reprofile splitting maul?

[chrisedwards132]

Over the summer I picked up an 8lb splitting maul at Harbor Freight. I knew it wasnt great but for a sale price of $10 I couldnt really say no. Well, its pretty terrible. The head is too wide and too blunt. Im not above just buying a better maul, but Im not a fan of throw away culture and I own an angle grinder...

So: Has anyone done this before? Have you reprofiled a splitting maul? Im thinking about taking material off the front to make it more concave and certainly giving it a more tapered cutting edge.

I mean hell, I cannot possibly make it worse than what it is now, but if youve done this before Id be interested in hearing your results.

 

[gerry100]

I'd only take a little off the edge for the first 1/4 inch.

A maul is not a cutting tool like an axe but a flying wedge.

Work on the efficiency and accuracy of your swing( ie practice)

 

[ErikR]

I have a yellow handled 6# maul. It was pretty blunt when I got it and it seemed like it bounced off of green oak rounds, I took a 12" file to the "cutting edge", if you could call it that. It helped. Now when I swing it, it goes quite deep, often splitting things in one swing. much better than bouncing off.

Try working the edge. Like you said, you can't make it worse.

 

[canoe2]

I got an 8 lb. maul two years ago that looked even worse than yours. It bounced off of any log bigger than 8 inches in diameter. Took it to the guy who sharpens my lawn mower blades, a 70+ year old gentleman who looks like he spent a lot of years swinging an ax, and told him, "Make this better." He used a grinding wheel on it, took off the 'shoulders' on the edge, and now it works fine.

 

[Jags]

Just a warning though - if you have too much taper, you will find that if the log doesn't split - you have a stuck maul.

 

[chrisedwards132]

Good advice from all of you. Ill be conservative and only sharpen it up, making the cutting edge thinner and not reducing the wedge much. Ill post some photos and let you know how it went.

Thanks!

 

[chrisedwards132]

Spent about 15 minutes with the grinder and just smoothed it all out. I now have a maul that works! Thanks for helping me resist the urge to totally reshape it, Ive been known to over engineer projects before... And Gerry100: Im working on my swing too