The Great Wood-splitting Contest II!

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This four-edged implement is designed to quarter — not halve — a log. Unlike the Wood Popper 1, the sharp-tipped WOODOX never once jumped or fell out of a round, so it seemed to be a safe wedge to work with. And it is downright satisfying to see a billet you've been working on bust into four separate sections.

Unfortunately, however, it takes a lot of effort to drive this many-bladed tool through a round. (In fact, we almost began to feel that it would take a "wood ox" to pound the wedge through logs of more than a foot in diameter!) So, although the WOODOX didn't seem as potentially hazardous as either the Wood Popper 1 or a traditional wedge, it was far less efficient.

THE E-Z SPLIT LOG SPLITTER, Tri-Star Corporation, R.R. 3, Illini Street, Vandalia, Illinois 62471.

This 29-pound device has two pieces, a stand-and-post unit and a conventional five-pound wedge that rides a guide up and down the pole. The advantage of the E-Z Split's design is the stability it adds to the wedge: The iron wood pryer never bounces out of a round or leans over as you pound it. In addition, the logs themselves — being held between the wedge and the stand — are quite stable and rarely fall over. So the E-Z does do away with some of the normal irritations of using a free-standing wedge.

On the other hand, the splitter presents some annoyances of its own. For one thing, it's not an entirely simple matter to get a log properly positioned in the device. (We often had to slip the 14-pound top piece all the way off until a round was precisely in place.) In addition, the tool's virtue of stability can become the sin of inflexibility when a crack line opened up by the wedge doesn't run exactly in line with the device — or if, after a couple of whacks, you decide you'd rather drive your wedge in somewhere else. (It isn't easy to liberate a log from of E-Z's grip!)

The tool was able to go through 23"-tall-by-16"-diameter hardwood rounds, though, and seemed like a fairly safe device to use (so long as its operator never lets his or her foot get under that falling wedge). Still, it took a goodly number of whacks to force the wedge through a log. And the tool's hollow post sets up a real clanging racket when the splitter is in use!

THE WOODCHOMPER, Watson Mfg. Co. Inc., P.O. Box 861, Brownsville, Tennessee 38012.

Like the E-Z Split Log Splitter, the Woodchomper incorporates a five-pound wedge and is a noisy, slow-but-steady log cracker. Unlike the former tool, though, this blade-on-a-stick device is quite easy to position and maneuver. Just pick up the 22-pound implement (you have to hold on to both pieces), put it where you want it, and set it in place with a few gentle starter taps.

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