blue924.9
flannel wearin sumbitch
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2014
- Messages
- 143
- Reaction score
- 95
so i finally got the stihl splitting pro splitting maul. i got the larger one that they offer.
Build quality- simply the best i have seen, it is definetly a well thought out process by ochsenkopf, you can tell they didnt just slap a triangle on a stick and call it good. the metal overstrike guard is awesome but has some drawback that i will discuss later. The handle, is longer than the previous mauls i have swung but none the less is not hard to get used to, the handle flares out on the end which makes it really easy place your hands in the exact same spot everytime by feel, it also lets you know without looking where you hand is so you can focus on the swing more.
the wedge- due to its aggressive profile even on the hardest swings i couldnt get the wedge stuck hard, and if it did get stuck a mild jerk up (never side to side there is a warning label right on the handle against that) it pops right out
now some things that arent necessarily bad but different.
the overstrike guard: i made the mistake of not wearing gloves when i tried it for the first time. lets just say that when you do overstrike with the steel collar, the shock wave that goes through the hickory handle is crippling, as a matter of fact i quit splitting after that and my hands ached for about an hour after that, had i been wearing gloves i dont think it would have been a problem.
the wedge: im not sure what it is about it, because the wedge has a sharp edge, but the wedge likes to simply bounce off hard splitting wood like elm. it slices right through cedar, pine and oak but every piece of elm i tried and bigger rounds of oak it simply hit the piece and bounced off. its not like my el cheapo mauls which would cut into the piece but get super stuck, leading me to believe that this maul will either split the piece or it wont, i have never had the stihl maul get stuck in a piece after the edge of the maul stuck in the wood without making some large cracks in the wood, where again the el cheapo mauls would cut in, get stuck and not crack the wood. so for now until i split more and possibly come up with a better idea im going to chalk it up as being how the head is designed.
for anyone thinking about a stihl splitting maul i would do it, i picked mine up on sale for 70 bucks and they are around 100 normally. simply put they are the best maul i have swung, but be warned if you are used to hardware store mauls then there will be a learning curve as the stihl is such a different animal, but once you get used to it you will realize its a much better maul than hardware store mauls.
pics of maul and maybe a splitting video to come
Build quality- simply the best i have seen, it is definetly a well thought out process by ochsenkopf, you can tell they didnt just slap a triangle on a stick and call it good. the metal overstrike guard is awesome but has some drawback that i will discuss later. The handle, is longer than the previous mauls i have swung but none the less is not hard to get used to, the handle flares out on the end which makes it really easy place your hands in the exact same spot everytime by feel, it also lets you know without looking where you hand is so you can focus on the swing more.
the wedge- due to its aggressive profile even on the hardest swings i couldnt get the wedge stuck hard, and if it did get stuck a mild jerk up (never side to side there is a warning label right on the handle against that) it pops right out
now some things that arent necessarily bad but different.
the overstrike guard: i made the mistake of not wearing gloves when i tried it for the first time. lets just say that when you do overstrike with the steel collar, the shock wave that goes through the hickory handle is crippling, as a matter of fact i quit splitting after that and my hands ached for about an hour after that, had i been wearing gloves i dont think it would have been a problem.
the wedge: im not sure what it is about it, because the wedge has a sharp edge, but the wedge likes to simply bounce off hard splitting wood like elm. it slices right through cedar, pine and oak but every piece of elm i tried and bigger rounds of oak it simply hit the piece and bounced off. its not like my el cheapo mauls which would cut into the piece but get super stuck, leading me to believe that this maul will either split the piece or it wont, i have never had the stihl maul get stuck in a piece after the edge of the maul stuck in the wood without making some large cracks in the wood, where again the el cheapo mauls would cut in, get stuck and not crack the wood. so for now until i split more and possibly come up with a better idea im going to chalk it up as being how the head is designed.
for anyone thinking about a stihl splitting maul i would do it, i picked mine up on sale for 70 bucks and they are around 100 normally. simply put they are the best maul i have swung, but be warned if you are used to hardware store mauls then there will be a learning curve as the stihl is such a different animal, but once you get used to it you will realize its a much better maul than hardware store mauls.
pics of maul and maybe a splitting video to come
