ESTWING Fireside Friend Axe - 14 Wood Splitting Maul with Forged Steel Construction & Shock Reduction Grip - E3-FF4 and E-5 5 Lb Sure Split Wedge , Blue

I use this maul to split wood for cooking fires after I have cut the wood to size with a bowsaw. It makes very quick work of 5-8 logs and you are left with pieces that are easy to burn. Be careful with it however. If you put the maul on top of the piece of wood and lift the wood up and down to tap it on something and get the maul started, the heavy head can suddenly break through. You may want to do this if the piece of wood wont stand up or something. Just be sure to hold the wood near the top so the edge doesnt fall quickly through the wood and hit your fingers. For a small cooking style fire you dont need any larger splitting maul than this. It is sturdy and comfortable to use. It comes with a nice sheath that will keep the edge covered. It can be used to chop a smaller tree down but it get tiring. Best to stay with a good ax or hatchet or saw for that. But in an emergency it can do the trick.

I’ve owned the regular Fireside Friend for years and find it wonderful for splitting wood up to about 4”. I use it mostly for burning smaller brush from around our property. I wanted a second one for camping, so decided to splurge and pick this Special Edition up. There is no functional difference between the regular axe and this one, other than the fact that this one is beautiful. In fact, the grip of the regular one works just fine and won’t require any upkeep, so I suppose that it’s marginally better. Both are 5 Star functional splitters for smaller wood. There is no reason to spend extra money on the special edition other than it looks great. Your decision.

This works great and its US made.

When I go camping we usually have cut and split wood; however, there is little wood for kindling and starting fires. We split up wood at the campsite. First I bought a regular hatchet and axe but soon found the heads getting stuck. Next I bought a Fiskars x25 which worked very well to split up kindling, but I was far away from the logs and every swing they fell over and I had to set them back up. Finally I bought the Estwing Fireside Friend, wrapped an old inner tube around the bottom of the log, held it steady with a short stick and split the kindling up. The old inner tube held the kindling bundle together and the short handle of the fireside friend allowed me to be close enough to hold the log up without it falling down on every swing. I wish I would have bought the Estwing Fireside Friend first. I will recommend it to all my camping friends.

This is a heavy duty tool which should be in every collection of tools if you split firewood. My Scout troop tends to abuse axes by misusing them for splitting wedges. So I introduced them to this tool. Use it along with a short handled 5 pound hammer and you can split a lot of wood. This is a one piece construction so it will stand up to very heavy usage. It is not really a splitting wedge, but it works very well as one. I am not sure why I was asked to give it stars based on light weight. This is not a flimsy, lightweight tool. It is relatively heavy which is why it will stand up to even the heaviest usage.

Best little splitter Ive found. Works much better than a standard axe. Heavy enough to do some of the work for you, and the fine edge is sharp enough to split really small pieces when needed. Its a must have for anyone with a woodstove or fireplace.

I used to have a full size splitting maul but somewhere between three moves in 20 years it went AWOL. I dont really need to split actual firewood anymore, but I do have a fire pit and split smaller kindling size stuff to burn in that. This is just the ticket. A wedge shaped, 4 lb head, a sledge face on the back, and the well-known Estwing quality. Its so nice you almost dont want to go out and start slamming it into firewood. If I had one criticism, I wish the handle was about three inches longer, as it would make it a versatile two-handed tool with a little more swing. As it is it works OK though - If I dont get a good split on the first swing and it wedges in the wood, I can use a smaller limb to baton it through by swinging against the back face. And yes, it came with a very nice sheath, too.

Im a 61 year old woman and heat with a wood stove insert. After received my 4 cords of oak, I recognized that my hatchet and sledge wasnt going to cut it (pardon the pun). My wood guy lost his crew, so he was flying solo. Add to that the rash of wildfires we experienced, I was fortunate to get what I asked for. The wood was my requested 16 length, but the diameter was insane. I ended up with two new splitting logs, but many logs were 15-20 diameter! I had to split them - and did I mention they were still a bit green?? I ordered this maul and it came early. My only recommendation is to have it sharpened first, and then to get to work. I made it through all four cords of wood and now Im looking for other stuff I can play with. Its a powerful tool, but super-easy to use. Highly recommended.

I camp several times a year, and build a campfire pretty much every evening. Ive had some okay hatchets, all mostly inexpensive and and not really functional as hammers either. When I saw this, I felt like maybe it was time to spend a little more and get a better tool. I absolutely do not regret it. This thing is heavy and sharp enough to split even larger peices of wood without needing to carry a full size ax or splitting maul. And is every bit as functional as a 5lb mini sledge. Yes, its heavy. But that weight is what makes it work so much better than a lightweight hatchet. Other than just testing it to split a few peices of wood, I havent put it to the full test yet, but will be making a 2 week trip in a month or so, and I feel confident it will do everything I ask of it, from breaking kindling, splitting wood, and to hammering stakes.

Heavy but small