimus and the kentucky (because it has very wear-resistant steel and is ridiculous to grind) which have shallow splitting bevels. no i don't strop or stone them, i just take a fine file and create a micro bevel which i feel is more than sharp enough for chopping
Curt Hal said:
Another criteria might be how much your body aches after swinging for a while! Just getting that 6 pounder on the 36 inch haft moving in a forward direction with any force might be a taxing challenge. :mad:
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what's really rough is when you get it stuck and try to lift the log to give it the ol' ground pound to break it loose
 
In a recent episode of 'Alaska:The Last Frontier' you see 70 year old Atz Sr. showing that method to his grandson. You can almost see the discs in his spine flying out like watch springs! :D

I just grab a wedge and a single jack. Tap! Tap!
 
In an axe training class I had a big, young, know-it-all guy who got the axe stuck in a 8" dia. stick. Before I could stop him, he flipped it over and pounded the poll of the axe on the splitting block with the 8" dia. stick still stuck to the top. His theory was that the weight of the stick would help finish the split. It did, only problem was when it split, one half bounced off the block in the air and broke his nose. so much for youth and know-it-all.
 
He became a wiser person afterwards, though, at least :).

The price was steep but that's one lesson he'll never forget.
 
VgRyUpb.jpg

So this chopped as expected, one hit for everything, nothing took 2.
HHDyxZJ.jpg

This guy took 2 to split a round but same story, pegs you're right with your big ol jersey method
2OBzhhz.jpg

Kinda disappointed, the sager here would been great if this wasn't stringey, wet red oak.
dN6VHhb.jpg

Gotta say, kinda disappointed with this guy, it stuck, it didn't split well but it does chop so that's one thing.
Doht1xt.jpg

The illegitimus splits like I remember, not the best but nice nonetheless.
ox0ld1i.jpg

Now I know why you boys axe guys recommend it, this split it all with 1 hit just like the KP but I imagine your back would hurt pretty good afterwards
eoRiDL7.jpg

This was just painful. This one at least, is one of the worst splitting 4 pounders I have ever had the displeasure of using.

In terms of ranks, top 3 would be kentucky, KP then the boys axe. If someone has a load of Doug fir or grand fir, which ever softwood you have, do some testing and let us know
 
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This was great, but where is your chopping block? I sure wouldn't want to split much wood on the ground for the sake of my back and my axe!
 
FLINT77 said:
This was great, but where is your chopping block? I sure wouldn't want to split much wood on the ground for the sake of my back and my axe!
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Well, that's the thing, I didn't have a block. As I mentioned before this was kinda sight unseen, the tree was already cut up, I couldn't use the stump cause it was cut a bit wonky

There weren't any rocks in the area and I used a "golf club" swing so I could control the depth of swing a bit better, the big kentucky just blasted straight into the dirt though
 
Square_peg said:
I drive a wedge in ahead of and in line with the axe until the axe is released. Much less work than lifting a log. Though I'll admit to having flipped a few logs over, too.
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Ok, I see what you're doing. I can do that. I wonder how well it will work. DM
 
Let us know how it works on your oak.

And we've had discussions about wedge bevels on this forum if you're interested.
 
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