I have to admit that I wasn't all that surprised that my BASH maul struggled. I've found that a maul is best used when you're splitting wood that's generally tough as opposed to hard. On wood that's hard, once an axe starts to separate the grain on the end, the grains are stiff enough that act as a lever to extend the crack deeper into the wood allowing the rest of the round to easily pop apart more easily. On tougher wood/grain, it doesn't matter that the axe was able to start a crack because the wood will flex, removing that lever effect, and keep the wood grain from separating. Instead you need a maul because you can generate more momentum with a heavier tool than you can a lighter one. That added momentum helps carry the maul deeper into the round prying it apart as it goes rather than relying on the wood grain to act as a lever. I've always figured that's one of the reasons why the tough stuff splits better with an axe out when it's really cold out. The moisture in the wood freezes making it harder than it otherwise wood be. So when the axe starts separating the grain on one end, that crack quickly extends its way the length of the round.
With that in mind, my BASH had 2 strikes against it to begin with. The shorter handle, and the lighter head both take away from its momentum. A 36" handle would help, but I still don't think I would have been happy with it. With the BASH, I think the problem is the rather blunt leading edge of the maul. I read a lot of reviews indicating that most of them were just plain flat on the end. Mine had and edge on it right out of the box, but that secondary grind was really blunt, and it just barely made and edge. The extreme ends still had a slight flat on them. I had another 6 lb maul that really would split things the X27 could not. The difference between it and the X27 (performance wise) wasn't huge, but it was noticeable on tough to split stuff (like hickory). It simply had more momentum and could muscle it's way into the wood when the axe couldn't. Having said that, I remember that 6lb head having more of a concave shape to it for the most part, and the leading secondary grind was more shallow. The leading edge on the BASH tool is really blunt. A lot like most of the cheap mauls that I see on the shelf. When it strikes the wood, it generally doesn't sink past that blunt secondary angle, so the primary angle just doesn't get a chance to do its job. I'm thinking that it would be worth my time to take this tool over to my belt grinder and really reshape that secondary grind so that the maul has an easier time getting into the grain where the momentum can pry the round apart.