Hand Splitters....HELP!!!!!!!!!!

[brisawyer]

I dont know what you did to the fiberglass to get it to fly off. On the wood handle cut a slot in it. Cut a good poplar wedge with an even taper. Clean the eye of the maul coat it with gorilla glue coat the wedge too and assemble. Drive the wedge in with a deadblow. go to the hardaware and get 3 metal wedges for hammers and put them across the wood wedge. This help the head stay on by expanding the handle in all directionms. Keep it dry water swells the wood but it has nowhere to go so the fibers get crushed and shrink back smaller when dry.

 

[Soilarch]

Edit:

I looked a little at the epoxy when I tapped it out of the 8#. Still some fibers from the handle stuck in it. (about a 1/2x1/4" chunk) So I think I may have just received one to many 'oops' on a wedge.

The wooden one what's bothering me. I'm gonna take the original handle back tomorrow and see what they say. (Can't hurt?) As of about an hour ago they are both wearing new hickory handles. Took a good about of whittling (I didn't have a rasp handy). The 8# with fiberglass had a very strange shaped eye. It's a sledge eye but was tapered on both sides. Looks real ugly but I got her snug and tight with alot of wedge in there then filled voids with epoxy. 6# was a single bit eye. It was much better, epoxied it as well since it was there and handy.


Somehow I don't expect the 8# with a sledge eye to be very forgiving. Interested to see how it holds. I checked the felling axe I hung about a month ago. It's still air tight, but the eye and handle matched up much better.

We'll see. If these don't hold I'll guess I'll have to drop some money on something better, cause $10 a stick is gonna add up fast...and is time I could be swinging instead of whittling.

 

[habanero]

I totally agree, I have a 15 pound monster maul and love it for splitting the big or hard stuff, but why the hell are the handles so short on them!!!

I've often lamented the shorter handle on my monster. Dad has one he never uses so one of these days when he finally decides to give it to me, I'm going to modify mine with a longer handle (mine has sort of a bend in the handle already from before I got it while his is straight-so mine's going to be the one to get modified). I can't imagine it'd be that difficult to cut off the old handle and weld on a new one. We'll see anyway.

And by the way for those that think you need to be a football player to use a monster maul, I'm 5'11" and just under 150 lbs and have split about 5 cord a year with one for the last 5 years. Heck, my wife swings it and she's 5'7" and about 125 lbs.

 

[A. Stanton]

Whatever maul you use, I would encourage you to buy one of those rubber boot protectors, that slide down the handle to the maul. I've had the same maul for close to 25 years, with a wooden handle. And haven't broke one handle yet. I credit it to the boot protector. I do have a log splitter now, but I stilll use the maul to fine tune kinling and split big rounds when I'm cutting in the woods.

 

[Coldfront]

Those protectors that slide down the handle are ok, but for $6 a pop you could buy 6 rolls of electrical tape, what I use. Wrap the crap out of the handle just below the head with tape works as good as the high cost protectors and a lot easier to put on. Also on the bottom of the handle I wrap it with hockey tape and it won't slip out of your hands when you get a little ice on your frozen gloves. I also like a 6# maul an 8# wears on you, I can split a lot more with a 6#.

 

[urhstry]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Truper-Axes-12-...39:1|66:4|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

 

[BaldSawRunner]

I totally agree, I have a 15 pound monster maul and love it for splitting the big or hard stuff, but why the hell are the handles so short on them!!!

From my experience, the Monster Mauls had short handles on them to try to make the welds hold longer. Between my dad and myself, we went thru 5 Monster MAuls, and every one of them broke at the weld where the handle and head welded together. I am guessing a longer handle would have made this weld break sooner than it did. Just my thought.

 

[Soilarch]

Alright, I took the 'new' 6# back today and they actually worked with me! ('My' handle didn't last any longer today....again, not broke but just slid off...at least I could blame myself this time.) Took the credit and put it towards a 14# Monster Maul thingy. Then I found one of the fiberglass handled maul/axe hybrids things on clearance at walmart. It had the single-bit type handle on it instead of the wavey "egro" handle the ones at Lowes have so I picked that up as well.

So...my arsenal for tomorrow includes:
MS460 magnum
3# felling axe (hickory)
8# maul (hickory, sledge eye)
14# Ugly Monster
4# Maul/axe (fiberglass)
"Log Grenade"
2 'regular' wedges
A cooler with water, gatorade, my beloved Diet Coke, and some energy bars.


There's a little of the white oak left and I put a shag-hickory, a oak, and a an elm on the ground today. I may regret the elm, but it needed to come down.

My trucks coming home with at least two full loads tomorrow:chainsawguy:


Is elm usually easier green or dried to split? (Easy and Elm shouldn't be used together, I know.) It's a thin enough trunk I may simply buck it and haul... or leave it and come back around Dec.

You guys have been a big help.

 

[Brushwacker]

From my experience, the Monster Mauls had short handles on them to try to make the welds hold longer. Between my dad and myself, we went thru 5 Monster MAuls, and every one of them broke at the weld where the handle and head welded together. I am guessing a longer handle would have made this weld break sooner than it did. Just my thought.

Put a piece of solid iron in the hollow and weld the head back on and they hold up.
I haven't found a maul that splits better in the wood I split most of the time then the Monster maul. I have gotten used to the short handle and I'm 6'. Bought a longer handle steel maul somewhere and it didn't work as well for me namely cause it was lighter I assume.

 

[superfire]

wedge

this my advise for a wood maul
go buy the flat style of hand wedgez. the flat wedges have riffles to keep them in the wood. they should be put in at a right angle to the cutting edge sand the handle fairly smooth and saturate it linseed oil. the handle will last longer.put two wedges in and soak the :censored: in linseed oil and you should have a good maul. another thing i do is to put a neck guard of some sort on the neck of the maul,prevent fracturing the handle at the neck of the maul.
hope this helps

 

[Wood Doctor]

Those protectors that slide down the handle are ok, but for $6 a pop you could buy 6 rolls of electrical tape, what I use. Wrap the crap out of the handle just below the head with tape works as good as the high cost protectors and a lot easier to put on. Also on the bottom of the handle I wrap it with hockey tape and it won't slip out of your hands when you get a little ice on your frozen gloves. I also like a 6# maul an 8# wears on you, I can split a lot more with a 6#.

I use 80-lb test nylon mason line wrapped up near the head in a boy scout lashing knot. About 60 wraps will do it. That not only protects the handle from shattering, it strenghthens it remarkably. A buddy of mine goes a step further. He uses 16 gauge steel wire. That's harder to wrap (you need a vise to hold the handle), but once in place, it lasts about forever.

 

[KodiakKen]

hate to say it but crapsman

I have had a #6 maul with a wood handle for the past 11 years. It has a plastic collar between the wood and the maul head and I hated the cheap looking design when I bought it but after 5-6 years of use..I went and looked for one just like it and can't find it. I know that I wouldn't buy crapsman/china/k-mart now because of the difficulty trying to return it but if you use good technique instead of brute force even the cheap ones will work. as for the fiberglass handle stuff..Never had one. Don't plan on it. Good luck