Triangle head maul vs regular maul?

I’ve used them, they used to marketed as the “Monster Maul”. They have their place, but I’d not want to use one for the majority of my splitting, they’re awful hard on the body. Like any endeavor, splitting a variety of wood calls for a variety of tools, but if I could just have one it would be a nicely-sharpened 6 lb. maul with a curved axe handle. That was my go-to tool, back when I was splitting 10 - 14 cords per year by hand.

The other tool I’d consider mandatory would be an 8 lb. sledge with a half dozen steel wedges. That’s for the stuff that won’t yield to the maul.

Once you have those two basic tools, then it’s time to consider the fun stuff, like a Fiskars x27 or the Monster Maul.

Oh, and on weight... it really comes down to how much energy you can present upon the object being split, that being a product of mass and velocity^2, and how well you can focus that energy (a sharp bit). The Fiskars splitting axes give up a lot of mass for (assumed) better velocity, and also count on being very sharp to enhance that energy density (focus). The Monster Maul goes hard the other direction, giving up velocity for mass.

Usually, in my experience, velocity wins over mass. But, then as soon as you make your mind up on that, you’ll get a load of wood that ONLY wants to cooperate with that silly big Monster Maul. Go figure. This is why the 6 lb. (or some prefer 8 lb.) maul seems to be the best compromise, which will get you through the most stuff, if you limit yourself to just one tool.

I used to carry a 6 lb. axe-handled maul, a 8 lb. sledge-handled maul, a 10 lb. sledge, and a half dozen wedges. I could get thru anything, with that combination. I kept the 6 lb. maul sharpened to a more acute profile, the 8 lb. a little more obtuse. I always felt my 10 lb. sledge was a little too heavy for me to get the most out of it (it was my fathers, and he was heftier than me), but I got tired of constantly re-handling my 8 lb. sledge after friends would overshoot and break the handle on that one. None of them ever wanted to bother trying their amateur hands at the 10 lb., it was just heavy enough to deter them.

Read this thread. The sale price at amazon ended yesterday but they are available at many farm stores. It is one of those things that folks, me included, just didn't believe how well they split until we finally caved and gave em a try. Only once in a great while will I grab the old overweight splitting equipment of the old days. Don't wait any longer, get one.

Microduck17 said:

I am currently using a standard 8 lb maul from TSC. It works well for smaller stuff but seems lacking on bigger stuff. I've seen the larger triangle headed mauls in the stores, has anybody used one?
Does the extra weight translate to more splitting power, or just more work?

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The monster maul wreaked havok on my joints and didn't do any more for me than the 8 lb standard maul.

BoiledOver said:

Read this thread. The sale price at amazon ended yesterday but they are available at many farm stores. It is one of those things that folks, me included, just didn't believe how well they split until we finally caved and gave em a try. Only once in a great while will I grab the old overweight splitting equipment of the old days. Don't wait any longer, get one.

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The X27 is awesome. All I ever use, anythingvthat it won’t split gets thrown into the splitter pile. I split three truck loads today of red oak 12-28 inch. Can do it faster than the splitter and most splits in one hit vs 2 with an axe.

If I didn’t have the splitter it would be a 8 or I also have a 12 pound sledge I used to use as a mechanic with wedges.

I actually started splitting by hand again this year because I did horrible on the annual CPAT test for the fire dept. I spend the same amount of time but get some good core exercise out of it.

It's been my experience that the lightest maul that will 'just' split the wood is ideal. Thought it's pretty hard to have a 'lightest' maul for every possible scenario. Once you get into harder splitting wood, a heavier maul does seem to work a little better, though you quickly approach a point that a human being just can't exert more energy into the swing. If you have a heavier maul, you just swing it slower, so it's a wash in the end.

I've never known the 'triangle' mauls to be any sort of 'magic bullet' either. There may be a very narrow window where they work, but if the don't split the wood, it seems their extra width causes a lot of friction. In several cases, I've had the sides of the maul jammed into the wood and the tip isn't really even 'splitting'. In that case, I'd much rather have a wedge and drive it into the wood with multiple hits from a lighter sledge hammer. At least that way it helps split / shear the cross limbs which are usually what is holding up the progress to begin with.

my .02 - YMMV

This year I've upgraded to a Fiskars 8lb IsoCore from some cheap splitting axes that I've been using for years, what a difference! I find it a good balance between a splitting axe and a monster maul and can swing it for a couple of hours without issue. Splitting is a bit of a Zen exercise for me, I don't go into the wood pile and start swinging like a helicopter like some guys do. I find the narrower axes (X27) tend to stick in the wood and the monster maul is a bit blunt and tends to twist a lot, playing havoc with my wrists and hands. This past winter and spring I split over 12 cords of cedar and Doug fir.

Here's my IsoCore maul in action...

I want to try that isocore but I am not willing to shell out for it when I already have an x27 (and an old maul).

Maybe you can bring yours next time you sail to Long Island!

