I love to cut and split and stack firewood as a fall exercise. The finest hand-forged axes are arguably from Sweden. Hults Bruk (Bruk means “works” or “factory”) and Gränsfors Bruk are two of the best. I believe Hults started forging in 1697.
Here are a Gränsfors Bruk camping axe and a smaller Hults Bruk kindling hatchet. I bought the Hults in of all places a men’s fine clothing store in Charleston, SC. The iron smith puts his initials on his work just like the old school craftsmen. “The smith finishes his work by stamping the Gränsfors Bruk logo and his own initials into the axe head, as a declaration that the axe has been well made and approved by the smith. The axe head is then hung up to cool.”
fun stuff.
My grandfather was a blacksmith. I have and use both hand-forged claw hammer and hatchet he made. Of course he made the handles and staked them with square nails he forged.
Mike, what do you use for splitting? Do any of those Swedish makers produce mauls? I struggled away with common splitting mauls until I discovered Fiskars splitting maul. It is far above any maul I have ever used. We heat our home with a wood stove, and I cut and split lots of wood. Marilyn and I just finished cutting the seventh tree out of our pasture last week. We'll burn it in 2019 or so.
If we concentrated on the really important things in life there would be a shortage of fishing tackle
Reel Geezer wrote:Mike, what do you use for splitting? Do any of those Swedish makers produce mauls? I struggled away with common splitting mauls until I discovered Fiskars splitting maul. It is far above any maul I have ever used. We heat our home with a wood stove, and I cut and split lots of wood. Marilyn and I just finished cutting the seventh tree out of our pasture last week. We'll burn it in 2019 or so.
When I was 15 I spent a summer working in my uncles blacksmith shop. What hot, hard work! Once, when he stepped out of the shop for a while, he told me not to leave the shop for any reason. He didn't have a restroom and I had to urinate really badly so I used his quench water. He never put any restrictions on me after that.!
Phil, i manage to make it through those long, cold San Diego winters using one of these mauls...think its called a Grenade...4-sided and splits wood better than any standard maul i've tried. Only thing is the tip is narrow so if you get careless, you will shorten it by an inch or two... still works!
ORCA member since 1999 Honorary Life Member
Specializing in saltwater reels...and fly reels...and oh, yeah, kentucky style reels.....and those tiny little RP reels.....oh, heck...i collect fishing reels!...and fly rods....and lures
Reel Geezer wrote:Mike, what do you use for splitting? Do any of those Swedish makers produce mauls? I struggled away with common splitting mauls until I discovered Fiskars splitting maul. It is far above any maul I have ever used. We heat our home with a wood stove, and I cut and split lots of wood. Marilyn and I just finished cutting the seventh tree out of our pasture last week. We'll burn it in 2019 or so.
Phil- I stopped using a maul a few years ago since most of the rounds are too large and I don’t have a vertical splitter. I use grenade wedges like John posted to split the rounds with a small sledge hammer then split them again by hand or use a DR rapid fire if I get tired. Here’s a large cherry tree on my property a storm blew down and some oak I split:
Once a fallen cherry tree spends a winter on the ground, the saw mills here have no interest in it as structural lumber and its highest & best use is as a renewable piece of firewood. I have turned a piece into a fireplace mantle.
A little “bird’s nest” hole like this is where some old timers stored their wooden matches in the mantle to start the fire.
Last edited by Mike N on Sun Nov 12, 2017 10:22 pm, edited 2 times in total.
