Who Builds The Best Maul? You'll Be Surprised

you guys asked for it and I'm going to deliver its X testing time stay tuned to the end because one of you is going to win your choice of one of these beautiful forged Pandi axes said the shepherd to his wife the crebbil haze just literally hundreds of things that we could test hardness splitting ability all the things but the thing that really has stuck out to me it's been kind of nagging at me since I opened these boxes was this little jewel right here and I think many of you share my my pet have shared the interest that this peak to me as well as yourselves what an interesting design very unusual is it revolutionary is it something it's going to be better than these other ones so today what we're going to do is we're going to find this do what I'm going to call the stick test you know when you really put a mall something with all your weight into the log in you can't get it out this particular around that I have here it's got a pretty good knot in its going to hold up really good I had some trouble splitting it's fellow so I think it would be good for the test so is this design better than what we're used to so what's the theory behind it well here's traditional ball right here here's my granddad's old splitting ball this was my go-to Maul and I want to add I picked this up today and I thought wait a minute something is very different about my Oh Moll why is the handle burnished I don't burnish the handle they looked at the black and it's got my signature trademark black handle at the end and I realized that unbeknownst to me someone has built and hung a custom-made handle on this for me and I think I know who it was when we were out of town when we go to town we have a good friend Allen who house it's for us and watches our dogs he is a big big axe guy as well as a member of the family and Allen put a new head on this didn't even tell me our new handle on this and didn't even tell me about it might have been split I had some over strikes on it and it was just time for a new handle and never mentioned it I just now I'm realizing it so Thank You Allen I was very kind of you so but here's our traditional mall getting back to it here what most of us are probably using here is a similar version of it here that wanted the heavy Prandini splitter look at the weight on that thing if I thought this one was heavy this one's really heavy narrower at the tip with that little kind of a little baby beard there kind of a curvature going there and then we have what else do we have here we've got the traditional which I really like the Swedish style a splitting maul straight handle just like the Americans American as X are splitting malls but a very narrow design good penetrator right and then completely on the opposite end of the scale and one that I have been thoroughly enjoy is the Basques the Spanish head this head hung like a Maddux you know as you know I've got previous videos on this very wide very different schools of thought on splitting to say the least right there so you know I mean well I'm obsessing now once I start obsessing on axes we can just go on on and on these videos can just get too long and I don't want to try to cover too many things so we're going to get to it and we're going to cover the stick test which mall head is the easiest to use and the easiest to extricate from a gnarled round who decisions decisions who is going to go first let's just go let's just go left to right let's start with the bass caps all right so here's what we're going to do I'm going to sink this thing into this round with all my strength as hard as I can and we'll see which one is the easiest to extricate all right number one okay put a lot of force on that not too bad we've got a nice split across there I was hoping that this round would hold up a little bit better let's try it over here okay that's better I didn't want it to split so to get these out a good at a good mall you should be able to just kind of hit this and pop this and it should come out with the heel of your hand that's taken quite a bit of force pretty hard on my hand hurt my hand a little bit and that's the problem that I've ran into with the Basques axis as they are great splitters they carry a lot of weight however what they do really stick in the wood let's go to number two so for number two we'll go with the Scandinavian representation here or very Scandinavian style right there that is a handsome splitter isn't it look at the faceted small pole on them and that really speaks to me that's a that's a thing of beauty straight handle boy that's a good one let's see how it how it extra Kate's itself from the round alright number two Scandinavian splitter boy I don't like this these varnished handles I'll tell you that I feel like I I'm going to lose it not not proper okay hard as I can oh that's a good old bite right there okay so how is it to get out here let's see oh very nice much easier than the then the Spanish axe just because of that size what felt so good I want to hit it again with that one but we got to keep moving on here stay on track now we're going to bring out the big gun oh it looks German to me big overbuilt heavy chunky built to last but how interesting it's got that little that little mini beard on there I've never seen that before a little bit more surface area maybe I don't know but this is a this is a heaviest Maul I own so let's see how it fares in the stick test alright this is for Germany here I don't really know if this is a German design that's just kind of the feel I get you know it comes to mind it just kind of speak what comes to mind when I see it what I've seen kind of like the old the old ox brand okay here we go boy this is a bruiser here hard as I can oh that's a good one right there oh look at how it penetrated that is a that is a monster of a mall that is a look at look how deep it went what that really got after I feel like I could do some real work with that but be a man at the end of the day let's see how it comes out though the one palm hit Oh piece of cake and that's going to be because of that fat wedge on there you know that on some some harder stuff it may not penetrate that well but that's good I I gotta say that's that's real good alright now for the one we've all been waiting for you know you know we're all we're all kind of pulling for this one how