Strange iron hand tool -- can you identify?

[Aunt Phil]

Sometimes the information I retain from hours of listening to people nobody seems to want to listen to comes in handy.   Rush harvesting filled in the income for farmers not too far from me when they weren't cutting & drawing ice off ponds.

Then again, I might just waste a lot of time figuring out how the hell an apple barrel filler worked before some damn yuppie antique dealer buys it at an auction for high money because it will make a statement.  I hate yuppie antique dealers.

[Billman49]

Small wooden versions are commonly used by basket makers to split osiers (willow) - I would think this tool too heavy for this task, and too unwieldy, even for splitting large saplings to make barrel hoops. In France, where this is still carried out, the most common tool is a billhook or froe, and the sapling cut into two, not three pieces - the barrel hoop is semicircular in section...

The weight of this woould seem ideal for splitting short dry logs for use on the fire or in a stove, especially indoors, where wielding an axe would not be a good idea... I've not checked out the links above, but I would guess that if identified as a barrel hoop splitter, it has been mis-identified...

[rusty]

>I've not checked out the links above, but I would guess that if identified as a barrel hoop splitter, it has been mis-identified...

The id came as a puzzle answer from rec.puzzles (usenet). I could not locate the original thread, so I don't know if the answer cited any references.....

(The web site serves as a place to put the pictures for the usenet puzzle questions)

[Branson]

Small wooden versions are commonly used by basket makers to split osiers (willow) - I would think this tool too heavy for this task, and too unwieldy, even for splitting large saplings to make barrel hoops. In France, where this is still carried out, the most common tool is a billhook or froe, and the sapling cut into two, not three pieces - the barrel hoop is semicircular in section...

The weight of this woould seem ideal for splitting short dry logs for use on the fire or in a stove, especially indoors, where wielding an axe would not be a good idea... I've not checked out the links above, but I would guess that if identified as a barrel hoop splitter, it has been mis-identified...

I think close, but no cigar.

First, It needs to be, and seems to have been, struck with a mallet -- cast iron just won't take the abuse from a hammer or the poll of an ax or hatchet.
Second, it has been identified by a source that really ought to know.

The osier's trade, like the wickerer's trade, is trying to do much the same thing here as is the cooper -- making strips from a branch or a billet.  (and thanks for the pics of the osiers!!  Great stuff that I've never seen before!)  Seems to me that the osiers' tools  kinda prove the point, being made in much the same configuration.

I think it is too complex and too particular for splitting short, dry logs, though I did consider that option.  But it's too particular for such a task.  I use a hatchet, have for over 50 years, just as I learned from my grandfather, who learned from... You get the picture.  Splitting fireplace or stove logs into kindling doesn't need this kind of sophistication.

[Billman49]

Rusty - I have since opened Rob H's site and looked at the reference - more info needed..
Branson - I did not consider striking with a mallet, but holding the handle in a downwards configurataion, and then using the weight of the tool, and the inertia, to split the log. It just seems too big and heavy to use as a 'fendoir' - I agree a hatchet is probably more usable (I would use a billhook) - but tool makers came up with all sorts of wierd and wonderful, but essentially pretty useless, tools.... Has anyone actually tried to use this for splitting oak saplings?? (in France they used sweet chestnut, 'châtaignier' as like green oak, it cleaves easily)

[Branson]

Billman 49, I see what you mean by more info needed.  There's a statement, but no documentation offered.  The form is so much the same as the fendoirs you show, it must have been designed to be used like these.   But it's really big and heavy.  If it's 12 inches long, it must have a diameter of something like 3 inches. 

The site says used for splitting white oak.   It would have to be green wood then, 'cause dry white oak doesn't like to split. 

Maybe it is one of those tools weird and wonderful that aren't as convenient as the maker imagined.  The function seems clear, but the utility not so much.