Thanks for this. My Father and Grandfather used to use a splitting gun when they were timber getting. The gun was about 14 inches long and two inches wide, and you'd drive it into the log with a ten pound hammer. Biggest log I saw them split was over three foot diameter and twelve ft long Mountain Ash. They had already driven some wedges to set the split points. I don't remember how much black powder they used, but it was a LOT. One of my first memories of my Grandfather was visiting him in hospital after he'd blown himself up. Wasn't the last time. Tough bugger.
On of my great great uncles literally got blown up on the Hudson River because somebody forgot to clear the damn before setting off the explosives. That was his first and only time getting blown up.
Something about hammering on a steel container full of black powder made me a little nervous lol Very cool, I had heard of these when I was younger but never saw one let alone one being used. Thanks !
Dad had 2 of these in the 50's. They were shaped different, had an actual wedge on bottom part top was flat. They used blasting powder also. Had a guy come over once and wanted to watch the action. We drove both chisels into a 4' long hedge log at 90 degrees to each other. Dad told the guy to run around to the other side of the chicken house when we lit them. He was more curious about the chisels going off. So he stood and watched until dad hollered at him to run. He barely made it around the corner of the chicken house when a piece come over the roof and landed by us ☺️
Huh, interesting to finally see this online. We had 3 when I was growing up. Keep in mind this is when you could buy Dupont Spinners at the feed store. Ours were shaped different, but were the same in concept. We actually used them to blow stumps. MY job was to watch the splitting wedge and find it after it blew. We also had a T-Handle type of an auger that was maybe five or six feet long. You would bore under the stump and load it it with 1" short sticks. I still have the auger. Good video, thank you
No matter how old you get, blowing stuff up never stops being fun. I have never heard of one of these, but have to say it beats splitting wood with an axe by hand.
@@denniswhite166 Just use a cordless drill. Fill the big hole. place flash powder and fuse. Put a chunk of wooden plug back in and done. lol. Im old as well. lol Oh yeah if it just fires lke a morter. Make the plug better. lol
Folks talk about witnessing things of historical significance in the past if they had a time machine. Me, I'd be more inclined to hang out with a few good country boys having fun blowing stuff up with old tech like this beauty. Until then vids like this put a smile on my face. Thanks lads.
TY! I remember seeing neighbor do this in 1958, but wasnt allowed very close. Your vid fixed that,ty! My dad fashioned a make shift saw-mill outa wrecked car(our mom left me and sister in running car, went back to house. Car took off, went sailing into ravine!! Sis and I were in back seat. Only got tossed around a bit) Car made good saw-mill. Neighbors/Dad made use of it for several years.
@@lucky43113 Where I live in Quebec,we do not need to,because our laws restrict the abondance of guns that are issued to all kind of crazies like you have in the States,it is a matter of choice,witch I am sure alot of your American neighbors would prefer.
@@ManDuderGuy so, you're saying you need the threat of violence to just be a good human & treat others with dignity? Maybe you're the problem, not others?🤷♂️
@@pfpublius Who said I was a threatening or mean-spirited person? A threat of violence is an offensive thing, somewhat criminal even. I'm on the other end of that spectrum: I don't start fights or escalate things or antagonize or victimize anyone. The way I see it is that the ability to be violent if needed, to have some martial skill or readyness is just a part of being a free human; and to deny that aspect seems to deny human nature, and to hand over a monopoly of violence to "the authorities" which are themselves clever apes no better than you or I really, and whose systems are often as just as unjust.
@@pfpublius didn't see anyone threatened in this video. You can go about life treating everyone with respect and dignity. That doesn't mean evil people don't exist that do bad things to good people. And when evil shows it's face, there are those who won't allow them to tread on the good any more.
Thanks for this . Haven't seen one since I was a kid. They called them "Go Devils." I remember one that had lil wings on it that were exploded outward to help the split. I hate we can't buy dynamite and caps at the hardware store anymore. lol. No sweat , I got me a CANNON and lotsa powder!
I bought my first car, a 55 Ford with a 57 Thunderbird Engine cutting paperwood in Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. That was my first exposure to the powder wedge.
Love this. As a teen I kept in shape and kept us in firewood splitting wood with axe, wedges and maul. I have never even heard of this method. I figured the thing would fly 50 feet in the air but not so. Now the machinist in me wants to make one.
Me too, split alot when I was younger. Still do. And that's exactly what I was thinking. I got some steal laying around that should work. And a welder. And a good friend of mine just scored a nice bridge port milling machine. Just unloaded it yesterday. Heavy as hell. Might be a good first project for it.