does it work very unconventional design a lighter much lighter a shorter handle but still a good amount of weight in it I would consider this to be almost more of a splitting axe than a mall but let's see how let's see how she does I think it's very handsome but time will tell this poor fur round doesn't stand a chance with all these fine splitting balls speaking of splitting in the comments a lot of you guys are from the East Coast you know you don't don't burn a softer wood like this actually Doug Fir most of you think I burned pine I don't burn pine I mean if I have a windfall and it falls down I mean I'll throw it in and burn it there's consump concerns about creosote and your chimney really gumming up because of all the resins in the wood we run our fire pretty hot because we're here all day and we're heating all the time I've never had an issue with that simply clean it actually I've got a video that I want to do on chimney cleaning that we'll be doing here pretty soon but fur is a great firewood so it rubs me the wrong way sometimes the elitists you some of you are elitist from the east coast like well that's just stupid burning fur you know we burn hard word over here well you know you burn what you have right so you know if you're going to take that route you can say well we're just going to be cold we're not going to have a fire because we're not going to burn for we're not going to burn pine and actually lodgepole pine some of the best firewood there is out there so just because we don't burn maple or oak or some of the cherry or some of the hardwoods it doesn't mean that they're not effective and they're good woods for burning we burn what we have and that's that's how we keep our house warming and I don't know how many cords you guys go through but I go through about no more than four a year and and we're here all day long that fire is going from dusk till dawn so fir is a great great firewood it's the best all-around wood that there is for furniture making for structural strength firewood you know everything being equal and if you're going to average all out a fir beam is stronger than an oak beam on timber framing because the oak is so heavy it can't carry its own weight it starts to fail because it can't carry itself where the FIR has that perfect mix of strength and lightness so that's it so a word a little mini rant on the on firewood okay so we got the the Prandini receipt goes oh man nice that feels good I love it that went deep I went really really deep as you can see there so how does it come out easy easy comes out with one hand and that's a nice splitter at the great size I kind of tend to like kind of like the smaller or the shorter handle the splitter axes rather than the big ones they seem and this is a good one because it's just so heavy look how strong that how strong that handle is how much wood look how much woods going into the into the eye of that I mean that's not a little oval that is a big substantial piece of wood this is a well designed axe right here alright to finish up our test here going old-school grandad splitting wall this is the splitting wall that most do you probably have right here classic standard American design six seven pounds or so we'll see how it does in the stick test all right this one's for granddad granddad's old splitting maul this has been my go-to for years and years we'll see how it does compared to these fancy Italian as he used to say at Italian he was a ford mechanic and he didn't think too highly of Italian cars you know Ford had was putting their engines in the Pantera and he had to work on them I'm back in the 70s he's too used to not be not be really stoked on it okay full strength granddad's mall traditional go America here Oh yep that's what typically happens with that is the bounce the dreaded bounce back which I don't like that's what we get with this often times because I don't know what it is I think just the wedge I think that the wedge is too fat it's too wide and it doesn't have enough weight to carry it and when that when that Maul bounces back like that I don't know this I'm not not I'm not the science guy but it seems to me that some of that energy that you're putting into splitting the round is being wasted it's not all going and forcing to the outside of that stump seems to me I don't know 400 percent sure but that's what I don't like I don't like a mall that does that so I have an idea so let's look this over I think it's got enough strength left in it let's bury all three of them again hard as I can we'll take a sharpie and we'll mark a line on there then we'll compare to see which one penetrates the first what's that going to tell us I don't know probably doesn't tell us anything but it'll be interesting to see you want it all right we'll flip this guy over stay tuned don't leave because I'm going to tell you at the end of this video which is coming here shortly how you can win one of these your choice anyone any one of these axes or malls or hatchets and I'll ship to you okay so there we got a now try to turn this way we got a big old knot in there let's try this right here all right so let's go in reverse order s kind of the way of kind of stacked up here we'll go with granddad's civil mici I'm going to run them right along here like this and then we'll measure them and see which ones penetrate the best all right I'm gonna go full out here hard as I can Oh yep there you go there you go man America's not looking so good today okay let's go here we got the got the hybrid the print this has to say I really like this one what I which one would I grab was going to go out split a cord I wouldn't grab this one with the varnished handle on it but I'd probably go take the varnish off and I'd swing the happ's shorter handle let's go here full strength here oh I hit a knot that's not fair guys good over okay there's that one we're going to go with the big German go Germany here big Brutus Bruticus looking for some consistent grain oh boy that just knocked around right off of there be hard-pressed here where am I going to put this one I better know this is this test is totally bogus but it's still fun let's try it right there oh it's just too much for it the old first has got to go it's just these are just all flight fine splitting balls oh man that nice chunked off there nice - wow this isn't going to tell us anything