# splitting wedge sharpness



## Charles2 (Jan 14, 2016)

How sharp should the tip be? Should the tip be ground to the same angle as the body of the wedge? How does anybody know for sure what the ideal angles are?


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Jan 14, 2016)

Charles2 said:


> How sharp should the tip be? Should the tip be ground to the same angle as the body of the wedge? How does anybody know for sure what the ideal angles are?


Good question, Charles2.  I have four wedges- the Wood Grenade, an old sharp traditional one, one that looks like a big railroad spike, and a new one with an short angle that I cannot set into the top of the logs.  I have beat the piss out of the first three (put a mighty bend in the Wood Grenade in a tough crotch). I want to sharpen that new one that has a worthless steep angle.  This same question applies to mauls.


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## barmstrong2 (Jan 14, 2016)

The wedge I use is not sharp. It is approximately 10" long and only 2" to 2-1/2" at the wide end. I make a cut with my maul to start it and drive it easily with a 3 lb hammer. So, I'm saying sharpness is not important. Of course, that's just my opinion.


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## bioman (Jan 14, 2016)

I like mine pretty sharp,seems to help getting it started. That being said I don't use them much anymore. I have a really old on that is round & heavy, You drive it in the wood & pour black powder in it & stick a fuse in, Light & run for cover. anymore it's just a conversation piece. I think originally they used it to split rails with.


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## johneh (Jan 14, 2016)

Pray tell why you want a sharp splitting wedge ?
I have 3 types of wedges  1 -Fairley short with steep angles made of steel for splitting fire wood
                                              2 - nylon felling wedges used for what the name implies
                                              3 - Home made by my Grandfather fence rail splitting wedges  very long and heavy 
                                                     With a handle to beet on.
None of them are sharp or need to be


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Jan 14, 2016)

johneh said:


> Pray tell why you want a sharp splitting wedge ?
> I have 3 types of wedges  1 -Fairley short with steep angles made of steel for splitting fire wood
> 2 - nylon felling wedges used for what the name implies
> 3 - Home made by my Grandfather fence rail splitting wedges  very long and heavy
> ...


So it will stick into the round before I start swinging the sledge at it!


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## billb3 (Jan 14, 2016)

seeing as your title refers to splitting wedges:
Currently I have three that look like this :
	

		
			
		

		
	






	

		
			
		

		
	
 with rather blunt  tips.  That's how they were when they were new. They do 'bounce out' sometimes  when started.
I had one with a curved tip that was quite sharp and was easier to get started but it also could cut it's way in and get stuck. Left it somewhere,  I really don't miss it.


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## Hasufel (Jan 14, 2016)

billb3 said:


> seeing as your title refers to splitting wedges:
> Currently I have three that look like this :
> 
> 
> ...


I got two "grenades" from Northern Tool:  
	

		
			
		

		
	



	

		
			
		

		
	
 and find they work best for starting a split. It's a little hard to tell from this picture but there's a gradual slope along the top/bottom edges and a much steeper one along the left/right. The serrations help keep them from bouncing out but also make it easier for them to get stuck. For opening a crack once it's started I prefer the flat-headed wedges like the one you showed, but I don't like them for starting a split.


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## heavy hammer (Jan 14, 2016)

Just get a nice edge that will stick in the wood then swing away.  Never have sharpened a wedge or maul if it bounces out hit it harder, if it keeps bouncing out get a bigger hammer.  I have a 20 lb sledge it will put just about any wedge into a piece of wood.


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## CincyBurner (Jan 14, 2016)

It seems that the newer (cheap) wedges these days (See pic in post #7) are being made with an initial steep angle, which makes them difficult to get started in tough wood.
I took a grinder to them, not to so much to sharpen them, but rather to grind to a less abrupt angle.  Much improved.
    Tip: Paint wedges hi-viz orange.  It makes them easier to find in the splitting debris later. 

I hand split and find that I don't use wedges that much.  Perhaps I'm passing over wood that I'd need to split with wedges, or I'm cutting out the less than prime portions in the field.  So I find that I'm using splitting maul for most of the work (~85%), chain saw for the worst (10%) and wedge & sledge for those logs that fall in between (5%).  I also use wedges to quarter (or eighth) big, but easily splittable rounds into manageable pieces to haul out.


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## PDXpyro (Jan 15, 2016)

I have two newer traditional-style wedges, and don't end up using them much because they have such a tendency to bounce out of the wood after being initially set.  The problem isn't with the cutting edge itself, but rather with their overly abrupt wide taper right behind the edge.  CincyBurner observed that "It seems that the newer (cheap) wedges these days are being made with an initial steep angle, which makes them difficult to get started in tough wood,"  and this seems to be the problem with the standard wedges I have.