Yeah, actually I REALLY enjoyed that. Never heard of a powder wedge. Had a bunch of times in my life I could have used something like that. Still could. Great video. Really informative.
My oldest brother had one of these when I was a kid. In South-Western New York they called them "Splitting Guns". His was about the same length and diameter, but was more cone shaped on the end and was pounded into the log with a sledge hammer. His gun used paper "squibs" that were about 8 inches long and filled with slow burning powder. Favorite use was to blow apart crotch pieces when selling firewood. He would usually stand the length of crotch on top of the splitting gun, or back the gun up with a section of log to keep it from flying around.
Well....I've never seen that before..and I've worked in the lumber trade most of my life. And probably wouldn't allow it here in the UK..too many regulations anyway.....looks fun to use and be great on hard knotty logs.... great video.
An auger bit on a modern portable drill can have the right sized hole drilled before you can drive a wedge in. (3/4 inch bit 12 inches depth) Tip only an eggcup of black powder in, cut fuse to reach out the hole..and tamp in brick dust or similar filling the hole right up to the exterior of the log. Light fuse and WALK away. The tamping material concentrates the shockwave of the black powder down across the grain...then along the weaker grain lengthways along the log. 20ft long hardwood 5 ft across can be split into 3 chunks easily with one eggcup of real black powder.......
Reminds me so much of my grandpa. Thank you so much for sharing! It’s like watching him in action one last time. Couldn’t have made my day better if you’d tried
I'm 50 yrs old ..... When I was 12 I bought a Stevens .22 from the local gun shop / hardware store .... Crazy times lol ... Not a single school shooting even tho every boy in highschool had a gun in their truck in the fall
Used to frequent a small gun shop and it's owner used to laugh about how a .22lr required a background check but a black powder cannon that would put a 1" ball through a school bus length wise was unregulated so even a felon could have one
Up until a few years ago we had a small family owned gas station/gun shop/bar room in my area(Pa.) It was situated exactly in that order. Gas pumps in front of a 2 room building. Walk through front door into gun shop to pay for your gas and/ or in front door straight through gun shop and into the bar. Was told,that it was one of last couple of it's kind remaining in the U.S.A.. And I think it was deemed an official historic landmark. ⛽🔫's➕🍺,🤠God Bless🇺🇸👍❗
@@roscoep.coltraine6344 lol stand up comedian came to our college in South Dakota and had a great joke. "Man, i saw a bad situation waiting to happen. I saw a gun store right next to a liquor store. Across the street was a store called Target."
Obviously these boys have done this before, so who am I to say anything. I have had a couple homemade cannons before however. All I would have to suggest to a new comer to things of this nature is give it time in between set off's. Like enough time fer the metal to cool down. My good buddies got a little to excited one time and a projectile went off as someone was putting it in the tube. Blew his eardrum to peices, had black powder burns on his face, and the projectile went through his hand. So have fun, but please use your head. Mistakes can happen to anyone, we don't usually plan for what we can imagine.
Loved seeing this. I remember as a kid my dad and his brother cut pulpwood and back then you cut it in 5 foot length and the wood yard wouldn’t take anything over 22 inches so when we had a large 5 foot length we used a wedge and powder like this except our wedge was a tapered round all the way down the Length of it. We would put a leaf over the powder in the hole and put a block of wood against the wedge to give more force into the wood. Thanks for the memories
An auger bit on a modern portable drill can have the right sized hole drilled before you can drive a wedge in. (3/4 inch bit 12 inches depth) Tip only an eggcup of black powder in, cut fuse to reach out the hole..and tamp in brick dust or similar filling the hole right up to the exterior of the log. Light fuse and WALK away. The tamping material concentrates the shockwave of the black powder down across the grain...then along the weaker grain lengthways along the log. 20ft long hardwood 5 ft across can be split into 3 chunks easily with one eggcup of real black powder.......
Seems safer to me than the screw splitters that ran off a PTO. I think I'd rather take my chances with flying metal than getting wrapped up in a screw.
it´s because the apprentice is the learner. ngl he needs to learn how to hammer stuff in a little better but it´s all good, with a bit of patient and a hammer you can break a whole house down
Man-that is awesome! I'm an pretty old country boy & I've NEVER heard of these. I love old technology-it didn't cost much, got the job done and-if you used it JUUUUUUST RITE-it would actually keep you healthy also! 😉
A friend of mine use to do the same thing by drilling a hole in the wood, dumping in some powder, then capping with a nylon plug he could thread the fuse down through. He had to put the plugs on a retaining wire and clip them to a 2" steel plate he set on top if he ever wanted to see them again! 🤣 I think he would have loved to have one of these!
