George N. M. Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 And, BTW, if you are using steel wedges don't drive them all the way in. If it hasn't started to spiit by the time you are about 1/3-1/2 way in stop and reevaluate what you are doing. A wedge pounder in flush is very difficult to extract. I have know folk who have had to burn the piece to recover the wedge. I knew one of my geology professors who used a thing like a small muzzle loading cannon which was filled with blasting black powder and hammered into the log (2-4' diameter) and was then ignighted with a fuze. Big bang, the splitter went flying into the air (unless chained to the log) and the log was nicely spit. Rinse and repeat. There are several videos on You Tube about splitting logs with gunpowder. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 I'd take maple over alder any day of the week. Alder is scary to be up in. The big thing is don't fell the whole stick unless you have to and have plenty of room. Just go up it, take the limbs off and then the trunk 18 inches at a time. More time consuming, but you never get that nasty feeling of watching the trunk come down on architecture. I was on a tree crew working ground crew when I first came up here and one of the regular cutters dropped a whole stick that went over onto a house. Learned about splitting frozen wood to bust up pecan; that wood is stubborn until it's sat for two years. Yesterday was wheel bearings in 20-degree weather and today was hauling hay after work in 25 degrees. But hey, with the inner and outer races that's material for eight new blades! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 I shoveled snow off the front deck and half way up the walk, before the cold got to me and I went inside to warm up. It never got above 8°F with a wind chill of -17°F, not used to that kind of cold, even with my cold weather parka on. I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s. Semper Paratus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 We only got a dusting of snow thankfully but yesterday the high was 9*F, today we had a bit of a heat wave and it got up to 17*F. Supposed warm up tomorrow into the 20's then mid 30's rest of the week... except f course the weekend that will be back in the low 20's. Next week mid 40's with a couple days hitting low 50's. Crazy that it is warmer in Ohio than Texas right now. It has been many years since i split wood but back when i was a kid we called it stove lengths as to size. About 12" or so, then split the wood into 3" or so wedges. I much preferred a maul over an axe to split with myself. With the maul i very rarely needed a wedge. Which brings me to... one of the wedges that i used as a kid i always wondered why it had a hole in the middle. Back then i assumed it was for a handle so one person could hold the wedge safely while some one else hit with a sledge. A couple years back i ran across that wedge in my dad's tool box. That was after i started my smithing journey and it was immediately obvious that is actually a straight pein hammer and not a wedge at all. But growing up hillbilly we used what we had and made it work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shainarue Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Frosty, thanks for all the info! Indeed, I have blocks not stumps and I'm hoping for dry wood by next season rather than seasoned wood. I'll definitely take a whack at the frozen pile now that I understand it splits easier! I have no idea what kind of trees these blocks came from. I'm absolutely horrid at tree identification. All I can say for certain is that they have the grooved bark texture - which I know doesn't narrow it down much, lol George, I learned last year the risk of driving the wedge in too far. I ended up using another piece of wedge-ish shaped wood from the split pile to force it open enough to get the original wedge out. From that point forward, if it hasn't split by the time I'm 1/2 way in, I knock it out and move it. I figure there must be a knot there I can't see from the outside. That gunpowder method sounds super exciting! Billy, I also prefer the maul. It's heavier than the axe but I feel like it splits faster. Randy & Billy, we've been sitting in the negative Fahrenheit temps since Friday. We have a reprieve today through Thursday with temps ranging from 3 to a balmy 35! Then the negatives strike again just in time for the weekend. I'm so tired of it. I want to be outside doing outside things - but it hurts to be outside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Here is a thread about the black powder splitting wedge. I have one around somewhere if I haven't loaned it to someone. I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s. Semper Paratus https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/black-powder-wood-splitting-wedge.142919/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shainarue Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 That looks like so much fun. Would definitely need to give the neighbors a heads up first, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 I was aware of the "cannon" type splitter but one of the You Tube videos showed how to do it with just a chainsaw and black powder. You make a plunge cut into log, pack in black powder, use damp sand as stemming, and fuze as ignition. It seems to work best for long, straight, and large diameter logs. Yes, much more fun than pounding wedges. And interesting for the neighbors. Maybe do it on the 4th of July. GNM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Shainaru, i could not tell one kind of wood from another either when splitting. I just split what was in the pile and i was told to do. We are supposed to get between 1-5 inches of snow between now and Friday (yeah, i know to many of ya that is a dusting) then Saturday it is supposed to get into the 40's and rain. We have some stupid crazy weather here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewoon ik Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 and sunday you have iced over roads and monday the worst traffic to