Many people have a rustic notion of hoisting a mighty ax on their shoulder like Paul Bunyan and cleaving straight through a raw hunk of cut timber. It’s a fantastic image and makes us all feel like mighty, flannel-wearing outdoorsmen. But the reality is it’s not the most efficient or useful way to split timber into perfect hunks of firewood.
To do it right the first time, you need a quality split wedge and a heavy sledge to hammer it home. If you’ve used one before, you already know that not all splitting wedges are created equal. Some only split halves while others quarter your wood stock into ready pieces of firewood or kindling, and many have other exciting features that make them more useful than others.
In this article, we’ll take you through a few of the best splitting wedges available on the market today, detailing a few of their more exceptional features. To get the most out of your wood stock, however, you may need to try out a few different designs.
The Estwing Sure Split Wedge is a traditionally shaped forged steel wedge that does one main task — get the job done.
While getting genuinely excited about something that is essentially a hunk of metal seems a little strange to most people, there’s a lot to be happy about with the Estwing Sure Split Wedge.
It’s a hefty piece of steel construction, weighing in at 5 lbs, which gives it enough weight that it’s unlikely to shift much once driven in. It also contains an isocore to help absorb the shock of a strike, so you don’t get as much recoil every time.
The hand-sharpened and tapered cutting head almost guarantees a pain-free start as you tap it in, helping you limit the possibility of it shifting before your strike. Once properly seated, you’re ready to hammer it home where the sharpened cutting head opens up to the full angled wedge. But the truly exceptional part of the Estwing Sure Split is the wings on either side of the striking head which clear the wood away from the striking surface even after it drops below the wood line.
No matter how seasoned your wood is, you’re almost guaranteed a clean strike and a much easier time splitting. But take care of the steel construction as it can curl, sending off steel splinters if you don’t strike true.
The Collins Wood Splitting Wedge is a diamond-shaped wedge, also commonly known as a “grenade” because of how efficient it is at breaking apart logs.
If you don't have a diamond-shaped wedge like the Collins in your wood splitting arsenal, you are missing out. Unlike standard wedges, this breaks logs into nice quarter rounds, perfect for the fireplace.
The Collins is made from 7 inches of solid heat-treated carbon steel with an insulation sleeve to help absorb the shock of impact, so it doesn’t travel into your hands and arms. It has a sharp point, and a nice broad striking head. Furthermore, its fins are lined with teeth to help prevent it from shifting after the first strike. Unfortunately, the teeth don’t always bite the log quite as securely as necessary, so some shifting is possible.
The Collins wedge is perfect for getting smaller kindling or quarter rounds out of your wood stock, which is the mainstay of any respectable winter fuel supply. But be careful with the pointed edge as it can bend if you haven’t adequately started the wedge and then struck too hard.
Diamond point wedges also tend to get buried in logs if you’re not careful, but usually not to the point of being unretrievable⎯this is due to their unique design. Make sure your stock is well seasoned, and you shouldn’t need to worry about losing your wedge.
If you're looking for something simple with a classic design that gets the job done, the True Temper Wood-Splitting Wedge makes a quality wedge with few extra features other than a sharp cutting head.
At 5.2 lbs, it's one of the more substantial wedges on our list, and it's also one of the sharpest out of the ones that use a simple wedge design.
Aside from the super-durable quality made from heat-treated, drop-forged steel, there aren’t many “features” to this wedge. It has a square head tapering to a sharp point and no fins, so you may find it gets buried in logs. Fortunately, it’s easy to extract if you flip the wood over and let gravity do its work with a few strikes on the other side.
Despite its no-frills approach, the True Temper Wood Splitting Wedge gets the job done, taking on even dense, seasoned hardwoods like walnut with ease. Sometimes, the most straightforward designs are the best. These wedges are made in America and come in single, double, or four-packs.
Small logs and even some small to medium sized logs and stumps can usually be split easily enough with a basic splitting axe, especially if they are a soft wood, like pine and fir. But, when you are working with hardwoods and larger logs and stumps, you might want to upgrade your splitting tools.
You could of course opt for a heavy maul, like one with an 8+ pound head. The heavy head really allows for a strong downswing and should be able to split most logs in its path, even if it take a couple tries. Just keep in mind, every downswing requires you to lift that bad boy over your head. It’s easy to wear yourself down quickly.
When you know you will be working with very large stumps, skipping the smaller axes and jumping right into a wedge is a solid decision. You’ll be able to work at a much more efficient pace, and you won’t risk breaking the handle of your axe. Breaking a handle is not only a pain in the butt, it’s actually quite dangerous as you don’t know where the axe head will fly.
Not all wedges are the same. Just like any other tool, the quality of the manufacturing varies greatly from brand to brand, and even from model to model. Some designs look like your basic wedge shape, think like a brick of cheese, that split logs in half. Other more advanced designs, like the 4 way log splitting wedge design, are made to completely fracture logs into multiple pieces with a single blow.
Aside from the shape of the wedge, you should look into the material it’s made of. The better the steel and design, the more durable the wedge. A great way to know how long it will last and how well it will do its job is by reading reviews of those who have hands-on experience with the model you’re interested in.
An often overlooked an unthought of part of driving steel into large logs and hardwoods is that you generate a lot of force. Eventually the metal is going to bend or warp.
By opting for using a sledge or the poll of your maul with a wedge instead of just the bit of an axe or maul, you greatly sustain the lifespan of your axe or maul. And, while having to purchase another tool in order to sustain another may seem pointless, wedges are typically much less costly than a quality maul.
Aside from sustaining the lifespan of your maul, there’s another benefit to using a log splitter wedge when working on larger logs and hardwoods. When you know it’s going to take a little extra power to drive metal through wood, it’s easy to lose accuracy on your swing. That can lead to missing your target. When you use a wedge, you first place it in an existing crack. Or, if you need to you can hammer it in a bit like you would when setting a nail. That gives you a nice big target to aim for with your sledge or maul.
Plus, by using a wedge with the poll of your maul instead of the bit, if you miss your target you’re much less likely to seriously injure yourself. And, just in case you aren’t sure if they work as advertised, here’s a video of a self proclaimed beginner as using them making one from a piece of wood and using it to effectively split a medium-sized log.
If he can do that with a piece of wood, imagine what you can do with a piece of steel.
You don’t absolutely have to use a wedge while splitting wood, but if you are going to be doing a lot of work, there’s no reason not too. They won’t break the bank, and over the long term they will probably save you money.Besides saving you money, they can really speed up your work thus saving you time. And, they tend to be safer than using only an axe.
If you know you’ll be working on large stumps and logs or with especially touch hardwood, do yourself a favor and get a quality splitting wedge. Your wallet, hands, and maybe even your legs, will thank you
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