I had some explosives that probably held about a half pound of flash powder, not to be confused with black powder, and they were labeled "Stump-B-Gone"
Oh man I need one of those. I have some big sections of stumps . Wish they were still made have black powder for my muzzleloader . At least I know what to look for at a flea market or garage sale.
The Laurel & Hardy music in the background is absolutely perfect. I also love how no one seems to care how much powder is used, but dammit, we’re gonna be economical with the fuse - don’t cut it one bit longer than absolutely necessary!
Looks like fun! 3:20 Nice to see the old timer packin' as well. Enjoy that freedom, we don't have it up here in Canada. 2:43 My one objection is that it makes me nervous to see him pouring directly from the bottle into the powder wedge. If there were any remaining embers in there that touched off the descending powder, it'd trail right up to the bottle and then it's almost as though he's holding a grenade. That's why you shouldn't load muzzle-loaders directly from a bottle. Safer to use a smaller container to transfer from the bottle into the wedge or muzzle loader. Granted, maybe sufficient time had passed to where it was no longer a legitimate worry (I don't know how much time passed between edits), but that's something that came to mind. Still looked like a fun day out!
This gentleman reminds me of my grandpa. I sure miss him. We had fun. On a farm this works. And pyrodex Is what we use for our cap and ball .44 pistols. So always around.
Whenever you use a fuse on explosives... cut the fuse so you can WALK away... if you trip running you can injure yourself... and dragging yourself away from a short fused explosive isn't good for your mental health.... Less possible injury just walking.... P.S an auger bit on a modern portable drill can have the right sized hole drilled before you can drive the wedge in. Tip only an eggcup of black powder in, cut fuse to reach out the hole..and tamp in brick dust or similar filling the hole right up to the exterior of the log. Light fuse and WALK away. 20ft long hardwood 5 ft across can be split into 3 chunks easily with one eggcup of real black powder.......
Using powder probably isn’t that expensive if you’re removing a stump compared to stump disolving powder I’ve seen or renting a stump grinder. Powder probably should be cheaper if it wasn’t for the government. It’s just like liquor. I lived in the Philippines and it’s shocking oh differently things are priced. Having a baby is like $300 in the Philippines for hospital bills. Life is way more affordable outside of the US.
@@koltoncrane3099 I don't doubt that, but the video title refers to "wood splitting" not stump removal, nor is there any stump removal portrayed in the video.
That's neat, I never even heard of it. I don't think I ever seen one. Wouldn't have known what it was till now, but I like old things. I would have remembered it.
Love it.. Why have I never heard of this magical device? I Also love that grandpa is packing a pistol.. I'd pay good money to hang out with him for a day or two and soak up a little of his knowledge .
I have one of these but more of a cone on the end , about the same diameter stock and length but a deeper bore We used to split four foot lengths or twisted Elm all day long, (before Dutch Elm disease took them all) mine probably holds at least twice the amount of black powder. We used to pre drive it into the log wiggle it back out then fill it with powder and a bit of paper wad and tap it back in, lay a large back up log against the blasting wedge to keep it from fly off to far. ah yes good times indeed
I had no idea those things existed 🤩 This looks so much more fun than the hydronic splitter I use…though I don’t think my neighbours would be too happy if I start blowing up stumps in my backyard 😂 It’s just too crowded around here…
Family had one that made from and axel and was a gout foot + long we used it for making fence post load the splicer with black powder drive into the post length log add fuse and get out the way would atlest split in not 1/4 the log making splitting rest of post with regular wedge much easier
An auger bit on a modern portable drill can have the right sized hole drilled before you can drive a wedge in. (3/4 inch bit 12 inches depth) Tip only an eggcup of black powder in, cut fuse to reach out the hole..and tamp in brick dust or similar filling the hole right up to the exterior of the log. Light fuse and WALK away. The tamping material concentrates the shockwave of the black powder down across the grain...then along the weaker grain lengthways along the log. 20ft long hardwood 5 ft across can be split into 3 chunks easily with one eggcup of real black powder.......
@@JohnSmith-yv6eq I had seen the videos of a drilled out log being split with black powder. I just like the black powder wedge that was in this video. Be nice to have one of those just fill, drive and blast.
