The maul is to firewood splitting what the claw hammer is to carpentry—the dependable, affordable, old-fashioned, nothing-works-better tool that makes the whole business possible. Superficially shaped much like a woodcutter’s axe, a splitting maul features a much thicker, heavier head than an axe does. When struck against the face of a “round”—a section of a log already cut to the desired length—a maul first penetrates the wood and then acts like a wedge to force the round to split apart. The basic principle is the same as the old sledge-and-wedge technique of wood splitting, in which a sledge hammer is used to drive a steel wedge into the wood, but except for the toughest splitting problems, splitting mauls are faster and easier to use. With a splitting maul, there’s no need to set a splitting wedge in the wood, and if you miss your target, you won’t damage your handle by hitting the wedge with it. You also won’t run into situations in which you’ve driven the splitting wedge completely into the wood without getting the wood to split apart, a mishap that will force you to free your wedge before you can get back to the wood-splitting chore at hand. There’s a nice introductory article about using a splitting maul on the Internet at woodheat.org.
There are lots of good splitting mauls on the market. In general, look for a splitting maul with an overall length of about 34 to 36 inches, which for someone of average height is about the right length for a wide, powerful swing. Traditionalists like their hickory handles, but fiberglass handles are far more durable. (One wag reports that he converted to fiberglass after breaking so many wooden handles that his wife suggested that he just buy a truckload of handles and burn those instead of firewood.) A handle guard is a nice feature that protects the handle immediately below the head from overstrikes. Mauls that feature a sledge on the side of the head opposite the blade are handy for driving a splitting wedge when you encounter a really tough piece of wood that you just can’t split with your maul alone.
Splitting mauls come in a variety of weights, and weight is a key consideration. If you can handle a heavy maul, it will strike a round of firewood with greater authority than a light maul will. But heavy mauls are more tiring to use, and a maul so heavy that you can’t swing it fast and accurately is likely to be less efficient than a light maul swung quickly and well. A maul with a relatively light, six-pound head is good choice for splitting relatively soft woods, such as fir, pine, and aspen. Most home wood splitters find that an eight-pounder is better for hardwoods, such as white oak, hickory, and black birch. There are many exceptions, however. Some straight-grained hardwoods, like northern red oak, white birch, and chestnut oak, are typically easy to split, and a six-pound maul will handle them just fine if you have a fast swing. Big-diameter rounds are almost always harder to split than smaller ones, long pieces are harder to split than short ones, and knotty wood is harder to split than relatively knot-free wood. Select your splitting maul based on the kind and size of the wood you expect to split most often, and on the maul weight with which you’re most comfortable.
Tags: Greater Outdoors
