Splitting a log with explosives

[Jamie Buxton]

This certainly counts as woodworking with power tools...
On Youtube, search with "Splitting lumber with black powder". These guys "resaw" a 5'-diameter oak log.

[Chip Lindley]

Um....to rephrase an old addage: "Sometimes the Means does not the End justify!

I did not take time to look up this feat on YouTube, but in my mind I see millions of oak toothpicks raining down!! Even IF the log spilt precisely as calculated, I have to wonder about the Shock causing splits in the wood layers, akin to *wind shakes* or Worse!

I have no doubt the quality of this huge log for lumber or veneer-making would be degraded!

[Brad Wood]

pretty cool, they actually do a pretty good job of splitting it right down the middle

[John Schreiber]

Here's the link. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kldc_R9yfmQ>.

The log looked to be over 6' diameter. It would have taken a long time with a maul.

[Frank Trinkle]

One more along the same lines....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EI7zWoM_Q0

[David DeCristoforo]

Yep... that split it good! Isn't that called "quarter blasting"? We used to have parties out in the Nevada desert and there was this thing called "ringing the anvil".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWq9vKtP1a8&feature=related

AKA "anvil shooting"...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_c0B00Ax3w

Fun....

[Paul Murphy]

100HP circular-sawmill near where I used to live did this with oak logs too large for their saw. They drilled a few holes along the plane of the desired split, and poured in black powder. Once the logs were quartered they would fit through the saw.

[Dell Littlefield]

Back in the early fifties, I had a part time job cutting wood and selling it to a paper mill. On very large trunks, we used a black powder "wedge". It was like a piece of pipe about 1 1/2 inch outside diameter and approximately 15 inches long with a portion hollowed out up to about 1 1/2 inch from the end with a 1/4 inch hole drilled into the side. The "wedge" was filled with black powder and driven into the log a foot or so. We stacked loose pieces of wood against it to prevent it from becoming ballistic. A length of fuse was inserted into the 1/4 inch hole and lit. It worked very well (as the You Tube shows). This enabled splitting logs that otherwise would have been left to rot. One very tough cottonwood log completely resisted every thing we tried and it was never harvested as far as I know.

[Tom Adger]

whenever you decide to blow your logs apart, please make a video and post it for us. this, of course, assumes you survive.

i would love to come watch, but since i am in fl, i can't very well get there.

[John McClanahan]

When I was a kid, my Grandfather told me about splitting logs that way. He said he used a brace and bit to drill the hole and filled it with potash and sugar. I could never get him to tell me how he mixed the potash and sugar.

John

[Mark Norman]

Yep... that split it good! Isn't that called "quarter blasting"? We used to have parties out in the Nevada desert and there was this thing called "ringing the anvil".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWq9vKtP1a8&feature=related

AKA "anvil shooting"...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_c0B00Ax3w

Fun....


One way to go deaf....

[jerry cousins]

in the pacific northwest - in the 70's and 80's there were doug fir and sugar pine trees that were just way too big to get through the head rigs at the mills - maybe 6-8" diameter. there was 1 fellow around that would use powder and blast the trees in half so they could be sawn. when we knew it was to happen we all went down to the mill for show.
jerry

[george wilson]

Splitting with a black powder wedge actually was practiced long ago. I have seen antique "wedges". As stated,they are thick cylinders with 1 flat end,and a long,acute tapered end that you drive into the log. the tapered end has a hole in it for the powder,and a hole for a fuze near the flat end. Not the way I would want to split logs as I don't know how they controlled how the log split. Maybe good for rough work like making split rail fences?

[Eric Larsen]

Sounds like a job for Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman.