Anyone have experience using a log-splitting cannon?

[cannonmn]

Looks like we may finally get to go out and try it in a few days.  I've never found any descriptions of exactly how it is used, so we're going to experiment safely.  I think we'll try augering a shallow hole in the end of the log and drive the cannon into it, after loading of course.  The way it is designed it looks like that's what you do.  Then we'll take some precautions so the cannon doesn't fly off into space when it fires.

If anyone has any experience using one, I'd like to hear it.

[SLEEPY BEEPER]

Hi, I have never seen a log splitting cannon. But I have used my black powder splitting wedges many times. I would assume they are about the same. The black powder wedge is just wedge shaped so you can pound it in without pre-drilling. It goes in the end. Uses about 300 grains of powder. I paint mine bright yellow to make it easier to find. After the cannon is in place (in the end of the log). Lay another short log at a 45 degree angle over the end of the log. So when the cannon comes out (goes off). It is deflected down. Use a long enough fuse so you don't have to run when you light it. Walking away is safer. Good luck. I bet you will be surprised how well it works. I have spit logs up to 4 feet wide.

[SLEEPY BEEPER]

Hi again, I should mention I worry a spark could get in the vent when pounding the wedge in (steel on steel). So I put masking tape over the vent and fuse. Take it off before lighting. Probably silly. But that's me.

[dan610324]

hey , whats this ??  Ive never heared about it before .
couldnt anyone post some pictures , now you made me very curious 

but I remember Ive seen some short video on youtube .
there they used bp to split logs that must have been over 8 feet in diameter .

but what I can remember I couldnt see any cannon there , I assumed that they had drilled some holes and filled with bp .

I will try to find it again to see again .

[seacoastartillery]

     If any photos are available, they might help everyone realize what you fellows are talking about.  We think we know, but our guessing may be way off.  This link is to a form of log penetration we tried  a year and a half ago with Rickk:

                                        http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,124737.msg1098438318.html#msg1098438318


Looking forward to seeing the results, John.

Mike and Tracy

[dan610324]

search youtube for  :  splitting lumber with blackpowder

hope some of you guys who know how to make an link can do it for me .

this is very interesting

[cannonmn]

Here's the step-ty-step doing it without the cannon. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SUuUzAieig

[bilmac]

My dad used to talk about splitting logs with black powder

[Cat Whisperer]

The 'powder wedge' I have was my step-dad's.  He said he used it often for splitting logs that were BIG (i.e.: 3' diameter and bigger).

Thechnique is as follows:
1. load with appropriate charge of black or blasting powder (there is a powder chamber at the base of the cavity.
2. Drive the wedge into the end of the log.
3. Move it around so the other end of the log is up next to a big tree (powder wedge between the two).
4. You might want to affix a chain around it but it won't help - it will go flying anyway.
5. Light fuse and YOU get behind a BIG tree.

He was a woodsman in upstate Vermont.

[thelionspaw]

Only this morning while my wife was stoking the woodstove, she said, "do you remember when .........  was loosing firewood from his stack".  Boy do I remember!  He drilled out a piece and filled the hole with powder and then he plugged it with a bung. We had no trouble finding out who his thief was after that. Blew up the kitchen wood stove and set the house ablaze. After that, no more wood was stolen. As a fact, .......... couldn't even give his wood away.  

rc

[cannonmn]

Neat story Richard, the Good Ole Days for sure. 

Today the thief would sue you, the police would lock you up for assault with a deadly weapon, judge would find you guilty of some felony, BATFE would charge you with making a bomb, FBI would...., EPA would charge you with gross noise pollution, etc. etc. 

[SLEEPY BEEPER]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/carll/split.jpg
Here is a picture of 1 of my black power splitting wedges. It was given to me by an old gentlemen who new my fascination with black powder. His father used it or one like it (I don't know this ones age) to square up 40 foot logs for barn roof beams in the 1800's. If a person knows how to read a log. They can do some amazing work with it. I have split a cottonwood trunk 4 feet wide and 8 feet long with 2 tries. If powdered right. The make a nice pop. And opens the log right up. Nothing like the horror stories.

[GGaskill]

So do you load some shot or other kind of projectile over the powder charge?

[cannonmn]

Here's my collection of log-splitting cannons.  I'd call them powder wedges but the pic up above is really  a wedge-like thing, unlike mine.  Max diameter of bodies on mine is 2 inches.  The bores or chambers on these run from muzzle to vent only, so all of the item in rear of vent is solid steel.

Specs: 

The longer one is called "Thunderbolt" made in Buffalo, NY., and so marked, verrry faintly anymore.  Present (reduced due to pounding) length is 15 in.  Bore is chambered.  The 3/4 in. chamber is 3.5 in. long, then the 1 in. bore is another 3.5  in. long.  The little hole on side is for a wire going to a spike to drive into log in hopes of restraining the cannon when fired.

The shorter one is probably "locally made" and is 12.5  in. long, has straight 7/8 in. bore that's 6 in. long.  The conical section is fully cross-knurled, hard to see in the photos.

[GGaskill]

What is typical loading procedure and how much powder?

