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

This small splitting maul is fantastic! I got the one with the rubber handle because I own a few Estwing tools and love their durability.The sharp edge on the blade penetrates the toughest wood.

Gets a wicked pissah in durability power weight distribution is perfect keep up the excellent work

This is a great little splitter. Tou may see people down play this. But this is a tool for the job. It's not meant to split large logs. That's what the 8-10 malet is for. This is great to split smaller pieces into kindling. Really works well.

Great value and size. Excellent quality. Works well right out of package. I should have bought one years ago!

Splits wood with ease, as long as you’re able to swing it. Not for noodle arms 😄 Made extremely well, handle length just right, swings comfortably. Easy to transport as it takes little space. Thick where it needs to be and sharp as it needs to be. Came with a nice sheath too. It really is fun to use. Great price for a quality item

Can’t recommend this enough splits right through the logs I get from my wood supplier it’s sharp and has a good handle very well balanced

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.

Quality and fits perfect in hand for splitting wood. Weight distribution excellent. One swing splits