AlbergSteve said:

This year I've upgraded to a Fiskars 8lb IsoCore from some cheap splitting axes that I've been using for years, what a difference! I find it a good balance between a splitting axe and a monster maul and can swing it for a couple of hours without issue. Splitting is a bit of a Zen exercise for me, I don't go into the wood pile and start swinging like a helicopter like some guys do. I find the narrower axes (X27) tend to stick in the wood and the monster maul is a bit blunt and tends to twist a lot, playing havoc with my wrists and hands. This past winter and spring I split over 12 cords of cedar and Doug fir. Splitting is a bit of a

Here's my IsoCore maul in action...

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Always a pleasure to watch someone who has learned such proficiency with a tool. Of course, that's one of those videos that would get an eye roll from my wife, like the 26th time I watched "Alone in the Wilderness."

Ashful said:

Always a pleasure to watch someone who has learned such proficiency with a tool. Of course, that's one of those videos that would get an eye roll from my wife, like the 26th time I watched "Alone in the Wilderness."

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You can tell that he learned on a wood handle.

I'd be afraid to let the x27 generation use my wood handled tools.

My wife has given up eyerolling me over the stuff I watch, though sometimes she does ask about it. ("You're watching a man soak a bunch of rusty bolts in various solvents? For fifteen minutes??")

jetsam said:

I want to try that isocore but I am not willing to shell out for it when I already have an x27 (and an old maul).

Maybe you can bring yours next time you sail to Long Island!

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I'd even split a few cord with ya.

Ashful said:

Usually, in my experience, velocity wins over mass.

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I agree. When I got into the building trades 25 years ago, all the guys were swinging 22 oz Estwing framing hammers. Some were even using a 30 oz Estwing! These guys had more blown out wrist and elbow problems...
Then about 15 years ago along came the wooden handled 14 oz titanium Stiletto hammer, and even the old-timers figured out pretty quickly that you can still drive a 3 1/2'' spike with the same number of swings with a lighter hammer and not wreck your body at the same time.

Wow... a $105 hammer! I’ll bet that missing hammers have caused more than one job site fight.

Just a weekend warrior, here, but I did the whole Estwing thing. Got a whole fleet of em, maybe one in every size. I also find myself grabbing dad’s or grandpop’s old wood handled hammers, they just feel better.

jetsam said:

I want to try that isocore but I am not willing to shell out for it when I already have an x27 (and an old maul).

Maybe you can bring yours next time you sail to Long Island!

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FWIW, I got an IsoCore to supplement my X27 on knotty/twisty oak and got to the point where I'm using it as my primary splitting tool. I've found only two downsides: 1) the X27 handle is longer, so if I switch back & forth I sometimes overshoot the round; 2) if I use the IsoCore on "normal" wood, the rounds practically explode.

I still have my old maul but now it's just a doorstop.

I picked up an x17 for half price at home depot yesterday. Wasn't looking for one, but half price...

It's labeled "splitting axe" but it is the size of a large hatchet. It has the same splitting wedge head shape as the x27. It is taking over for my small steel camp hatchet (which has a narrow cutting head) as the front porch hatchet, charged with splitting small splits and kindling off of regular splits as needed, and whacking off any nubby limbs that got missed in processing.

It splits dry oak admirably, vast improvement over the camp hatchet. It also cuts limbs acceptably- even better than the old one, which is an unfair comparison since it is almost twice the length and a lot heavier.

So while nobody probably needs one, go see if your home depot has 'em on clearance!

Friend of mine picked up the ISO-Core but I haven't had a chance to swing it. Fiskar makes some nice products at a good price.

I have one of those monster mauls too... and it's collecting dust in my shed. I prefer my 6 or 8 pound maul from Tractor Supply (can't remember what size I bought 7 years ago). That monster maul absolutely sucks for splitting wood! I thought it would work like a champ but the wedge shape is too much like a blunt triangle. It's almost as bad as splitting wood with a sledge hammer.

Microduck17 said:

I am currently using a standard 8 lb maul from TSC. It works well for smaller stuff but seems lacking on bigger stuff. I've seen the larger triangle headed mauls in the stores, has anybody used one?
Does the extra weight translate to more splitting power, or just more work?

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Click to expand...

As many have indicated above, the monster maul may have its uses but not for everyday splitting unless you are looking for an extreme workout. As a friend would put it, ideal for those who approach a project with "mean strength and ignorance". Fifty years ago an old woodsman taught me a trick that makes all the difference when splitting by hand. We were working on a woodpile; I was early twenties and in exceptionally good physical shape, he was late fifties a lifelong heavy smoker. This old timer was effortlessly splitting three blocks to my two, and I was giving it all I had. It takes a little practice, but is a simple matter of putting a bit of a twist to the axe, or maul, just as it hits the block. I think that what this does is transfers some of the downward force into a lateral force so that as the edge enters and begins to split the wood it's also pushing it apart. Once one gets the hang of it, it makes a huge difference.