I also have a couple of "grenade" wedges as pictured in #8 above, and use them for 90%+ of the real work.  The traditional wedges are used mostly as a supplement when I get into trouble, and need to insert a second wedge into a wider but stubborn crack started by the grenade type.

I don't see why it wouldn't be an advantage to have the cutting edge relatively sharp on a trad wedge.  Not "sharp" by felling axe standards of course, but why would duller be somehow better at the extreme edge?


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## Charles2 (Jan 15, 2016)

Surely a sharp wedge is easier to drive than a blunt one? Easier labor was the motivation for my question.


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Jan 15, 2016)

heavy hammer said:


> Just get a nice edge that will stick in the wood then swing away.  Never have sharpened a wedge or maul if it bounces out hit it harder, if it keeps bouncing out get a bigger hammer.  I have a 20 lb sledge it will put just about any wedge into a piece of wood.


Heavy hammer is right!  I'm not man enough to swing a 20 pound sledge (mine is 8, and my accuracy is still not 100%), and my joints don't even like the 8 pounder.


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## Jags (Jan 15, 2016)

Charles2 said:


> Surely a sharp wedge is easier to drive than a blunt one?


Not sure that this holds true.  Sharp, cuts.  Blunt, splits.  For the same reason that most hydro splitters don't use razor sharp wedges...let the wood do the walking.  A sharp wedge might get you into a bind that a blunt one following the grain might not.


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## tymbee (Jan 15, 2016)

PDXpyro said:


> The problem isn't with the cutting edge itself, but rather with their overly abrupt wide taper right behind the edge.



Exactly! The taper at the edge is far more important. Sharpness isn't particularly important. 

A friend of mine had a very large sugar maple taken down last fall and I offered to help clean up. He kindly bought two shiny new wedges thinking he was helping. I bought a couple of wedges that looked like they were a hundred years old. He good-naturedly scoffed at my antiques and I just watched as he tried to use his new ones. Even with great effort his wedges just popped right out after the first couple of hits given how dense the rounds were. I let him bang away to the point of exhaustion then offered to try my wedges. You might guess the rest...

Also, I'm surprised to read so many using 8 pound hand splitters. To me 6 pounds is the ideal and the only thing an extra 2 pounds would get me is tired more quickly. 

Finally, over the hears I've at least tried all kinds of splitting wedges from grenades to those 4 finned gizmos. All IMO were pretty useless compared to a simple wedge.


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## Charles2 (Jan 15, 2016)

Jags said:


> Not sure that this holds true.  Sharp, cuts.  Blunt, splits.  For the same reason that most hydro splitters don't use razor sharp wedges...let the wood do the walking.  A sharp wedge might get you into a bind that a blunt one following the grain might not.



Seems to me that the wedge body is what is doing the splitting, not the tip. Hydros don't need sharp edges because they don't get tired! What sort of bind? I'm actually using one of these: http://www.harborfreight.com/manual-slide-log-splitter-93360.html


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## Jags (Jan 15, 2016)

Charles2 said:


> What sort of bind?


Think of wood grain that has a wave to it (even mild).  A blunt wedge will have a tendency to follow the grain.  A sharp wedge can have a tendency to cut in and try to shear in a straight line.  Very much like the difference between an axe and a maul.



Charles2 said:


> Hydros don't need sharp edges because they don't get tired!


 You are correct - they don't get tired, but I doubt if that is the engineering behind the design.


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## Charles2 (Jan 15, 2016)

Jags said:


> Think of wood grain that has a wave to it (even mild).  A blunt wedge will have a tendency to follow the grain.  A sharp wedge can have a tendency to cut in and try to shear in a straight line.  Very much like the difference between an axe and a maul.



I was just splitting some wavy wood yesterday, which prompted me to ask the question. Are you saying the task would have been even more difficult if my tip were sharper? Currently it is blunted, about 1/32 inch thick.


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## Jags (Jan 15, 2016)

Charles2 said:


> I was just splitting some wavy wood yesterday, which prompted me to ask the question. Are you saying the task would have been even more difficult if my tip were sharper? Currently it is blunted, about 1/32 inch thick.


I would venture a guess as to "yes".


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## Charles2 (Jan 15, 2016)

Jags said:


> I would venture a guess as to "yes".



So would you recommend that I blunt the tip even more?


