Much to my satisfaction, I turned that ash tree mentioned in yesterday’s post into genuine split rail fencing.  Not the greatest job, and it took me a fair bit of time, but I did succeed in splitting several 11 foot sections into four rails a piece.  I have sinced learned a trick regarding the starting wedge placement that should aid future attempts.  You apparently start a wedge in the cut end (just as one would for firewood) and then leapfrog your wedges down the section, this first wedge controls the split better. I hadn’t done that and had problems controlling the angle. You do need at least four good big wedges and having a chainsaw or axe to hand to deal with incompletely split fibers helps.  Have at least one extra wedge hanging about, when the things get stuck…they get stuck.  It also helps if the ground is flat and hard since if the log shifts or bounces you lose much of the maul’s force.

It is also d—ed good exercise!