Used a maul and my grandfather's wedge yesterday for the first time. We had a bunch of beech tree sections that are just a little too big for the wood stove, and I finally got around to trying out the splitter. It worked great.

Of course, it took me a while to get used to the motion, swinging down from the top only to save energy, while sliding my right hand down the shaft and bending my legs down to prevent backswing and hit the wedge from a nearly horizontal position. (I'm too tall to get it to work as well as some could.)

But I got used to it, and began hitting the wedge correctly more often (not every time!) and hearing that wonderful bell-like sound when the maul and the wedge connect perfectly. Many times the wedge ended up driven into the ground, as in the photo above.

I even tried it with some non-round pieces of wood and it worked fairly well there, too. It was a good day. The transformation of knowledge into practice is always satisfying.