ESTWING Sure Split Wedge - 5-Pound Wood Splitting Tool with Forged Steel Construction & 1-7/8" Cutting Edge - E-5

This thing is a beast! Thinking this was made in China I was worried about it exploding when I hit it with the sledgehammer. I found out it is made in the USA an that made me feel way more comfortable.

This wedge does as good a job, better and safer than my axe. I did have to sharpen it, which you want to do before using it. You'll need a heavy one handed mallet or small sledge hammer to use it. I haven't used a maul, but I think for small jobs or occasionally splitting logs this works fine, is safer and spares my shoulders from using an axe or maul. It is a workout to split logs this way.

Is holding up to spitting even the hard wood. Storm damaged trees of all sizes and depth. Easy to use an size is great. Splita them well and is very functional.

This is heavy enough for splitting, but not as sharp as it could be, so it can't be set in the wood easily. Requires a heavy, not light, hammer blow to set it in the log before striking it with a maul to split the log.

This is a simple steel wedge for splitting wood. The splitting edge is conventional, but up the wedge widens by the addition of two flat ridges. These work for seasoned wood to increase the splitting width.I do not know what how the wedges would work with green wood which is softer than what I split.

Great wedge, splits the wood well. I use it for splitting camping firewood, I would not like to split large amounts of wood this way but it's a great wedge and designed to split large roundals of wood.

Great quality

I bought a Milwaukee 18V Hack Chainsaw which has just an 8" bar. I use the tool to create a slot to place the wedge which works perfectly with my old wedge. Even with the slot, I could not get the Estwing wedge to engage. It kept bounding out after every hit. The bottom width of the wedge is too wide. What the wedge is good for is as a second wedge on a larger 3' dia round, or after a wide split has started. So I give it 3 stars as a SECOND wedge to help open the split created by a different first wedge on larger rounds. Knowing Estwing, I'm sure the wedge is forged well.