Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: justsomedude on February 10, 2017, 01:54:56 pm
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I have a 5# Estwing splitting wedge and a couple of roofer's hatchet heads that I am currently using. The Estwing isn't sharp and it's big. The hatchet heads are sharp and narrow. Any recommendations on medium wedges? I don't want to ruin my good axes, hatchets and tomahawks by hammering on them.
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Get some railroad spikes.
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I dont blame you for not wanting to use an ax for a wedge.
I cut hardwood wedges cut from oak dunnage. Make the skinny end just wide enough to follow the cheapo-chineese hatchet you use to start the split with.
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I make wooden wedges (properly called guts), out of Osage or whatever I am splitting. Get the split going with a steel wedge, free the wedge using a glut, then repeat, leaving a glut in place of the wedge each time.
Beat me to it Willie! Maybe a little more detail with both posts. :)
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Buy a few steel wedges for 8-10 bucks each and never worry about it again. Whatever you choose, wear glasses/goggles and pants EVERY time you split staves up. You WILL catch shrapnel.
I start the end split with my axe and sledge, then chase the split the rest of the length with wedges and sledge.
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I use plastic fallers wedges. A lot of people don't like them but they've worked great for me. Wooden wedges(gluts apparently) work well and you can make them on the spot. Don't have to pack them in or out. Bonus!
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I have to say this, because honestly, it surprised me when I tried it out. I've bought lots of cheap Chinese and Mexican steel splitting wedges. Once a piece of flying steel cut me right over my eye. Scared me a lot!!! I carried the fourth one back to my farm and tractor supply store to complain about the way they broke up, mushroomed out and spit a piece of sharp metal at my legs or forehead.This old guy that works there part time stocking shelves came over and asked to look at the offending wedge and just started shaking his head from side to side. I asked him what he saw and he told me that he had been a tool designer and machinist before he retired 12 years prior. He told me that the wedge I brought in was a very cheap Chinese made knock off of an old wedge design he had seen for decades, but that it was just not forged correctly and was made from far inferior steel. Then he took me to a section of the store where they had all American made farming and professional tools. The wedges he had there were between twice and four times the cost of the wedges I had bought before, but I have yet to round off an end or shatter either of the two I bought that day. They are just far superior. I still have the old cheap ones too, and I use them like people typically use the wooden gluts. ...but if I'm starting the lines to split out a stave, I always reach for one of the good steel wedges.
I've also made gluts out of Osage and then I shape the heads on them to fit tightly into a two inch diameter copper pipe cap. Mind I don't drive hard on these. I just use the maul to set the wedges and walk them down the stave to split it out. Make sure you cut you gluts WITH the grain of the wood, and I always put the stump end of the wedge toward the head where you hammer against it. I'm not sure that makes a big difference, but it made sense to me, so I did it that way.
OneBow
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Like Pearly said, WEAR EYE PROTECTION when splitting staves. I had a small piece of a hammer chip off and hit me right between the eyes on the bridge of my nose. It felt like I had been punched. I couldn't touch my nose for several days because it was so sore. If that chunk of metal was a little left or right I would have lost an eye. Since then I have always wore safety glasses while splitting wood.
Here are my wedges. I use 2 axe heads to start the splits on the end of the log. I picked these up at garage sales for a buck each I think. After that I use various wedges to work the split down the log. Some of the wedges are shorter and have a flatter angle. Others are longer with a more blunt edge. I use them for different types of work. It just depends on how the split looks before I stick the wedge in. I use the long chisel to cut the stringers inside of the logs.
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv22/Outlawstaves/20170210_151539_zpsyp3ji4p9.jpg) (http://s666.photobucket.com/user/Outlawstaves/media/20170210_151539_zpsyp3ji4p9.jpg.html)
One of the axe heads was welded back together when I got it. I filled the eye with steel rods and welded it up solid.
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv22/Outlawstaves/20170210_151747_zpsubwqsvzo.jpg) (http://s666.photobucket.com/user/Outlawstaves/media/20170210_151747_zpsubwqsvzo.jpg.html)
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And I use a 4 lb mini sledge to do all of my splitting. Even on 20" plus osage logs.
