Wedges

Ralph Osterc gave us his wedges (and much more) when he retired to Florida. We used them a couple of days ago to split some gnarly apple rounds, full of burls and branches (too bad we don't have a lathe, we could make some nice bowls). It was Doug's idea when he saw that ugly pile of wood, so we got to work using a splitting maul with a cracked handle (couldn't do much with that), and Ralph's wedges plus a 12 pound sledge hammer. The wedges were badly burred and when a piece of metal came off, we stopped and Doug attacked it with an angle grinder. I did some more work on that, and started a couple more with the bench grinder (that Ralph gave us). Later I found that a cut-off wheel on the angle grinders worked best, before being finished off with the normal wheel (angle grinder).

The two larger wedges are marked 8 (8 pounds) and "heat treated." Underneath the 8 there is a word something like "ASBRAND." The original colour was grey, but one side has been painted yellow.

The two smaller wedges are marked 6 (6 pounds) and are stamped Iron Works and something else. These were originally black (no yellow paint).

All my wood is split now (apple, plus some pine I got yesterday, and a few rounds of ash). The boys stacked it up neatly by the fence and it is covered with plastic...all ready for winter.