Making wedges from wood

[CGC4200]

Any body done this? I asked 3 local dealers last year, the older than I am &
more cantankerous Jonsered dealer said to make them with a chain saw,
he couldn't move them.
the 2nd didn't have any, I picked up a couple of plastic ones from
an auto parts/Echo dealer, they all knew what I was talking about.

I told one of my old buds about wedges today, I cut him out of one jam &
wedged him out of another a few years ago with a splitting wedge.
That gets tedious too.

I have some short pieces of treated 4"x4", an electric miter saw & a handsaw.
I am thinking about getting these together & see what I can come up with.
If I still had a radial arm saw, it would have done in one cut

 

[smilin possum]

Wood works pretty good but they splinter up and come all to pieces. Dog wood seems to work the best. I like the plastic ones they hold up good and are fairly cheap to get.
Joe

 

[nmurph]

i have made them several times. i usually take some oak from the previous year and shape them on the table saw. the only problem with the wooden ones are that they tend to break out in chunks. i do like the fact that i can make them with more wedge than what i can buy.

 

[alderman]

Hard to think about making wedges when I can get the factory seconds from Madsen's for $1.00 each.

We used to get wooden wedges at the paper mill for separating rolls of paper. They held up pretty well but would eventually split.

 

[DroppedP51]

when i was milling we made wooden wedges they used to brake after a while,but you could cut through them with no damage

 

[CGC4200]

table saw

I kicked that idea around too, I have a lightweight aluminum one.
Would you use a jig or freehand?
I respect table saws too, I was on a residential job once hanging a ceiling
fan over a expensive hot tub. The contractor was multi-tasking, watching
me to see if I dropped something & running a table saw at the same time;
He cut off the end of one finger & went to the emergency room.

 

[horseloger]

find your self some iron wood or locusts cut your wedges what ever size that you want and put it in a vice with the wedge part in the vice! then take a piece of flat steel 1/4" x 2" x 10" use a cutting torch to heat the steel to red hot you must work fast to place it aginst the top head of the wedge and clamp tight with a vice grip wrap the steel around the wedge until it reaches the other side and bolt together until its tight As long as you don't cut them in half they will last a long time you may have to soak them every once in a while to keep them tight! I use them this way all the time and have no problems and they last just as long as the plastics!

 

[AUSSIE1]

I cut some up out of Redbox. A very tough wood here. This one for interests sake I sanded and coated it.

I cut these off the end of the log with the saw and came out quite successfully.

Use these where there is a good chance your well paid for wedges would get a fair chance of being hit or left at home.

With this one, the back should be chamfered.

 

[ckelp]

i just use some dug fur 2x4 and a chopsaw when they splinter i just grab another earlier this week this year i had my saw kick back into one and the wage hit me square i the forehead it almost put me on the ground

 

[Wood Doctor]

Good lookin' wedge, Al. Almost as nice as your avatar.

I make mine using either hickory or yellow birch. I have a tapering jig that I made for the table saw and make them from scrap cutoffs. There is both a skill and an art to cutting wedges like this on a table saw and without a jig designed for it, the process is a bit hairy--not something I recommend daily by any means.

 

[pioneerguy600]

Our beech make lovely felling wedges,they have no grain and are as narley as heck. Couldn`t split a piece with an axe and the wood almost grenades in the big 40 ton wood splitter.
Pioneerguy600

 

[dancan]

Our beech make lovely felling wedges,they have no grain and are as narley as heck. Couldn`t split a piece with an axe and the wood almost grenades in the big 40 ton wood splitter.
Pioneerguy600

I dropped a 50ft+ beech this afternoon using my plastic wedges , I'd better get back there and bring some home because my plastic ones don't grow on trees !

 

[RandyMac]

If you soak them in water, they don't try to split as bad, I also soaked the axe and pulaski on weekends, the handle keeps a bit of a spring to it and the heads stay on. They made very long oak wedges for OG Redwoods, there would have been a clear weight advantage over steel. I didn't see oak wedges in use, I did pack several tons of steel ones for the Master, two of them were 24".

 

[JJuday]

I made some out of Sugar Maple last year and for the most part they worked great. Nice thing is being able to toss them into the stove when they are done for. I painted mine orange as to not lose them and so they didn't accidentially end up in the truck with the wood. JJuday

 

[pioneerguy600]

I dropped a 50ft+ beech this afternoon using my plastic wedges , I'd better get back there and bring some home because my plastic ones don't grow on trees !

I made about 50 a couple years ago from some big beech we cut here in the park, I paint them with that fluorescent orange spray paint before taking them out to the woods.
Pioneerguy600

 

[CGC4200]

Wedges, just a thought

I have 2 plastic ones in my saw kit, but have oak, hickory and short 4"x 4"
available, have electric circular saws too. They are about as dangerous
as chain saws, heard of a kickback accident cutting a femoral artery a few
years ago with fatal results with a skil type portable circular saw.

 

[flewism]

Myself I've never bought a felling wedge, I make them out of whatever wood I have available. I think I still have a couple of locust ones and the newest batch is out of mulberry. I do have some beech rounds out back so hearing that I'll make a few more. I use a chainsaw , a vise and belt sander to make them, I also coat them in paste wax. If I only get one drop out of them so be it, they are quick and easy to make and cost nothing. I'm pretty sure I learned how to make felling wedges on this site some time ago.
I was at TSC last week and I seen that they had plastic felling wedges for the first time that I noticed and they wanted $9.99 each for them.
I always have 4 to 6 homemade felling wedges with me when I'm dropping trees.

 

[hermit]

I cut a piece of dogwood and use the axe to shave it like I want, then cut it with a chainsaw,whatever length I want. What is nice about that, if you leave them at home just cut another one.

 

[angelo c]

Cut mine out of Ash and free hand them on the Bandsaw. Been messing round with different angles and lengths just for chits n giggles. I figure if Ash is good enough for Joe dimaggio its good enough for me. hehe.

 

[scottr]

Thirty years ago the old timers around here used persimmon to make splitting wedges. I've often wondered if a Eastern Hophornbeam would make good wedges.