Impressed by Council's 3.5 lb "Jersey-pattern" axe, for $25, and finding their 6 lb maul for same price, delivered, guess what ...
What arrived was a utilitarian wood-busting tool with hickory handle and head with excellent smithy-work, meaning a properly hard and tough forging- something to work with.
Faces:
From prior experience, the head needed a few minutes work at the edge with a sanding drum and Dremel, to sharpen it and smooth out the ridge behind the edge by sanding it off. (Steel there is hard enough that it would take a long time with a file.)
Eye:
The handle is very solidly wedged to the head with 1/4" wide steel wedge, but had a gap of ~1/16" along the poll side. Epoxy was easily fed in there with help from some splitting scraps, to eliminate cosmetic prob.
Head shape as rcvd:
In testing on some white ash, black cherry & black locust so far, it performs on a par with a 2.5 kg Wetterlings for splitting. Its poll is really tough stuff, being much less malleable than the Wetterlings, and about the same as a Mueller (super-tough). I expect it to work well, for a long time.
The handle, being common in shape to that of many such tools, would be relatively simple to replace, as opposed to the "axe-handled" ones with all their variations and whittling required.
Bottom line: for $25, a total no-brainer. Couple of these back-when, and I'd have saved both torture and bux. Council also makes 8 lb mauls, but for me 5-6 lb is the sweet-spot for a real wood-splitting tool.
Did I mention that Council Tools is right here in the U.S. of A.? Vice made who-knows-where.
What arrived was a utilitarian wood-busting tool with hickory handle and head with excellent smithy-work, meaning a properly hard and tough forging- something to work with.
Faces:
From prior experience, the head needed a few minutes work at the edge with a sanding drum and Dremel, to sharpen it and smooth out the ridge behind the edge by sanding it off. (Steel there is hard enough that it would take a long time with a file.)
Eye:
The handle is very solidly wedged to the head with 1/4" wide steel wedge, but had a gap of ~1/16" along the poll side. Epoxy was easily fed in there with help from some splitting scraps, to eliminate cosmetic prob.
Head shape as rcvd:
In testing on some white ash, black cherry & black locust so far, it performs on a par with a 2.5 kg Wetterlings for splitting. Its poll is really tough stuff, being much less malleable than the Wetterlings, and about the same as a Mueller (super-tough). I expect it to work well, for a long time.
The handle, being common in shape to that of many such tools, would be relatively simple to replace, as opposed to the "axe-handled" ones with all their variations and whittling required.
Bottom line: for $25, a total no-brainer. Couple of these back-when, and I'd have saved both torture and bux. Council also makes 8 lb mauls, but for me 5-6 lb is the sweet-spot for a real wood-splitting tool.
Did I mention that Council Tools is right here in the U.S. of A.? Vice made who-knows-where.