The seller said he worked at a hardware store that sold them in the 80’s and he bought two at that time. Said he loved having friends try them out over the years.
I still have the red one, bought it at an Ace hardware a long time ago. The handle is bent a few inches from the head and the foam handle covering is long gone. You hit a hard knot and that thing can really rattle your nerve endings! I have no idea what it was called or who made it. If you want to get a lot of wood split just show that to a bunch of young guys. They can't help but try to one up each other and viola! your pile is split! It only works once though, my sons friends stay well away from the work zone now. Brad
Found it on Craig’s list back in spring. The guy wanted 75 but we agreed on 60. I use mauls for all my splitting, usually the 8 pounder and sometimes the the 16 lb sotz but I just can’t get the speed with this thing. Maybe I need Rick Ross to make an instructional video.
Much of a splitting tool equation is not the tool, but the person using it. Take a look at these two videos: The first video is a guy who bought a custom 29 lb metal maul off of eBay. Its made very similar to the monster maul The second video is the guy who actually made (or had made) the 29 lb maul. He made two, kept one and sold one to the first video guy. The first guy struggled to lift the maul, he probably is half the size of the second guy who's built like a gorilla and yielded it like a butter knife. He'd probably sink a X27 through the dirt into China.
The way that first guy is lifting the maul up is making me cringe. Not exactly the right technique nor easy on the back.
Today was the day…the foretelling from February of 2022 came to fruition! 3.5 years later and I conquered the Monster! The 24 lb monster!!! Upon scouring the grounds at the 2025 Zagray’s Summer Tractor Show/Swap meet I laid my eyes on, and purchased a 24 lb Sotz Monster maul. Goes well with my 16 lb Sotz. Paid $15 for it. I’m probably going to end up doing a YT video on it.
I’m embarrassed to say I broke one of those indestructible Slotz hammers from hell.First and only swing, overshot the round and snapped the head off.
I had one as a young adult (the 16-lb. one). It would split wood like nobody's business and I used it exclusively for a long time, but the handle eventually bent DOWNWARD towards the "blade" in a bow in the middle of the handle. It finally failed from it's own weight, being basically a steel tube with a weld joint where the diameters change. "I can fix that", I thought, so I put a solid piece of steel dowel inside the joint and welded it up. Boy, that thing would ring your hands and arms with every strike after that! It was horrible. I cut the handle off near the head, leaving a stub, and turned down a sledgehammer handle and hafted it with that. It worked well until a friend borrowed it and promptly broke the wood handle out with an overstrike.
