The Great Wood-Splitting Contest II

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The new wood-splitting tools tested in the second Great Wood-splitting Contest. Pictured in the back row are the Wood Chomper (the tall red one), the Side Winder, and the Monster Maul. The front row includes the Woodox (The orange one), the Wood Popper (silver), and the E-Z Split Log Splitter.
The new wood-splitting tools tested in the second Great Wood-splitting Contest. Pictured in the back row are the Wood Chomper (the tall red one), the Side Winder, and the Monster Maul. The front row includes the Woodox (The orange one), the Wood Popper (silver), and the E-Z Split Log Splitter.
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LEFT: The E-Z Split Log Splitter holds logs securely, but sometimes a little too securely; if you change your mind about where to make a split, getting the log out of the EZ Split can be difficult. RIGHT: The Wood Popper is an aluminum cone intentionally designed to be lightweight to better transmit the force of each blow to the wood.
LEFT: The E-Z Split Log Splitter holds logs securely, but sometimes a little too securely; if you change your mind about where to make a split, getting the log out of the EZ Split can be difficult. RIGHT: The Wood Popper is an aluminum cone intentionally designed to be lightweight to better transmit the force of each blow to the wood.
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LEFT: The Monster Maul is a 15 lb implement with a metal handle. The original version was 23 lbs, but even scaled down it was more effective than all other tools evaluated here. RIGHT: The Side Winder has a slightly unbalanced design to make a
LEFT: The Monster Maul is a 15 lb implement with a metal handle. The original version was 23 lbs, but even scaled down it was more effective than all other tools evaluated here. RIGHT: The Side Winder has a slightly unbalanced design to make a "sideways snap" easier. However, in tests it showed no such special ability.
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LEFT: The Woodchomper is a wedge with a long shaft. The shaft is surrounded by a 10 lb sheath, which you hammer repeatedly against the top of the wedge to drives it into a log. RIGHT: The Woodox is a four-way wedge designed to break logs into four pieces.
LEFT: The Woodchomper is a wedge with a long shaft. The shaft is surrounded by a 10 lb sheath, which you hammer repeatedly against the top of the wedge to drives it into a log. RIGHT: The Woodox is a four-way wedge designed to break logs into four pieces.

Last fall we ran an article called The Great Wood Splitting Contest, in which we compared three high-quality manual log-busting tools: the massive Monster Maul, the swivel-edged Chopper 1, and an ordinary go-devil splitting maul. Well folks, those must have been the simple days of yesteryear — because there are so many manual splitting tools on the market this season that our previous competition is practically antiquated. That being the case, there was nothing left for us to do but to gather up samples of all the new muscle-powered round rippers we could get our hands on and then stage (what else?) THE GREAT WOOD SPLITTING CONTEST II.

Now most folks use a splitting maul and a sledgehammer-and-wedge combination to cut their fuel logs down to size. And, interestingly enough, each of the six new implements we acquired for this test is patterned after either a wedge or a maul, so we’ve divvied the entries up into those two classes for comparison.

Class 1: Wedges

THE WOOD POPPER1Giesler Engineering, 723 Mount Road, Aston, PA 19014. Telephone: 1-800-428-8616.

This unconventional “wedge” is actually cone-shaped, is constructed of super-high-strength aluminum, and weighs a mere 20 ounces! Its inventors feel that a heavy wood-pryer absorbs impact — thereby wasting a sledge swinger’s energy — while their light tool better transfers the force of a blow to the wood.

  • Published on Nov 1, 1980
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