HounsAs we're all here, any recommendations for mauls, axes and websites to browse/purchase?
For similar money to the Fiskars X27 you can get the Husqvarna* which I am always raving about. It's 95% as good as the Gransfors Bruks splitting axe but the over-strike collar on the Gransfors is useful (some rubber tape does a similar job for the Husqvarna).
I also have a maul I bought from B&Q (maybe) because it was pretty light - it's 3 or 4kg iirc. I really only reach for the maul for really nasty stuff and in most instances where the splitting axe isn't enough, a sledgehammer and some wedges is probably as quick as the maul.
Edit: *Cosmetically similar axes are available from Hultafors and Wetterlings, apparently most of this stuff comes out of one town in Sweden and I read somewhere that Husqvarna traditional axes were Wetterlings factory seconds.
Houns - cheapest maul with a wooden handle, they are very simple tools and money buys no improvement.
Small axe for kindling, whatever takes your fancy, more money can get you nicer with these in terms of weighting, shape, edge hold.
I'm cheap, I use an old 1956 pattern British Army machete for creating kindling.
Also, I bought a cheap £18 splitting axe from B&Q, so far its flying through freshly cut logs, even those I thought were too long to easily split.
For kindling I wedge the maul on the ground between two breeze blocks pointing upwards and use a mallet or similar to hammer bits of wood down onto it. I reckon there's less risk both to fingers and to the blade edge that way. (Got the idea off youtube, didn't make it up myself).
Splitting axe - x27 or x25 if you prefer a shorter handle, that's the super value tool choice. Husqvarna s2800 sightly more, slightly heavier and for some a better tool.
The artisan choice is the granfors.
I disagree completely re no need for a better maul. These tools are hard work and take a toll on your body. Cheap ones batter you through vibration back up a fibreglass handle, plus the overstrikes will break it quickly. Pay more for ash or best hickory stick. Spend more for one with an overstrikes protection. Better tools also have far better steel, and keep an edge, they may also be suitable to hammer wedges, cheap ones won't, they will mushroom badly. Cheap ones will come loose on the handle too. However most of all a bad maul will stick if it doesn't split, alot, and freeing it is hard. Good mauls have a good shape and don't stick. I have a Stihl pro cleaving hammer and it is a beast. The cheap maul from screwfix i had before was awful. I got the stihl for £35 but it's worth the full retail of £85. However, if i could get one, I'd spend my money on a fiskars isocore maul. Except fiskars UK don't sell it and have no plans to (i asked). There are one or 2 sellers that will ship from Amazon.com but it's then well over a hundred quid with import tax and shipping, twice its US cost. However, as mauls go, the isocore is the daddy.
Our mauls at work were cheap 30 years ago, they fell 100's tons of wood every year and split a fair bit (admittedly more before we got the machines). Few handles in that time, mostly operator error. Even rediscovered one after being left in the woods for 25 years, new lad now uses that.
You can spend more if you like, but the basic design works.
Save your money to blow on bikes.
Pay more for ash or best hickory stick
There's nothin' like a nice piece of Hickory
Timber, either 30 years ago a cheap maul wasn't as 'cheap' as a cheap one today, or you are luckier than me in your experience with them. I find them hard work and appreciate the assistance of better quality one.
Got the trunk ringed up and partly split today. Calculated that each ring weighs about 100kg - no wonder I could barely move them. Thankfully I could tip them into the loader on the mower and place them on the splitter ...... you've just got to love hydraulics!
Wasn't too much of a drama as it turns out the bar on my saw is 18" and not 16 so I had a bit more wriggle room. I'd forgotten that I bought an 18" bar to replace the 16" - I realised when the new chain I bought this morning didn't fit 👿
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As luck would have it I've spent the last few days splitting. Some kind of knotty conifer, cypress maybe. For the first half of the first day I was swapping between the maul and the splitting axe, tweaking my wrist with the maul in the process. Today I didn't even lift the maul and I can honestly say I don't think I'll be using it again any time soon. If you're clever with the splitting axe it can do 90% of the work of the maul for half the weight.
The shorter handle means I can use a taller splitting stump meaning less back ache, more arm and shoulder work, better accuracy and the wooden handle transmits less vibration.
For context this was stuff between 8 and 30 inches diameter. Things that an average man can move or just about move. Easily splitting the small stuff and carving up the bigger bits. And in terms of longevity the maul is already cracked, whereas the traditional wooden axe can be re-handled an infinite number of times making it better vfm in the long run.
So for me at 5'9 and just under 11 stone I much prefer the splitting axe to the maul (the lightest maul I could find). Your needs may vary.
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Here's a cracking forestry trick
Can also just put a groove in the stump if felling in bigger trees that is bar length to stop it twisting.
