Historical information

Black powder splitting guns were commonly used to split large logs into more manageable pieces before the advent of excavators and front-end loaders in bush logging operations.
A typical splitting gun used in Victorian forests was a piece of high-grade steel about 1-1/2 to 2 inches in diameter and about 16 inches long, and slightly tapered at one end.
They had a ¾ inch hole drilled about 9 inches deep into the centre of the shaft with a small pilot hole drilled from the outside to load the fuse.
The tube was carefully loaded with an amount of black gunpowder using a funnel and spoon. Experience being the guide on how much powder to use, which depended on log size, species and difficulty of splitting the wood.
The hole was stopped with a piece of wadded paper and the gun positioned at the end of a length of the log to be split.
The splitting gun was then belted into the log with a large wooden maul or even the back of an axe to a depth of about 3 to 4 inches. There were often markings as a guide. This also had the effect of tamping the black powder inside the gun.
Preferably the gun was backed up by another large log to absorb the shock and avoid it flying off in the bush somewhere. I have seen guns where a length of string and coloured flag could be attached to help find them.
A length of fuse was then inserted in the small hole and lit. Kaboom !!!!
Needless to say, the splitting gun was a dangerous implement.

Significance

Commonly used to split pulpwood but now rare

Physical description

Black Powder Splitting Gun

Inscriptions & markings

Five marking rings used to guide how far the gun was in the log