Historic Wood Splitting Tools

Wedges and Gluts

• A wedge is a piece of metal shaped like a narrow slice of pie. To split wood, the pointed end of the wedge is driven in with a maul. A log would require several wedges down the length of it. To prevent the top of the wedge from mushrooming, wedges were sometimes designed with an impact-absorbing wooden peg fitted into the top. Over time the peg would splinter and have to be replaced. In situations were a blacksmith was not available to forge a metal wedge, people would hew their own out of hardwood. These were called gluts.

Mauls

• At its most primitive, a maul is a wooden mallet or hammer with a long handle and a hefty chunk of wood for the head. Over time people began to forge the heads out of metal with an oblong hole in the center--called an eye--into which the handle was inserted. The metal heads not only made for a sturdier tool, but the added weight helped build up the necessary momentum to drive the wedge into the wood. The need for a wedge was eliminated altogether by the creation of the splitting maul--a maul with a wedge-shaped head. The maul is used by lifting it over the shoulder and swinging it down with both hands in a wide arc.

Axes and Hatchets

• Axes resemble mauls, but are lighter, with a shorter handle and a thinner, sharper blade. Axes were designed for hewing lumber, and although they can also be used to split wood, the maul is preferable. The longer handle allows for a wider swing, making it less likely that the tool will cleave the wood and continue into your foot. A hatchet is a miniature axe, which can be used single-handed. Although it is not as good as a maul for splitting wood or as desirable as an axe for felling trees, its small size and light weight made it popular with frontiersmen who needed to carry their tools with them.

Froes

• A froe is an L-shaped tool, consisting of a metal blade with a socket on one end through which a wooden handle is inserted at a right angle. Froes were made with straight or curved blades, with straight being the most common. Although the shape of a froe suggests a slender axe, the handle was not used to wield the blade, but rather to hold it in position while driving the sharpened edge down with a wooden club or mallet in much the same manner as a wedge.