splitting maul RSS

Most people learn to split wood the same way. They watch someone do it once, or they figure it out through trial and error. They develop habits that work well enough, and over time those habits become invisible. The guy who learned to swing with a death grip on the handle keeps swinging with a death grip on the handle for twenty years because it gets the wood split and nobody told him there was a better way. There is a better way. Splitting firewood well is a skill, and the technique that experienced splitters use is faster, easier on...

The Fiskars IsoCore maul is the most purchased splitting maul in America by a wide margin. You can find it at every Home Depot, Lowe's, and hardware store in the country. It is consistently reviewed well. It has genuine engineering behind it and it works. If you own one and like it, you are not wrong. We carry the Council Tool Ol' No. 7 at Whiskey River and not the Fiskars. Here is the honest breakdown of what each tool does, where each one has the edge, and why we made the choice we did. What Fiskars Gets Right The...

Most guys who split firewood regularly never touch the edge on their maul. They figure a splitting maul is a blunt instrument, it drives wood apart by force, and keeping it sharp is for guys who do not understand how splitting works. That thinking is mostly right and partly wrong, and the partly wrong part is costing them work. Here is what sharp actually means on a splitting maul, when it matters, and how to fix the edge in ten minutes when it needs it. What a Splitting Maul Is Actually Doing A splitting maul does not cut wood. It...

If you are shopping for a splitting maul and you go looking at the options, you will find a wide range of prices, materials, and marketing claims. Some of it is accurate. Some of it is the kind of confident language that survives only until you swing the thing into a frozen round of white oak in January and find out what it is actually made of. This guide covers what actually separates a good splitting maul from one that will frustrate you for years. Then it tells you which one we carry at Whiskey River and why. What a...

If you have re-handled an axe before, most of what you know applies here. The process is the same job. But mauls have a few specific characteristics worth understanding before you start. The eye is larger. A splitting maul head has a bigger eye than a standard axe head. That larger eye accommodates a heavier handle that can withstand the forces involved in splitting wood, which are different from chopping forces. When you split, you are driving mass into wood along the grain and the energy return when you miss or glance is significant. The handle needs to be up...