I recently bought one of these – can I use the flat side of the head as a sledgehammer in conjunction with a splitting grenade? Don’t want to buy one, then find a shattering mess shooting into my eyes.

Ta

That’s what it’s used for

As it’s a maul I would say yes.

Generally ok to do with Mauls, but not axes.

johndoh – Member

I recently bought one of these – can I use the flat side of the head as a sledgehammer in conjunction with a splitting grenade? Don’t want to buy one, then find a shattering mess shooting into my eyes.

Ta

It should say on it. Or rather, it’ll say that you shouldn’t. I have a maul which I use mainly as a light sledge for punding wedges and the head has mushroomed badly in addition to the resin cracking around the eye and damage to the haft. The warnings on it specifically stated not to use it as a sledge but I’ll be damned if I’m carrying a 6lb maul, 4lb splitting axe and a sledge, and *splitting wedges.

I wear eye protection when using it as such though as shards of metal and wood do go flying.

*Cheap splitting wedges from B&Q which are far better than wood grenades imo.

Not that there’s anything wrong with using it but I find it ok for the occasion Al grenade deployment but I’ve found it easier to chuck all wood that needs the grenade to split it to one side then break out the sledge. It’s just nicer to work as it’s more balanced.

Generally that is for when you have a log stuck on the blade, you can turn the axe over and swing the flat end onto your base block using the weight of the log to push its-self further onto the blade/split it. Its a carbon steel head though, so with the normal precautions for steel on steel impacts (goggles at least), it should be fine for a splitting wedge as well.