Splitting Firewood with a Wedge and Hammer - Is it Easier than a Maul?

ah peace is almost too big to split of them all does anybody else ever struggle when trying to split wood with them all by hand now we all know the best way to split wood is with a hydraulic wood splitter behind a tractor or a small gas-powered one but if you only have a couple pieces to do like this typically a splitting maul is the best option now for a smaller piece like maybe this one I could find it with them all but I struggle sometimes with bigger pieces like this now you can tell this is a pretty hefty piece of wood here that's pretty big so this is all ash I was all cut last year so it's had about twelve months to age indoors and it was already dead when we cut it so this is about as dry as it's gonna get and I still struggle sometimes with the mall it may be the one that I'm using as you can see it's pointed here it's a lot more pointed here so you got to cut in two ways before it starts trying to split the wood - with an older style kind of more of a classic Maul would probably look more like this wedge kind of more blocky to wear as soon as it hits the wood it's trying to you know blow it apart so I'll demonstrate for you like with this bigger piece of wood I'm not a huge guy but I'm putting a pretty good amount of force into it and basically all it's doing is just digging in and not really making a good split like I want so this is a little trick regular basis and burn wood for heating their homes they probably know this tricks I'm not teaching not teaching anything new but anybody that doesn't know the better way to split big pieces of firewood is actually with a wedge and a sledgehammer it can be difficult to actually get the wedge started so I like to make a couple hits with the mall first to make a good indentation let's set this wedge in here get it sitting there yeah I get very good whack so by making a couple of marks with the splitting maul gives us the wedge to really get started now this may take more hits then it might win them all but if you think about it a mall you're hitting at about a hundred percent energy every time square with this you know I'm letting the weight of this hammer do the majority of the work this is a 12 pound sledge and I'm basically lifting it up you know lifting it up about two feet three feet let it drop and you can see how many hits it takes right there I'm through now I was only swinging it you know about 10% of my full potential to wear with them splitting maul wear with the splitting maul you're swinging it 100% every time now as you can see I'm having trouble getting it started so I can do is take my Maul make a couple hits with the mall now you see it did crack right there so this one probably would have split once I made the initial split here it makes us a lot smaller and easier to split so typically when you use the wedge to make your initial split and then you come back with the mall that makes it a lot easier but I'll just show you one more time once you get that wedge started you just kind of let the weight of the hammer do the work and it comes ready to park see that now once you get your splitting wedge out of there you have a smaller piece then you can typically go back to the mall see even there this is some hardwood that wedge is a lot easier there see me hits that took I got a big one here last one see that didn't even crack it just made an indent but that gives me a spot to put the wedge so I take my wedge in my hammer [Music] I will admit it's hard to get the wet started sometimes you gotta make a few more hits with your splitting maul but swinging that splitting ball takes a heck of a lot more energy and using this sledgehammer I'm basically just lifting it up what not fall I'm not swinging all that hard what the hammer do mostly work I will admit this big old things taking some serious hits but I'd still rather do this and swing that mall ever take me swinging the mall get stuck in the wooden you gotta pry it back over you hear that hear it popping now I got that wedge drove down in there a little bit too far I'm not gonna be able to get it back out I might be able to take my ball now and work it out get my wedge out of there know that it's broken apart might be able to get it with this now I think most people would agree splitting out an app like that would have not been easy with just this by itself straight at the best walk the show you end it it sounded good splitting water as you can see it's at least possible with a wedge I think this would be almost impossible with just the splitting ball [Music] [Music] those big pieces are not the best just because of the grain of the wood maybe I can show you on this one that would probably split the splitting maul but [Music] we're gonna do it with the wedge anyways [Music] see that that was pretty easy now we're gonna trade you this piece with just the small as a comparison we'll see how it goes my luck I'll do it in about two swings help if I could hit the same spot every time wouldn't it but like I said before each swing with this is about five times the effort of swinging that sledgehammer cuz you're just not putting all that much into it you letting the weight of the hammer do the work now normally once it's smaller like this what's a lot easier one thing that nobody argue against is the fact this what wood burns good so whether you think it's better to split with a mall or a wedge and Hammer that's up to you but for me the big ones that are hard just put lot less effort with these things so thank you for watching hit that subscribe button and I'll see you in the next video you and just give it a couple good hits times are hard to start now you just give it a good whack dang it [Music]

Channel: Section Eleven Outdoors

Views: 18,147

Keywords: firewood, homestead, bushcraft, woodstove, off grid, wranglerstar, knife, fire, heat, chimney, ash, maple, oak, wood, chainsaw, stihl, cut, crazy, funny, awesome, best, how to, coleman, barn, tree, SWEDISH HOMESTEAD, WRANGLERSTAR

Id: hdfPFou8nUo

Length: 13min 16sec (796 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 18 2020