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Tractor Talk Discussion Forum

Anyone ever seen a powder wedge?

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NC Wayne

11-08-2005 18:56:05




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Hey guys, I've seen alot of posts lately about different types of log splitters but have yet to see anybody mention a powder wedge. Dad says his grandpa had one he used splitting wood for drying tobacco. Unfortunately dad has never known what happened to it after his Grandpa passed but it sounds simple enough. Basically the way he describes it is it was what I've always heard called a conical a wedge (looks kinda like the screw wedge in the post below) with hole in the back where you put black powder in. The hole had a threaded plug that sealed it off except for a small touch hole for the wick to go through. Once you got it started in the log you put the powder in, lit it, and ran like he--. Dad said he never saw anything it wouldn't split.....The best modern splitter I know of is a hydraulic hammer on a big excavator. We had one of those at the shop a few years back to work on. When we got done we wanted to give it a little test so we took some large sweet gum logs we had and set the hammer on them and hit the lever. It took all of two licks and the log was in pieces. Now that's easy splittin'...Too bad the machine and hammer would probably set you back several hundred thousand...

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bryan in Iowa

11-09-2005 18:44:15




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 splitter in reply to NC Wayne, 11-08-2005 18:56:05  
wow!! neat tool !! I used to drill 1/2 inch hole into big logs to heavy to lift or subborn to split.long bit bout 6 inch deep hole ,lay in piece of fuse , fill with black powder , hammer in piece of wood dowel , lay nother small log over dowel ,,light fuse and run like hell !!!!Pretty exciting way to split wood !



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Farmered

11-09-2005 05:12:25




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 Re: Anyone ever seen a powder wedge? in reply to NC Wayne, 11-08-2005 18:56:05  
I have used one. The blasted thing would make fast work of big elm logs that resisted all other attempts to reduce them to kindling wood.
We found that driving it into wet wood would squeeze out enough juice to wet the powder. I remember my dad setting up a blow torch to dry it out. After several hours it go BOOM. It is a wonder that any of us survived. Where was OSHA?



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W4

11-09-2005 09:15:05




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 Re: Anyone ever seen a powder wedge? in reply to Farmered, 11-09-2005 05:12:25  
OSHA has taken a lot of fun out of our lives!!W4



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Bus Driver

11-09-2005 04:28:07




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 Re: Anyone ever seen a powder wedge? in reply to NC Wayne, 11-08-2005 18:56:05  
Black powder is not percussion sensitive. Ours was also like a piece of heavy walled pipe, closed at one end with a small hole for the fuse. The other end was sharpened, like a leather punch. The fuse was inserted, powder charge poured in the open end, piece of rag tamped over the powder and then the sharpened edge was driven into the end grain of the log. Light the fuse, hide behind tree. Then find the wedge after the powder explodes! Messy splitting. Sawing of logs was entirely by hand. So we split the logs to make pieces that could be lifted by hand and could be sawn with the cordwood saw on the tractor.

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buickanddeere

11-09-2005 03:08:42




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 Re: Anyone ever seen a powder wedge? in reply to NC Wayne, 11-08-2005 18:56:05  
Isn't black powder sensitive to shock/concusion/friction and that alone can set it off?



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Rauville

11-08-2005 19:47:16




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 Re: Anyone ever seen a powder wedge? in reply to NC Wayne, 11-08-2005 18:56:05  
I've had one laying around the antique shop for years. If I can find it tomorrow, I'll take a picture of it. The one I have is like a normal shaped wedge, with a opening through the sides of the "V" for the blast pressure. The powder chamber on top of the wedge is round shaped with a fuse hole in the side. You would load it first, then drive it in, then light it, then run like heck.



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marlowe

11-08-2005 19:28:44




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 Re: Anyone ever seen a powder wedge? in reply to NC Wayne, 11-08-2005 18:56:05  
used one last weekend but am running out of black powder for it. mine is a pipe but real thick wall with hole in the end and you load it then drive it in the end of the log to be split light fuse and stand back works best to put a block of wood on the end so when it goes off you can find the blasting wedge. as a kid we used it to split logs 3-4 ft. acrose. would get a head ack from the smoke but it smeled good

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paul

11-08-2005 19:06:22




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 Re: Anyone ever seen a powder wedge? in reply to NC Wayne, 11-08-2005 18:56:05  
Heard of them, never saw one.

Hey, now I understand the huge pile of firewood the construction place has for sale every year, never thought of using that for splitting! Makes sense now.

--->Paul



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NEsota

11-08-2005 21:07:17




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 Re: Anyone ever seen a powder wedge? in reply to paul, 11-08-2005 19:06:22  
Have one at the farm but never saw it used. See them on a hayracks at farm sales, usually in a box with other stuff that people are not sure they have identified.



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UncleTom

11-09-2005 02:41:29




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 Re: Anyone ever seen a powder wedge? in reply to NEsota, 11-08-2005 21:07:17  
I would like to see a picture also. My dad talked of using one when he was a kid. They split all there fire wood with one. He said they had to set a log on top of it so they could find it again. It got lost in the snow out in Nebraska somewhere.



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