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if they are soft enough to mushroom, you might need to dress the head occasional to prevent shards and curls from getting to big.
If it is so hard that it will not mushroom, but just shatters, throw it away.
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That's why I like railroad spikes. Not as prone to throwing shrapnel. I've never actually had one do that. They are the modern "antler wedge". ;)
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I have at least 15 good steel wedges of various sizes and tapers but not ONE of them has the least bit of mushrooming, cracks, or spalling on it. That's what breaks off and comes at you like a bullet. I take care of them like I do any other tool. They are sharp, smooth, square headed and slightly rounded around the head edges, and they got touched up and painted last summer. I don't hammer on my axe heads. I keep one cheap, crappy hatchet to hit on, but that seldom happens with so many wedges ready for action.
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Wow...thanks! I had a feeling there was a better way
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I've had the same 6 steel wedges for close to 40 years splitting wood to burn before making bows.Still as good as ever.Get em at farm sales cheap.
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How to make a "Glut"
http://lumberjocks.com/daltxguy/blog/27573 (http://lumberjocks.com/daltxguy/blog/27573)
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I'm taking some of my wedges to work so I can clean up the mushrooming. My wedges get quite the work out.
What kind and size of trees will you be splitting? That will determine what kind of wedges you need. The railroad spikes might work well on smaller stuff but I don't think they will do much on a big gnarly osage log.
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I'm generally splitting Elm of about 6-7 inches in diameter. I kerf and then get the split started with a normal wedge and then use the spikes to open it up as I go. Any strands can be cut with a saw or slim hatchet.
Obviously normal wedges are fine. Spikes are just free by the bucketful if you scan the edge of the rr tracks. :)
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For staves, I use a crappy old harbor freight axe for starting the split on the end of the log and then use combination of wood plastic and steel wedges depending einceon situation. Plastic or wood wedges are great for when you have to hike in and split a big tree on sight. I have bought all my wedges second hand at garage sales.
I have come to appreciate how much wedges and sledges can vary in quality of steel from experience splitting doug-fir into arrow bolts. We have some newer cheap wedges and we have this one old heavy wedge stamped IRELAND. That Ireland wedge is always our go to wedge. It doesn't mushroom and it sure feels better driving it. Somehow it absorbs blows better.
(http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k633/Acer_circinatum/IMG_6994_zpsok5xmyia.jpg) (http://s1119.photobucket.com/user/Acer_circinatum/media/IMG_6994_zpsok5xmyia.jpg.html)
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I have a friend with 100 acres, a tractor and a giant bandsaw/milling setup :)
He lets me hunt his land too and it is full of Osage, ERC, Hickory, Persimmon, Locust etc.
He is clearing some land at the moment....
I will scout out some trees and he'll help me cut, haul and cut them up.
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If you have mushrooming going on you need to grind it off. That is the dangerous stuff. As mentioned properly made wedges won't mushroom until that have years and years of service under them.
Cheap modern wedges are another example of poor materials being used because most can't tell the difference.
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Buy a few steel wedges for 8-10 bucks each and never worry about it again. Whatever you choose, wear glasses/goggles and pants EVERY time you split staves up. You WILL catch shrapnel.
I start the end split with my axe and sledge, then chase the split the rest of the length with wedges and sledge.
+1
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Am I right in saying that if you keep the end you hit dressed and tapered a bit you won't get shapnel?
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Not to the point where you can dispense with safety glasses.
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True nuff.
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I got a cheap half hatchet, a pointy 'grenade' wedge, a flat wedge and I have the big Estwing.
I wear glasses and padded gloves
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My collection includes two old Craftsman wedges, two old 'farm bought' wedges, two 'antique store' wedges, and two felling wedges. I got the sears ones years ago. Not a bit of peening. The others, well, handle only with gloves, however for a couple of bucks each, worth it. Might as well toss in a splitting maul/sledge. I have used as many as four at a time on some recalciterant osage logs.