work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shainarue Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Exactly gewoon. As much as I love the warmer days, I don't look forward to the drive to work when it refreezes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 That was a weather report i hears at work last night around midnight. I posted that about 4AM this morning. The weather report has now changed again, 2PM my time. Wont be in the 40's till next week, Tuesday. That is how stupid crazy the weather is here. It is the God's honest truth for where i live, "Dont like the weather, wait 10 minutes it will change". one good thing though is that like i said 5" of snow is a lot for us. And our road crews are pretty good at getting the roads cleared. So by Monday it will be usually be cleared up and the drive is not to bad. The worst part around here is driving while the snow is falling. We have a majority of people who can not seem to figure out how to drive in the snow. I have seen people stop and wait for oncoming traffic with just a little dusting, while on the other spectrum 4x4 drivers who think that 4WD lets them drive like a bright summer day in 3 feet of snow. Very few have figured out slow and steady is the safest way to drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted January 20 Author Share Posted January 20 Howdy all! It’s been a frozen nasty mess here in the greater metropolitan Areas of Peavine and Westville and Stilwell the last week, been busy dealing with all the fun stuff that comes with that, lol today was my first day back at the shop and it was fairly quiet just a few customers coming an going mostly saw sharpings, then…. BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I came running out of the shop in time to see a big ol suburban hit the highway I ran out to the highway and found a customer pulled in the driveway and cars backing up both sides there was two cars coming from the north so my customer stopped and the car behind him stopped, he turned and pulled in and then the suburban wasn’t paying attention and swerved at the last minute, hit the car and broke its front axle from the force, then hit the ditch (which is REALLY steep like 20 foot) then over corrected and flew back up the ditch, went airborne and crashed in the middle of the road I ran to the first car and that girl was in a cussing fit so I knew she was okay so I ran to the suburban that was blocking both lanes and the airbags were deployed and a girl was fighting her way out balling her eyes out an shaking, I asked her if she was okay and she said she thought so but hit her head I checked around both vehicles for leaking gas or smoke to make sure something wasn’t gonna blow then I yelled back at my customer to call county, then I called the fire chiefs personal cell and told him there was a wreck in front of the shop and he said he’d be there in as fast as he could, (he was in the barn milking cows when I called) he showed up in the fire command car in a few minutes barking orders on the radio and then half of mid county sprung to life an off duty city police officer from somewhere rolled up an hopped out to help traffic backed up a mile in both directions on 59 an ambulance showed up to check out the two girls and then 30 some odd minutes into it county deputies showed up, highway patrol was to far away so they never made it a deputy jumped in the suburban and got it far enough over to clear one lane( neither me or the fire chief wanted to touch the car for liability reasons) roll backs finally showed up and started working on getting the cars out of the road I asked the shook up girl if she was gonna be okay and she said she wasn’t from here she was a contractor in the area to work on the new fiber optic lines goin in and that was her boyfriend’s suburban and had no family or friends locally but she did have a camper at the RV park in Baron and the towing company was gonna take her there the other girl was a local and she was going to be alright the whole thing took a little over an hour, after everyone was gone and the road was cleared I went back to the shop and sharpened my customers saws and pet the cat an fed the goat and locked up for the day, long story short, i should have just taken off the whole week and not opened the shop back up today it was a very exciting afternoon in Peavine America today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 Billy, glad everyone was OK. The rest is just stuff and likely covered by insurance. But it did liven up your afternoon. G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewoon ik Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 What an anti climax. After all was over, i locked up and played with the goats Glad only material damage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 Heck of a way to start a Saturday Billy! Really happy there were no serious injuries, stuff can be fixed or replaced. I'm also thankful the suburban didn't cross the ditch and end up in your yard. I hope the goats weren't so shaken up a little scratching didn't set them right. We see a lot of accidents like that up here. Somebody has to stop, the next couple vehicles following get stopped and one back a ways doesn't notice and swerves into oncoming traffic to avoid an accident. A ditch dive beats a head on any day. