ESTWING Special Edition Fireside Friend - Leather 14" Wood Splitting Maul with Forged Steel Construction & Genuine Leather Grip

Handy little tool that I used daily this winter to split kindling and logs for the wood-stove. Robustly made!

Bought this as a Xmas gift last year for my father. It's great for splitting kindle wood and the quality is amazing. It has great weight to it and the size is just right. It chops great and easily and was a great gift

Worth it.

Absolutely perfect kindling splitter. Worth the money

Just what I needed for splitting small to medium logs with a wedge.

Great 4 lb all steel splitting maul, compact, and Made in the USAHave other Estwing products, very well made

I purchased the standard blue Fireside Friend model and glad I did for the additional grip and comfort of the shock-reduction hanlde over the leather ring alternative. The 4 lb. weight is perfect for camping and can be used with one or two hands. While it would be nice if the handle was about two inches longer, this tool works fine as is and fits nicely in my camping tool bag with my Husqvarna hatchet.My only nit and why I deducted one star was the poor edge on this tool as sold. The quality of the materials and fit was very good, but the sharpness of the bit was disappointing, event for a splitting maul. I noticed this when I was getting bounce-back or rebound when splitting greener wood. On closer examination I discovered that not only the cutting edge was dull, but it was poorly ground with one side not matching the angle of the other. After about an hour of finishing with a file and sharpening stone, I finally achieved the sharpness I expected and it performed much better.If you have dry, seasoned wood, I would expect about 4-6 inches to be about the maximum diameter for this tool to split safely. I split about a dozen 4 inch logs cut from trees downed this spring by storms which was still somewhat green, so this was a fairly critical test. After dressing the blade bit, however, it did an excellent job of splitting this wood.While I usually use a large log as a base for splitting with a standard long-handled maul, I found it safer to split logs and their sections directly on the ground with the Fireside Friend Axe. This avoids any bounce-back of this shorter-handled maul into one of your legs while standing, which nearly happened to me. I found this tool safest and most effective to use kneeling in front of the piece you’re splitting, leaving little to no chance that rebound of the shorter maul could present a danger.In closing, I’m excited to find this compact, yet effective splitting maul for my camping excursions. Yes, I was disappointed that the cutting edge was not properly finished, but having resolved that myself, I look forward to using this Estwing Fireside Friend for years to come.

Great for splitting logs that are a little big for the fireplace. Place it on the log and hit it with a heavy hammer. All steel construction, no wood or plastic handle to break. Should last forever.