[SLEEPY BEEPER]

Thanks for the pictures Cannonman. It sounds like your splitting cannons will hold twice the power my wedge will. And the wedge will open some pretty big logs. I'm questing if you use a full charge on a small log. You could have pieces flying quit a ways. Your cannons where probably used to bust up really big logs. That where to big to be cut or split with anything else (or even moved). I'm looking forward to hearing about your tests. Probably the bigger the log the safer. More wood to absorb the shock.

[Cat Whisperer]

Mine is identical to your larger one.

Suggest grinding off the mushrooming if you're going to seriously use it.  Hitting the mushroomed head of a tool has KILLED people when hit with a hammer (one case involved a machinist hitting a mushroomed head of a large chisle - a piece cracked off and when inbetween ribs and into his heart).

[Cat Whisperer]

Only this morning while my wife was ...
rc

That SOUNDS like New England!  I know quite a few stories about water rights, the law, neighbors and beavers.  Some folks just did it right!  (Well maybe not PC.)

[Victor3]

Hitting the mushroomed head of a tool has KILLED people when hit with a hammer...

 We're talking about driving a loaded cannon into a log with a sledge hammer here. Isn't that a tad hazardous all by itself

 Maybe I'm missing something. They don't use anything similar in modern logging operations, do they?

[cannonmn]

Suggest grinding off the mushrooming if you're going to seriously use it.

Thanks Cat.  That one is "permanently retired" to preserve its present used appearance etc., can't grind or it would devalue it historically of course.  Good tip though.  We'll use the other one that doesn't show any signs of use so far.

Looking at the design of these, it almost looks like the designers want you to auger a bit of a hole in the end of the log first, and it would seem like that would make sense mechanically.  

But if your rel didn't mention that, I guess it wasn't part of the procedure.

Maybe we'll try it both ways as an experiment, using same size log, see if there's any difference, if we have time.  

Now I hear rain is predicted for the range area tomorrow when we wanted to shoot, so may have to wait anyway if the rain is too heavy.  I'm a fair-weather shooter, last thing I want is to be wet and miserable when I'm shooting.

[Cat Whisperer]

Drilling a hole, it seems to me, is academically ok.  Driving it in with a sledge is how is was done in practice.  There may have been an advantage to doing it and I'm looking forward to seeing your results.

[cannonmn]

Pounded it in a little without drilling any hole, log about a foot in diameter, largest we had today.  Green tube is to capture tool after firing.  Tree was about 30 feet long so parts it split into did not separate-cracks ran for about five feet along log.  Wood muffled sound so it was only about as loud as a shotgun blast.  We filled the tool about half-full of FFG black powder and covered with paper wad before pounding it in.  Log was very hard so tool only went in about an inch, we were in a hurry so didn't try to pound it in further.

[dan610324]

very interesting result John .
hope you will try it once with an drilled hole the same diameter as the front of the cone and as deep as from front of the cannon to the touch hole .

[Cat Whisperer]

I'd be interested in a comparison with letting the tool fly vs backing it up to a stump - just to know the difference in effectiveness.

THANKS for posting the pix!

[Double D]

I recall as a kid seeing Cedar logs split for posts with similar devices. The logs were 4 to 5 feet in diameter and cut to 8 foot length, Several wedges was driven in the end grain in a line. One of the inner wedges was knocked out and the rest left in place. The powder wedge head was driven in the crack from the knocked out wedge.  The loaded powder chamber was put in the powder wedge head and a log  or heavy chunck of wood was leaned up against the whole thing.  Dynamite fuse was used set off the charge.  It took a bit to light that fuse.  The explosion was only a "whomp" and the log split in half.

John, if that log had been cut offabout 8 or 10 feet  and you had taken an axe and cut across the center of the growth rings and then put your splitter in the cut you would have had two halves.

One of the things I did growing up as part of my "education" like when Dad would say "you have't learned yet, have you?" was split wood.  Dad would get pond pads and end cuts at one of the sawmills and bring them home for firewood. This was back in the early 60's and there was still a good bit of old growth Douglas fir around and some of the ends were 3 or 4 feet.  I had a fine selection of wedges and mauls to work with. I think Dad selected those ends for hardness.  One of the tricks I learned was to split the center ring and drive  a wedge in the split and then work the maul out from that center. it was twice the work to split the big log ends without cutting that center ring.

Brought the subject of wood splitting up to my dad a couple of years ago and he got a good laugh and said kept you out of trouble didn't it.

[Cat Whisperer]

That brings back some things my stepdad said (in the '60s) about splitting the big ones (in upstate Vermont) - he'd always work the natural split first to save work.

Where can one go to learn about spllitting wood - none other than GBOCANNONS.COM !

[Double D]

Natural split?  The pond pads had no splits. Most barely float.  When you sling a a maul in one of those the water flies every where.  You can let them sit for years and they will be be wet.  But once they are split the water just seemed to run out and they dry in 6 months.

By the way, the wood splitting skills my father so graciously taught me I passed on for the same reason to my son.  I fear however those skills will be lost as I will not allow him to be so mean to my grand-daughters.

Least some one say we are topic drifting here. not so. We are helping John better understand how to deploy his log splitting cannons. 

And as a sidebar, I sure wish I had some of those old growth end now.  The grain in them was arrow straight and very dense ans would make good wood for base material.

[dan610324]

off topic ??  what how when why ??
as long the discussion is about a muzzle loading cannon it cant be off topic