toolmaker
Super OPE Member
- Local time
- 9:28 PM
- User ID
- 11603
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2020
- Messages
- 277
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- Location
- Tyrone, Pa
Anyone ever split a tree with Black powder?
Sounds like fun...........
Sounds like fun...........
Yep, a shovel and a stick of dynamite, no oil, fuel, saw trouble, hard to beat.I’ve seen trees shot off the stump with dynamite by my pops. I’ve never done it but I can ask him about the method.
These are exactly what my wife’s grandpa described using with his dad in the 1940s. They used to cut pulpwood logs at 6’ lengths and sometimes were required to split them. If they couldn’t beat them apart with traditional wedges, they would use a powder wedge. He thought he might still have one around if he can find it.
That tool is pretty cool! A buddy of mine worked at a mill and they did it a little different. He said that he would do a plunge cut in the middle of the log and make the plunge cut 3/4's of the way through, then he would pack it with black powder (the amount depended on the diameter of the log, he never rold me the formula), then insert a cannon fuse and pack the rest very tightly with saw chips (using wedges and a hammer to pack the chips), light the fuse and run!
He said that it always worked like a charm as long as there was no knots in the log.
I wonder why they don’t sell these at the hardware store next to the axes and mauls?
That is a great old ad! Do you have any idea what the approximate date of the ad is? A carpenter friend of mine always tells of being able to buy blasting caps and explosives at the lumber yard in the 70s and maybe even early 80s. The good old days when a person could blow stuff up without a license or fear of imprisonment...From Australia
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That is a great old ad! Do you have any idea what the approximate date of the ad is? A carpenter friend of mine always tells of being able to buy blasting caps and explosives at the lumber yard in the 70s and maybe even early 80s. The good old days when a person could blow stuff up without a license or fear of imprisonment...
Good catch. I often miss the obvious! That is around the era that I have heard the old timers talk about using these.At the bottom left of thr page its dated 11 1934.