Posted by O'Possum/TX on 12/10/2007, 5:32 pm, in reply to "Off Topic? But I need Help" Edited to fix spelling and to add that I googled the name as I recall it and got nothing similar.
63.82.250.194 | Message modified by user O'Possum/TX 12/12/2007, 11:05 am
One of my great aunts had a "Powder Powered Log Splitter" as was printed on the wooden box with the apparatus in it that one of her younger brothers bought just before WW1.
It was about 10 inches long, about 1 1/2" in diameter, with about a 3/4" bore and had rings around the one open "muzzle" end like a hose barb. It was hollow and had a touch hole in the side of what would be the breech end. It came with a hand auger twist drill that was used to drill the pilot hole into the log into witch the "splitter" was driven.
She told me that they only used it once because they spent so much time looking for the damned thing that when they found it, they never used it again.
I know that my description is seriously lacking but it looked like a small hand cannon with gripper rings around the muzzle end.
FYI: The land they moved to was creek bottom with a mix of huge old oak, cottonwood and other trees. They came from the "barren plains of Oklahoma" after they sold off their land there. The story is that they starved out and then sold the "farm" to the next fool, and then they came to Texas.
No, it is not in the family any more. It was destroyed when the old house burned in about 1968. Any body with access to a lathe could make one in an hour or so.
Have FUN!
O'Possum/TX
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