# Splitting a big log with wedges (pics)



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

I mentioned this hard maple log in another thread http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=4760 
50" across, way too big for my little mill.

I tore into it this afternoon. I saw a crack up near the top where a big branch had been damaged by wind. I don't usually go to this trouble, but this log has figure in the grain, especially up by those limbs. So I grabbed 4 iron splitting wedges and made some bigger hardwood ones on the shop bandsaw.

Pretty straight forward, drive a wedge in whack it with a sledge and repeat. I did not think to take pictures until I had it opened up a little. Maple is not a log a guy normally wants to split this way (interlocking grain).

The pictures are just to show it _can_ be done. If you ever want to try yourself feel free to shoot me a PM :laughing:, I will find you one. Just eat your Wheaties before you show up.


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## Terry Beeson (May 29, 2008)

Daren,

Been there, done that, got the tee shirt... You find out what kind of cajones you have when you work on a project like that one for sure...

But you've got me thinking about a variation of a hydraulic log splitter to do this... Might be something worth the time and effort...


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Terry Beeson said:


> But you've got me thinking about a variation of a hydraulic log splitter to do this... Might be something worth the time and effort...


I have cut a deep square hole with a chainsaw in the butt end of a huge oak and used a 20 ton bottle jack to open it up (just barely). That was years ago and I lost the pictures in a computer crash. I took a steel plate to spread the load on the little end, the cylinder head (it would have just dug into the log without pushing it apart) I have ripped these biggies with a chainsaw like in my avatar, wedged mostly oak, hydraulic jacked them...they all work your butt off. For perspective the little pieces in the picture I am left with are a ton each easy. A feller has to be careful even to make sure it does not split all of a sudden and pin him, that is a broken leg. Whack awhile and stand back and listen to it crack. It is a strategy game too...never get all your wedges stuck at the same time :whistling2:.


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## dirtclod (May 7, 2008)

I've done a lot of firewood blocks that way in order to get them light enough to roll to the splitter. After 4-5 of them it begins to become work. Around a dozen you're saying to yourself that you have enough split for that session.

I've also split a number of fence posts using what I call a walking-wedge method. But I've yet to split a log to go on the mill. I have a big one laying now that I'll follow the natural cracks to split. I may have to cut a recess for a bottle jack to get'er over the hump.


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## Terry Beeson (May 29, 2008)

Daren said:


> ...never get all your wedges stuck at the same time :whistling2:.


I've never done that... :icon_cool::whistling2:


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