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Explosive Wedge

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moonlite

02-25-2003 05:52:40




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When in the military about 40 years ago I had a friend from central Pennsylvania who was a timber worker and he said that they used a shop made explosive wedge for splitting logs. They used black powder and said that commercial ones were available but they preferred shop ones made from a car axle. Amybody hear of such?




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rhudson

02-28-2003 20:17:25




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 Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to moonlite, 02-25-2003 05:52:40  
they were big around here in tobacco country. the machine shop i purchased use to rebuild them from time to time. This is all before my time mind you, but the two owners of the shop were in their seventies and eighties and had two lifetimes of stories and knowledge. the fuse holes would errode to a larger size after much use. a commond fix was to weld shut the old fuse hole (after soaking in water overnight) and drill a new one. Doots (God rest his soul), thought the wedge had been soaked when it had not. clamped the wedge in a vise on the welding table that was next to a multipaned window. the story goes that when he nodded down his helnet and struck the arc, it set off the left over powder in the wedge. Ruperd (God rest his soul also) said it blew out 8 panes along with doots helnet. if i only had a tape recording of the stories told in that shop during breaks....anyway, my father in law has some of the powder in a jar that he use to use in a wedge. it is very course compaired to powder used in firearms. maybe the same as used in cannons? i have one that i found at the base of a tree while walking our land. i can only guess that it was lost during a shoot and hit the tree and fell to the ground. others might think that someone forgot it there while taking a break at the tree. i think that not to be the case. things were too tight during those years for someone to leave a tool that valuable.

sorry to ramble, but i was thinking of all the knowledge that is lost, even from our parents because we didn't think it important to pay attention. or were too shy to record. i would give almost anything to hear those voices again.

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don t. - 9n180179

03-01-2003 13:18:21




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 Re: Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to rhudson, 02-28-2003 20:17:25  
Yes sir, love to hear some old voices as well.
I knew everything when I was in school.
Suprising how "dumb" i've gotten over the years.



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bob

02-27-2003 15:08:37




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 Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to moonlite, 02-25-2003 05:52:40  
They used explosive wedges a lot in Calif. to split huge Redwood logs in the old days.



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Bus Driver

02-25-2003 17:10:01




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 Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to moonlite, 02-25-2003 05:52:40  
Ford Man's account closely matches my own experience. To explain the useful aspects, this was in the days before chain saws. All sawing was by hand. One local fellow had two crosscut saws welded together end to end and could cut trees about 8' diameter- but we had none that big on our place. Sawing was slow and the logs were cut long even for firewood. Splitting them with the powder wedge made pieces small enough in diameter that 2 men could bring them to the cordwood saw on the tractor, which in turn could saw only about 12" into a piece of wood. If the piece was larger diameter, we sawed maximum from one side, rotated the log 180 deg. and sawed through from the other side. The cutoff pieces were then split by hand to the desired size. For tobacco curing, the long pieces were just shoved into the (no door) furnace as far as posible and when the end in the furnace was burned off, the log was shoved in some more. The alternative to the powder wedge was lots of hand sawing or just let the big pieces rot. The powder wedge did not do neat splitting- really rough pieces resulted. But it was better than packing the heating stove with snowballs.

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Bus Driver

02-25-2003 17:12:26




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 Re: Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to Bus Driver, 02-25-2003 17:10:01  
I should have clarified that all sawing of pieces larger than the tractor cordwood saw would handle was done by hand.



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motrack

02-25-2003 15:31:29




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 Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to moonlite, 02-25-2003 05:52:40  
a little off the subject but many years ago when I first started out as a mechanic on dozers and such I worked with a old timer who taught me how to blast the track pins out of dozers.
that little trick saved us a lot sledge hammering.



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Ford Man

02-25-2003 11:35:08




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 Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to moonlite, 02-25-2003 05:52:40  
My Grandpa called them powder wedges . I made one in machine shop class in Tech School from 2� dia. cold rolled steel . I drilled a 5/8� dia. hole about 4� deep then a 1/8� dia. fuse hole thru the side . The end of the wedge was turned to about a 60 degree taper . Grandpa was a little more adventurous and used 1-1/2� stock and drilled about a 1� hole x about 1-1/2� deep on the one he made .

Lay the log on its side , put in a fuse on the wedge , filled it with black powder then drive it into end of the log . You don�t need to drive it in but 1/4�-1/2� or so . Then prop the wedge to keep it from falling out and place a good sized log against the back of the wedge . This will keep the wedge from flying across the county ! Light the fuse and get out of the way !! One log we split wound up on top of the barn !!!

We had lots of fun . They are really way more fun than they are practical .

That brings back a lot of memories . Grandpa has been dead for 18 years now and we had our wood splitting fun just a year or so before he died .

I still have our wedges . I am going to have to wipe off the cobwebs and fire them off again .

We had fun but I will have to say that it is probably pretty dangerous and I recommend that you don�t try this at home .

Ford Man

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jake

02-25-2003 12:54:40




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 Re: Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to Ford Man, 02-25-2003 11:35:08  
Watch out for the BATF, they have ways of turning one thing into bomb making or other creative charges.



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Ford Man

02-25-2003 13:50:50




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 Re: Re: Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to jake, 02-25-2003 12:54:40  
You're right , things have changed a lot since then ! Its a shame that a few really bad apples spoil it for the rest of us .

Ford Man



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kraig WY

02-25-2003 07:24:13




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 Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to moonlite, 02-25-2003 05:52:40  
Before I retired (Anchorage Police Department) I was on the Bomb Squad. We use to work with the SWAT team making them all kinds of explosive breaching devices. All breaching is done with some form of shape charges. Built right you can cut anything. The fire deparment used a comercial device called a jet axe but we liked our "home made" ones better.



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Red Dave

02-26-2003 06:20:37




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 Re: Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to kraig WY, 02-25-2003 07:24:13  
I was familiar with the "Jet Axe" in the fire service.
They were taken off the market and recalled 20+ years ago because they had the unfortunate habit of going off on their own while still in the trucks compartment. Raised he// with the truck body.



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Red Dave

01-14-2004 08:35:43




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 Re: Re: Re: Explosive Wedge in reply to Red Dave, 02-26-2003 06:20:37  
If you can provide me with any more information about the jet-axe used by the fire service I would appreciate hearing from you. Brian Finch.



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