I looked up on someone noodling and then this came up as a topic.... I just wonder who in their right mind would want to do this? The video takes awhile to get to the actual action. Scrub if you can.
Apparently these were used before a time of certain equipment. Seems like this would render anyone incognito.
More common than you would think. Used to see them frequently at auctions. Not used on small stuff like in the video. When crosscut saws were in use, after bucking the big rounds who would want to noodle with one.
Yeah give you a better distance. I just saw the wedge lay there but what looked like to me was the round on the other end Hurling toward the damm fool who lit it. I don't know what spells terror more: an unguided wood missle or 2.
Dad told me that in the 30's & 40's Granddad would use potash & sugar to split apart very large Elm rounds/stumps. Mix them together in whatever the proportion was needed,dril a few 1" holes with brace & 1" auger bit,have your string or whatever for fuses,pack the holes tight,light that sucker & run like Hell!
well now ya knowz wat dey sayz bout bravery: "thay's ah thin line betwix being brave and bein' crazy an ah feller never really knows on what side of da line he be ah standin'"
This is what I thought, if the rounds were flying they were too small. Trees seemed a lot bigger back then. They were really. But they needed something to split rounds that were far too large and/or knot-bound.
Rail splitter! I believe these fell under the "Any problem on Earth can be solved with the careful application of high explosives." category. Just think of all the dynamite farmers used to remove stumps when you could go to the local hardware store and grab a case nonchalantly!
We forget that not that long ago the large machinery was not as prolific as is now. As a kid I remember them using explosives on rocks that now commonplace excavators could toss like nothing.
