110 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Fup., 1899. 
resorted to when excessively wide slabs are required, and is of no sort of use 
-in post and rail splitting. I always preferred to take the second plan, 
especially with a pipy log. 
To begin, take the smallest and thinuest of the wedges, called the 
“entering” wedge. Drive this into the cut face at a point about 4 to 6 
inches from the sap wood. If the log isa free one, a cracking and rending: 
. will soon be heard. ‘Then enter a second wedye a little below the first and 
nearer the centre. Strike alternately at these with the maul till they are 
buried to the head, then insert a wedge in the erack opened on the top of the 
log and drive it partly home, helping its action by a couple more wedges 
further along. When these are got home the upper part of the log is 
burst. Take the axe and cut any strings or splinters which may be holding 
the burst sides together. Then remove the wedges. 
If the log is a tough one, it will often happen that the entering wedge 
will jump out when struck. Should this occur, heavy blows of the maul are 
useless, but a gentle tapping will often send the wedge home sufficiently to 
give it a good grip. It is a good thing also to put some sand or earth into the 
opening made by the wedge, and this will usually have the desired effect. 
Having opened our log, we now have to decide on the width of our rail— 
whether 10, 12, or 15 inches. Say we decide on 12 inches. We enter our 
wedges, as before, 12 inches from the opening, and shall now experience no 
difficulty in wedging off a billet 12 inches wide. We continue doing this on 
both sides of the log until only the bottom portion remains. We turn this 
over on its face, and then split it into three or four remaining billets. A log 
3 feet in diameter has thus produced us nine triangular billets, from which the 
rails lave now to be ‘“‘run.” Running off the rails is light work compared 
with “bursting” off the billets.: 
The billet is laid on its back or side, and a wedge is entered at a point at 
either end, which will lift off the “heart” and leave the billet of a width of 
12 inches on one side and 6 on the other. Now we take a wedge, and stooping 
over the end of the billet, with a series of light taps, mark off the thickness of 
the rail—say 2 inches. Then we enter two wedges at once, to prevent the 
wood splitting in a wrong direction. Sometimes when these are entered, 4 
good drive of the maul will send them almost to the end of the billet, the rail 
jumping off without any more wedging being required. If it does not do s0, 
then we take the running-out axe (which is about 14 inches long). «Pass the 
blade in just ahead of the wedges, and heave on the long stout handle. The 
slab will be wrenched off for some distance. 
Now, if the splitter slacks up on the handle to get a fresh purchase, he 
will find he cannot move the axe an inch forward, because the slab at oneé 
closes down on it and holds it as ina vice. Therefore, before slacking up, pub 
in a wedge edgeways behind the axe; then you can slack up, and the axe will 
move a foot or so forward. Now give another wrench, and let your mate 
follow up with the wedge till a final “snap” indicates that the rail is run off 
This will be our narrowest rail—say about 8 inches wide. Proceed in the 
same manner with the next until the billet is expended. We shall have from 
four to six rails according to the thickness, but four is the usual number. 
Tt does not always follow that rails will run out so accommodatingly as 
those described. When running off the first rail, we sce the split getting 
further and further towards the sap, and this means that the rail will be 2? 
inches thick at one end and 6 inches at the other. It also means that out 
billet is ruined, or, at most, that we shall only get two rails out of it—a heart 
rail and an “ outsider.’ We can, however, to a certain extent, obviate the 
trouble if we notice it in time. The remedy is to withdraw the axe and wedges 
and start at the other end. Now here comes in a nicety in splitting. The rail 
is running out to a thick end. Obviously if we re-commence operations at that 
end, the rail will run to a thin end. Hence we must start our rail ata go 
thickness—say 4 inches. Now we run it out, and it gradually becomes thinne 
‘meeting the other split about the centre. We have saved our rail, but it ig what 18 