let's just go ahead and let's hit it with this one a few times oh that's nice Oh beautiful ah now that that there is a proper splitting act like okay here's a look at this that's a that's where granddad's axe just bounced out of that that hard not err these fur knots are hardest glass sometimes let's see if I can hit it square on that knot this is the hybrid chopper and see what happens I got a really it's hard that handle being shorts gonna throws off my stride a bit ooh boy that just knocked it right off there oh no bounced out - that's what you get with not so I mean you're just asking too much so hits in the same place there as granddad's ball it bounced off let's go right next to it oh whoops I guess I had my eye on their hit exact same spot still didn't go see go right to the left of it one time I was deer hunting hey archery hunting and my his big old buck came up a nice four point we call him four points that means an eight point two you guys east we only count one side so if it's a got five and four we counted as a five where you guys kind of add them all up together figure the some nice four point and I didn't shoot pins I mean sights I shot you know what they call I forget what they call it just instinctive instinctive and I was so excited I just remember that arrow rattling on the side of that riser and pull back and release that arrow and where do you think it went went right between us antlers right where I was looking and that's what happens usually with instinctive shooters is is you know Robin Hood's style as you shoot where you look and sailed right through it that's right Rhys looking so that's what I just did with this thing here okay we're gonna oh that's a good that's a good splitter right there here I'll tell you what one last thing before we get to the to the giveaway I had a I had a really nasty one that I was having trouble splitting and I set it aside here it is I said to decide because I had hitting it or hit it with my splitting ice that Weidman right there about a dozen times you can see there and it wouldn't split it was uh didn't even come close to splitting so let's see let's see if we can we'll try it we'll try the the top contenders and see if one of them will split it I know it's not really fair but it'll be fun to see alright here we go oh my goodness how about that was it just that it was time for it to go I don't think so I don't think so because it was not even budging boy I hope you don't choose this one well if you do it's yours I said it oh I'll honor it let's try to let's try this one here one last one here this is where it's really bad that that not if I can hit it it's a pretty small target there with the big the German Bruticus bruiser oh yeah spun on me good thing I didn't hit how many cameras did I destroy here what would happen they're kind of flipped on me anyway I think that's enough let's get to the giveaway I think we've proved here I don't know he's proved we had a good time watching some goofball splitting wood on YouTube right okay the contest how's it going to work all right let's get to the contest all the prandial sent to me I'll let you pick out whichever one you want so how do you win one you simply have to comment on this video just anyone who comments I'll use a randomizer I'll select one of you and not only that but I'll make a video of your acts for you I'll announce you on the next on the next video or when I do the video giveaway I'll do a test on it I'll sharpen it for you will put it in a cheese I'll package it to it you'll get Wrangler star official carpenter pencil that you can't buy you'll be one of the very very few people have one of those and a handwritten letter from me so which one is it going to be is it going to be the the small splitter or is it going as the small axe or you're going to choose that's number one this is number two the small splitting Swedish style axe number three Bruticus the boss number four Oh Adolf should have fight excluded this one the American fan blade felling style axe so that's a good one it is a good one number 1 2 3 4 we got for number 5 the hybrid splitter man you saw what it could do today number 6 the Swedish the small meet or the medium-sized splitter number 7 the beautiful fan tailed hatchet and number 8 the classic kind of the classic American camp hatchet right there is there anything else I'm missing I think that's all of them yep that is all of them so all so comment comment on this video and you will be entered in to win one of these I'll announce it very soon let's say we'll do it you know maybe 24 hours let's say 48 hours 48 hours to do that so 2 days I'll do it on Monday was it on Monday Lord willing I'll use a randomizer I didn't know what a randomizer was till I watched KC nice tat he did a giveaway and there's a program out there you can just push it punch in the URL for this video and it will select the winner so I'll do that live so you guys can see it'll pop up you'll see at the same time that I do and thanks to Casey Neistat for that again if you haven't checked out his channel he's probably my favorite Channel I know he is because in the morning when I get up and we have our coffee or morning ritual that's the first thing I check I really enjoy his videos and I have a great amount of respect for his how creative he is really like them he's inspired me to take producing videos and what I do more seriously put more time into it and has been a big inspiration for me and I would love to do a collaboration with him someday I would go to New York to do to hang out for a day so if anyone knows him personally tell him put a bug in his ear tell him he should dog maybe who come out here and we'll let him cut down a tree with a crosscut saw so can't hurt to ask right alright thanks for watching good luck on the contest don't forget to leave your comment and if you haven't subscribed already I invite you to do that and we'll see on the next axe video

Channel: Wranglerstar

Views: 686,796

Rating: 4.8727937 out of 5

Keywords: axe, splitting axe, splitting maul, gransfors bruks, small forest axe, top ten axes, top 5 axes, fiskars axe, wranglerstar axe, splitting firewood, who makes the best axe, who makes the best maul, wranglerstar, how to split firewood, axe review, top 10 axes

Id: b_UMrtjVGMg

Length: 22min 9sec (1329 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 29 2016