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les L Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 15 hours ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said: i should have just taken off the whole week Then you would have missed all the excitement! Good to hear no one was seriously injured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 The screech of cars colliding is one of my least favorite sounds. Glad no-one was hurt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 I had another thought, if you'd taken the day off nobody would've been around to render immediate aid. While it wasn't really necessary this time, just talking to the victim goes a long way towards calming them down or worse there could've been a fire. When I was drilling we had to block a lane on a bridge approach and saw plenty of wrecks like you responded to. The worst involved a fatality who was by coincidence my insurance agent. Traffic was stopped and he swerved to miss the line of stopped vehicles directly into the path of a Ford 1 ton dually. His compact didn't fare well at all, I stood at the front bumper and kept his neck in traction. He'd been shoved into the back seat with the engine. Happily I was able to disconnect the battery with the 4" crescent wrench I always carried in my back pocket. That was my worst one and I still have mixed emotions. There's the simple fact that we were blocking a lane at bridge. The man who spent considerable time "lecturing" me about safe driving almost died in my hands by not seeing 3 warning signs W/flags, the arrow board on the pickup behind us and lastly the flagman. If you must do something like this, in a state road crew controlled work zone is about as good a place as there is. Our vehicles all carried radios so I was able to contact EMS immediately and get them rolling. We couldn't pull the drill off the road but the other guys took over traffic control and kept lanes clear and moving as best we could. After the radio call I stood there holding my insurance agent's head so he could breath as easily as possible until EMS could get there and start cutting him out of the wreck. He was literally wrapped in the front and back seats with the dash and engine in his lap. He'd hit the steering wheel just under the nose and fortunately didn't drive it into his brain. No way to tell then except he was moaning and trying to clear his throat. The impact had knocked his palate loose, I thought he was wearing dentures till I tried removing them and discovered the reality. So I stood there until EMS arrived, then assisted AFD heavy rescue freeing him from the wreckage. He died on the ambulance ride to Anchorage. The geologist on site that day was subbing for our regular field geo and being an office guy he stayed away from traffic control and the wreck but made the contribution I wish I could have. He sat on a duffle bag out of site of the wreck, holding the two young children in the pickup in his lap and comforted them. Their Mother had suffered a couple minor injuries, bruised shin and sprained wrist. The kids were unscathed in their child seats buckled into the rear seat. They were upset because Mom was. It was a very bad day, I still have clear memories of sounds and images just like it happened yesterday. Sorry, I have real trouble even mentioning that wreck without it running itself through my memory again. Even reading about a close call does it. telling about it helps, not to jack your post Billy. Sorry bout dat. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.J.Lampert Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 the local ski hill opened up so I went with some friends last Friday M.J.Lampert ps. twistedwillow glad to hear everyone is ok crashes are sadly quite common in this area this time of the year as many people don't consider the constant changing condition of winter roads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goods Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Doesn’t look like they have a very good base built up yet. I used to go snowboarding pretty often, but the past 5 or so years haven’t be weather friendly to the local ski resorts and the rates reflect it. Not to mention most of my gear is now worn out. At this point, I just put that money into smithing… Keep it fun, David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 I got to snow board the Alps. Well, fall down on my drunken behind and roll down the mountain. When i was stationed in Germany we took a trip to the Alps and one of my cohorts got me liquored up and talk me into it. I had never done it, nor had i ever skied, skated or anything. My experience with snow sports was snow ball fights and sledding down a 20" embankment on a piece of cardboard. I made it about 10' before i rolled. I was provably on the beginner kiddy hill working my way up to kiddy hill as well. Good fun though and no broken bones, that came later in the trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Welcome to the club, but mine was roller skating. I can still hear my ex wife laughing and that the rink floor is really really hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 14 hours ago, BillyBones said: Well, fall down on my drunken behind and roll down the mountain Man!!!! when I was stationed in Norfolk VA a guy from Montana who had lots of snow sports experience was asking around if someone wanted to go with him one weekend to a small ski resort on the West Virginia border I was like hey I don’t have duty this weekend and that sounds cool! so we loaded up and made the drive over to West Virginia I had never skied or snow boarded in my life being from eastern Oklahoma so I asked him what was easier to try and he said snowboarding so I rented the equipment and went to the little kids slop to try it out for a few minutes… I thought I had the hang of it so I asked him witch trail I should try as a beginner… Fully trusting him to guide me right and not knowing anything about ski trails when he pointed to the Black Diamond Trail and said that’s where I should start I believed him… by the time I made it to the bottom of that god forsaken hill I had double black eyes and bruises from my head to my toes… I road the ski lift back up and returned my rental gear as he was laughing and trying to get me to go down another trail… I went directly to the resort bar and sat there all day drinking beer and waiting for him to finish his skiing… that was my first and last time I ever tried snow sports, about the only snow sports I do now is ride my ATV and tow max around on a sled lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 When I was a little kid in New Hampshire, the entire school district would knock off at noon on Fridays and go skiing. I never got good at it, but in retrospect, I wish I'd stuck with it a bit longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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