Wedges

[Quixoticgeek]

Am pondering making some splitting wedges to help me split larger logs for various green wood projects. My current thinking is to use Holly to make them, largely because I have quite a lot of it, and it's a very hard wood.

What I'm trying to work out is which part of the tree to use. I can take a piece about 60mm round, cut it to about 150-200mm, sharpen it and then fire harden it.

Or I can take a piece that is about 120-150mm round, cut a length 150-200mm, then split that down to make wedges along the axis of the grain. Again fire hardened.

Or I can take a piece that is nearer 250mm across, and about 60mm long, then split radial wedges off of this.

What would you do? The main woods I have are green chestnut, green holy, 1 year seasoned holly, and 2 year seasoned holly.

Thanks

Julia

 

[Stew]

Hhhm, I've not considered fire hardening my gluts so I may learn something here.

I pretty much treat mine as disposable as I find they just split apart after a while, either into multiple wedges or just mashed on top. One thing I have learnt is to have lots of gluts and also make them thin! I started off with a wider angle modelling them on metal wedges but the wood reacts different. The thicker wedge would be a struggle to get established whereas thin would ease a gap open. Once established, thicker is fine.

 

[sunndog]

I make wedges out of split seasoned hardwood. as the man above say's, on the thin side
If you chamfer (spelling?) The edges on the striking face they will last a little longer

 

[Toddy]

Holly, green holly that is, splits like crazy.

Hornbeam good as a wedge though, so are beech and ash, dry oak too.

It doesn't need to be thick, indeed a thick wedge is a pain to hammer into a split, but a thin, strong one, that'll work
Somewhere I have the physics of it all neatly written out, but, tbh, after you've used them for a bit, you'll know the best shape to make to do the job.

M

 

[Joonsy]

Elderberry splits easy and dries very hard so I would think it may be suitable as wedges, I have not used elder as wedges myself but have used it for various pegs as it’s light and hard when seasoned, just a suggestion if you want to be the guinea pig.

 

[Muddypaws]

Green holly is notorious for splitting as it dries. If you have plenty then make some now which will work well but will inevitably split. Then make a pair to put aside for later. If you use the 60mm round wood cut to twice the length of the wedge you want, sharpen each end to a wedge shape, then put it aside for a couple of years (under cover but ventilated). In the fullness of time you can saw in half to get a matched pair of gluts. Simply chamfer the striking face and you're good to go.