Someone at Horrible Freight must have seen this video. I just bought this same maul the other day, and it came pretty sharp. I was skeptical, though, having seen your video, so I went out there and took a whack at some real hard seasoned oak I had in the pile, and it went through it like butter! I imagine I'll have to take a file to it after a few uses, but well worth the $20!
I bought the same maul last week to split up some red oak rounds 16" across that maul went through those rounds like a hot knife through butter can't believe all the negative feedback.
@@TheHandsOnChannel I was thinking the same thing. I have seen some foreign manual wood splitters that seem to wook really well with limited physical effort.
If it can be filed it's not hard. If you get it too hot grinding it you can aneal it and make it soft, or maybe you ground below the case Harding into the soft steel below. In any case you can re-harden it with an torch. If it is carbon steel it can be hardened.
I forgot to mention, you can check if you were successful in hardening it by trying to file it. If the file just slides over the top but doesn't cut into it that means it is as hard as the file.
The metal is cast steel; no worries about ruining heat treatment by grinding. I grind a smooth convex curve on the cheeks but don't worry about getting the edge really sharp. Nothing wrong with plastic covered fiberglass handles except you probably need to wear gloves, even my calloused hands felt better with a layer of leather. I don't consider black jack to be very difficult to split and I normally split with a double bit four pound ax.
Dude, that was a totally dull butter cutter before you fixed it. Good job! I like your suggestion of this being your first maul. It will be for me, gonna get one. Thanks!
I have a true temper maul like that , can’t remember using it but you Definitely need a 28 ton champion log splitter , love mine starts on the first pull every time . Don’t hurt your self .
Came on line to check my channel & your video was recommend. I just did a video on this maul after seven years of use. Plus another video on a Fiskars maul that I just had delivered. I found that using a big round with a tire on top to keep the logs from falling all over save a lot of wear on the back. Give it a try & let me know what you think. Full view & 👍 # 48. Stay safe, Joe Z
I've tried it and if the ground is very hard it works. I think the disadvantage for me is it hurts my back and shoulder more being lower. Great question and I've watched some of Buckin Billies vids as well.
I like getting different mauls and splitting axes to see how they perform. I got this one but the 8lbs one. Complete junk. By far the worst maul I’ve used. I tried it direct from the store and sharpened it. Still was a poor performer. I use it now to drive wedges but never for splitting. There is one thing this mail is great for - when a friend comes over, I grab my maul and give my buddy the harbor freight one. They always think I’m Superman because they can’t do a darn thing with the HF junk.
I thought getting the harbor freight maul, but for just little more got the husky version at home Depot with a life time warranty if it breaks. Those fiberglass filled handles WILL break eventually and given HF quality control is low it's just throwing money away on this maul axe
Yeah if I were going to use this as intended I would have bought a better brand. But I think HF offers lifetime warranty on this tool. I cut the handle off and just used the maul.
