Winner of a BBC Gardeners' World Magazine Best Buy award for the best axe for all-round wood splitting, this is a premium, quality axe. Beautifully made and well-designed, it’s very comfortable to handle and use, with a perfectly balanced weight. This, coupled with a relatively light weight of 1.3kg and a mid-length shaft of 50cm, mean this axe is large enough to be used two-handed for splitting logs up to 20cm in diameter, while also being small and light enough for more accurate precision work like making kindling. So, the higher cost of this axe is balanced out by its versatility – there’s no need to have two separate axes for two different jobs. To ensure you’re buying the best product for your needs, it pays to be informed on the best things to look out for when buying a log splitting wedge: – Traditional or wood grenade/bomb? The Rolson log splitting wedge is very good for dealing with logs up to around 25cm in diameter, and can handle larger logs, however I found that controlling the direction of the wedge became a little harder when doing so. Then again this could have has something to do with the fact that I had to use a larger and heavier hammer for the larger logs too, so I had less finesse in my swing. You can imagine my surprise when I tried it for the first time, and it didn’t rely do anything. Feeling a little perplexed, not to mention disappointed, I took it out and looked it over and then it hit me- I hadn’t remembered to put an edge on it! Duh.

The dimensions of 22.56 x 6.35 x 4.45 cm means that it is longer than your average log splitting wedge too. Deciding between the two main types of wood splitting wedge can be a little hard to do, and to be perfectly honest, they both work fine. I’d say it is easier to start off with a wood bomb because it has a single point and not an edge like traditional wedges, but in my experience, the latter give you a cleaner break in the logs. Make sure you’re buying a splitting wedge

Belle MBS08 Maxipave Block Splitter with 1x 408mm Blade

After a few minutes with the hand grinder, I was ready for my second attempt, and lo and behold, the 20-inch log was split completely in two in just a few minutes. It had certainly lived up to the hype, and continued to do so throughout our day of testing.
I can’t help but think that the Estwing E-5 log splitting wedge’s excellent performance has something to do with the shape of the product. Also consider the construction, material, durability, warranty period and price – as well as how much the axe will be used. Sometime there are products advertised as splitting wedges when in actual fact they are felling wedges and not made for the same purpose. Felling wedges are usually made from weaker materials and will not withstand the same treatment as a splitting wedge. Material A wood-splitting axe is designed to split large pieces of wood into smaller ones – either into logs of a suitable size to fit your stove or fireplace, or to make kindling.

Although it isn't a traditional axe, this wood splitter does the job just as well, and once we'd tried it we had to include it in our wood splitting axe review. Forged from a single piece of recycled cast iron, this well designed and simple tool has an upturned axe blade set within a safety ring. It’s super easy to use, anyone can have a go - you simply need the strength to lift a hammer, and there are no safety concerns or worries. For these reasons we awarded it a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy for safety. At 1.46kg, it is on the heavier side of things when it comes to log slitting wedges, but at just under 18cm, it is shorter than the Estwing.
The tip is a lot narrower too, and this has its pros and cons. The upside is that it helps to cut into the wood without any pre-cuts, but it does mean that you can easy blunt or snap of the very end if you use too much force. I would not recommend using a large sledgehammer for this, and instead go with a smaller, club hammer.

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