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## bioman (Jan 15, 2016)

just get a blunt piece of steel & try beating it thru a piece of wood ! If axes where not sharp we prolly wound'nt be here I'm just glad tires are round. Think I'll go out & torch the sharp wedge of my splitter & see how that works. Have you ever skinned a deer with a dull knife blade, not fun. there ya have it.


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## Vikestand (Jan 16, 2016)

bioman said:


> just get a blunt piece of steel & try beating it thru a piece of wood ! If axes where not sharp we prolly wound'nt be here I'm just glad tires are round. Think I'll go out & torch the sharp wedge of my splitter & see how that works. Have you ever skinned a deer with a dull knife blade, not fun. there ya have it.



Skinning a deer is not equal to a splitting a piece of wood. A narrow angled tip on a wedge will do nothing but keep you busy sharpening it during the winter. Never in my life have I ever sharpened nor, my dad, nor do I remember seeing grandpa do so. It's worked well to this point, with little issues. In fact I've never heard of anybody doing so.

That isn't to say people do.


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## cptoneleg (Jan 16, 2016)

Some of my wedges are over 20 yrs old and never considered sharping


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## Firefighter938 (Jan 16, 2016)

I think the newer wedges do not have the proper angle to get them started. I haven't sharpened any wedges, but I have changed the taper to make them easier to get started. I have bought several old wedges at flea markets, and if you compare them to the newer box store wedges the shape is different.

JMHO.


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## CentralVAWoodHeat (Jan 16, 2016)

I have four splitting wedges that I never use.  Every year there are about 3-5 rounds that cannot be reasonably split by hand.  I pile them up and, every five years or so, toss them on a hydraulic splitter that my neighbor has.  If I didn't do this, I would simply throw them back in the woods to rot.  

There should really be no reason that your are needing splitting wedges on a regular basis unless you are feeding super long splits into an outdoor boiler.


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## Hasufel (Jan 16, 2016)

CentralVAWoodHeat said:


> There should really be no reason that your are needing splitting wedges on a regular basis unless you are feeding super long splits into an outdoor boiler.


That's actually a very good point. I hardly ever use mine anymore thanks to changes in my equipment and technique. My Fiskars can handle rounds that my old maul just bounced off of, and I learned to nibble away at the edge of larger rounds that don't split easily down the center. I sometimes use a wedge on a gnarly round but, now that I have a surplus of wood, it's easier to just pass on a difficult round and move on to the next.


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## CentralVAWoodHeat (Jan 16, 2016)

Hasufel said:


> That's actually a very good point. I hardly ever use mine anymore thanks to changes in my equipment and technique. My Fiskars can handle rounds that my old maul just bounced off of, and I learned to nibble away at the edge of larger rounds that don't split easily down the center. I sometimes use a wedge on a gnarly round but, now that I have a surplus of wood, it's easier to just pass on a difficult round and move on to the next.


Thanks!  Also, splitting wedges are extremely dangerous to use.  The amount of metal shards that fly everywhere when you are pounding them in with a sledge is really disconcerting.


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## Vikestand (Jan 16, 2016)

I use wedges all the time still. To say there is no need is silly. I split by hand some rounds in the woods that are too heavy to lift on my trailer. I'm not a little guy, 6' 225, so these rounds are fairly significant. Plus on my brothers and i's place south of here we have 70 acres. No splitter. So it's all by hand. Nothing but oaks and elms.


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## heavy hammer (Jan 16, 2016)

I love using my wedges.  When you come across three to four plus foot oak I don't care what you have if splitting by hand a wedge is almost always needed.  Just depends on the animal your taking on.


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## barmstrong2 (Jan 16, 2016)

CentralVAWoodHeat said:


> I have four splitting wedges that I never use.  Every year there are about 3-5 rounds that cannot be reasonably split by hand.  I pile them up and, every five years or so, toss them on a hydraulic splitter that my neighbor has.  If I didn't do this, I would simply throw them back in the woods to rot.
> 
> There should really be no reason that your are needing splitting wedges on a regular basis unless you are feeding super long splits into an outdoor boiler.


I've graduated to the school of Work Smart from Work Hard. I split most of my wood by hand. If it won't split with reasonable ease with a maul, I'll use the wedge. If it still wants to be stubborn (pronounced ELM) it gets thrown into the hydro pile for the end.


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## Hasufel (Jan 16, 2016)

heavy hammer said:


> I love using my wedges.  When you come across three to four plus foot oak I don't care what you have if splitting by hand a wedge is almost always needed.  Just depends on the animal your taking on.


