Exploding sledgehammers
- Thread starter bcp
- Start date
mrmikey
Veteran Member
Ohhh wow, a Darwin festival............Mike
Wakey
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2013
- Messages
- 1,164
- Location
- Madison Georgia
- Tractor
- John Deere Z915B Zero Turn 54 Deck
Deafness is a rite of passage 
oosik
Super Star Member
I don't know about the idiots in that clip. I've seen black powder splitting wedges used. Old timers demonstration at a county fair. The wedge has two arms that will spring out when the black powder charge is detonated.
Drive the wedge into the log. Load the black powder charge. Give the wedge a good smack with a sledge hammer. The two arms( one on each side of the wedge ) blow out and split the log.
Kind of an expensive - possibly dangerous way to go. So - JMHO - only used for the very most difficult splits. And for wood that really had to be split.
Drive the wedge into the log. Load the black powder charge. Give the wedge a good smack with a sledge hammer. The two arms( one on each side of the wedge ) blow out and split the log.
Kind of an expensive - possibly dangerous way to go. So - JMHO - only used for the very most difficult splits. And for wood that really had to be split.
2LaneCruzer
Super Star Member
Next thing you know they will be shooting anvils in the air.
jaxs
Elite Member
Several years ago before CIA,ATF,FBI and Homeland Security clamped down on citizens using explosives,my boss asked me for help clearing stumps and building road to his private lake. We stuck a charge beside a stump and blew a hole in earth beside it. We stuck a BIGGER charge beneath a stump and blew a BIGGER hole in earth but stump remained where it was. We decided to quit early and save some explosives for tomorrow. The old man from down the road who had been watching from afar joined us on our way to camp. The old guy asked what time we would start the next day and showed up with a hand operated drill and a few other things. After boring a hole in the stump,he inserted a much smaller charge than we had been using. Pieces went in all directions leaving a hole and some roots my tractor easily handled. Isn't it funny how much better things work out if you know what you are doing?
cqaigy2
Super Member
We had kinda of the opposite problem. I was the "young" guy, working for a mining company doing mineral survey work. The company wanted to do core in an area i'd collect some specimens from. So we humped drilling pipe and drill up the side of the mountain, and hand picked a landing into the rock in the face of a cliff, for the drill to be setup. Deployed the equipment, for the drilling that would take place next week. As i wasn't going to be there for the start of the drilling i mentioned it would be best if they drilled downward at a specific angle and not straight in, because they would most likely get the pipe stuck because of a slip i noticed, while i'd been crawling around the area. It would likely move, and pinch the pipe, trapping it, along with a very expensive bit. Two weeks later i contact the company and they tell me they need to send some people up to try and get the pipe and bit that was stuck in about 75 feet of rock and asked if i'd go along to help. We packed dynamite and electric caps up to the site and attempted to free the pipe. The "old" timer they sent along with us was calling the shots and after we did 4 pops without getting even close to getting the pipe free, running out of caps, i said we got one more chance at this or we are going to have to go back and get more caps and that will add about a week onto this time line. I explained, if we can blast a portion out of the face, just below the landing, it will most likely drop the chunk of rock trapping the pipe, down into it. He said go head, give it a try. I went down using a star drill and 10 lb hammer, drilled three holes a few feet deep, and packed the rest of the dynamite into them and wired up the last cap, and tied it to the pieces of det cord, going into the hole. Strung the wire backup the cliff side and backup over the top about 100 feet. The old time asked where the rest of the dynamite was, i told him in those holes i drilled, this was are last chance. Rigged up the wires and looked at each other, i said we probably should hold on as this was going to be pretty big boom for being this close. Laid down on the ground, i yell fire in the hole three time, and touch it off. Ground shook, and very small pieces of rock feel out of the sky, away from us. But sure enough, it had flopped a huge chunk of rock down into the blasted hole, and there was the pipe and bit, just laying there, right on the surface.
oosik
Super Star Member
A sad story. Long ago - over 70 years. The WA Dept of Fish & Game responded to folks who were having problems with beavers. Flooded fields, flooded buildings and the like.
They would send out a crew and "blow" the beaver dam with dynamite. It took several years before they realized - this practice was next to useless. The beavers would rebuild the dam - stronger and higher. Usually in less than a week.
Dad - being a fisheries biologist - would go out on some of these projects to check on native fish species that might be in the creek/pond. He took me on one of these projects.
The dam was blown. I was disappointed - Dad had moved us so far away - we could hardly see anything.
Another biologist was standing close to us - under a large pine tree. An old water logged chunk of pine trunk hit high in this tree and came straight down. Hitting the fellow right in the head and killing him instantly.
My dad was so concerned that we would be far enough away. Nobody ever expected this to happen. My dad never took me on another one of these projects.
Fish & Game - began trapping and relocating beavers. Then blowing the dams.
This procedure worked well.
They would send out a crew and "blow" the beaver dam with dynamite. It took several years before they realized - this practice was next to useless. The beavers would rebuild the dam - stronger and higher. Usually in less than a week.
Dad - being a fisheries biologist - would go out on some of these projects to check on native fish species that might be in the creek/pond. He took me on one of these projects.
The dam was blown. I was disappointed - Dad had moved us so far away - we could hardly see anything.
Another biologist was standing close to us - under a large pine tree. An old water logged chunk of pine trunk hit high in this tree and came straight down. Hitting the fellow right in the head and killing him instantly.
My dad was so concerned that we would be far enough away. Nobody ever expected this to happen. My dad never took me on another one of these projects.
Fish & Game - began trapping and relocating beavers. Then blowing the dams.
This procedure worked well.
turnkey4099
Elite Member
I took on a job of clear cutting a 3/10 mile of old dying willow trees. Farmer had trapped out the beavers in it and wanted the trees cleared for new and better trees. Took me 7 years of harvesting 7-10 cord a year. year 5 I had been out working on it a few days before, showed up and the entire bottom half of the grove was flooded. New beavers had moved in and dammed the stream. In doing so they had copted a small rick of firewood I had piled to be picked up and added it to the dam.