I defer to guys like you & @Vikestand on big league stuff! But for the more "normal" 18"-24" hardwoods around here, I've found I can do without wedges almost entirely. I split 100% by hand--including some ornery stuff like hickory--and used to use a wedge automatically to make the first split on the bigger rounds, but changed once I realized I had better/easier options...


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## jetsam (Jan 16, 2016)

I've had the same set of splitting wedges for 30 years- they're old fashioned steel ones.

I have sharpened two of them once in 30 years - recently- because I paid a tree service to drop a truckload of red oak, and one of those giant trees is making me wish for some nice easy elm to split. It is amazing (and the wood is beautiful inside, I have never seen such a gnarly oak).

I put a sharp edge on both of them, and it did make it easier to start them in on the really dense/gnarly rounds.

For normal use, I'd say that a sharp wedge works exactly the same as a blunt one.


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## Jags (Jan 17, 2016)

Charles2 said:


> So would you recommend that I blunt the tip even more?


No. There is a point of dimishing return.  Point being that you want the wedge to follow the  natural grain not bite in.


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## wdb (Jan 27, 2017)

First post. I registered just to respond to this thread. I recently had an ancient oak die from a lightning strike. The base is 4 to 5 feet across, and judging on what I've split so far the tree lived a hard life. It is one gnarly old piece. Anyway I have but one wedge (of 4) that will come anywhere near starting a crack in the big rounds and it is an ancient thing, possibly as old as the tree. It's rolled over on top with big hunks missing. My newer ones all have the 'problem' discussed here, namely their initial angle is too steep. I have been searching for a replacement narrow angle wedge and not finding one. Instead I found this site and all of you fine folks. 

Apologies for waking an oldish thread but the exchange was illuminating. Thank you all. In the morning I will get to work with the grinder.


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## Hasufel (Jan 27, 2017)

wdb said:


> First post. I registered just to respond to this thread. I recently had an ancient oak die from a lightning strike. The base is 4 to 5 feet across, and judging on what I've split so far the tree lived a hard life. It is one gnarly old piece. Anyway I have but one wedge (of 4) that will come anywhere near starting a crack in the big rounds and it is an ancient thing, possibly as old as the tree. It's rolled over on top with big hunks missing. My newer ones all have the 'problem' discussed here, namely their initial angle is too steep. I have been searching for a replacement narrow angle wedge and not finding one. Instead I found this site and all of you fine folks.
> 
> Apologies for waking an oldish thread but the exchange was illuminating. Thank you all. In the morning I will get to work with the grinder.


I ended up having to "wedge & sledge" some particularly dense oak...not as big as yours but tough stuff nevertheless. The grenades I mentioned in post #8 worked well for the most part. I used two but a third probably would have helped. Those particular grenades have a fairly small point that really helped them dig in initially. A couple of times, however, they actually started bouncing out because of how ornery these rounds were. In those cases I had better luck using them along the side of the round rather than the face; sometimes that was the only way I could make any progress. I have more traditional wedges, too, but they don't work well for starting a split, only for enlarging one that the grenades started. I also noodled some rounds but I think I could have split them once I had settled on a good technique.


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## Jeffm1 (Jan 27, 2017)

Charles2 said:


> How sharp should the tip be? Should the tip be ground to the same angle as the body of the wedge? How does anybody know for sure what the ideal angles are?


Sharp enough so it will stick in and stay before you start swinging away. No need to overthink it.


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## Jeffm1 (Jan 27, 2017)

Hasufel said:


> That's actually a very good point. I hardly ever use mine anymore thanks to changes in my equipment and technique. My Fiskars can handle rounds that my old maul just bounced off of, and I learned to nibble away at the edge of larger rounds that don't split easily down the center. I sometimes use a wedge on a gnarly round but, now that I have a surplus of wood, it's easier to just pass on a difficult round and move on to the next.


Fiskars are awesome


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## Tar12 (Jan 27, 2017)

I haven't touched a wedge to split a tough round since I discovered what H.P. and full chisel chain will do.So much faster and easier on the body.


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## wdb (Jan 29, 2017)

Grinding helped but I will have to do still more to before it will match the 'skinny' one and not simply bounce out. 

To the fellow who said "get a bigger hammer" I admired your muscle, please do stop by with that 20 pounder and I promise you plenty of chance to use it. 

Does anyone have experience with a Stihl twisted wedge?

https://www.stihlusa.com/products/chain-saws/wedges/tswedge/


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