Slide action wood splitter - GIF

[Frank S]

A lot of patents are issued for things that are less than useful. regular old splitting mauls will do everything one of these will do and do not have moving parts to break bend or fowl.
With one of these you have to strike with a high force every time or risk the pawls not fully flipping with enough force to split the wood.
Not all trees are readily split-able so no matter how hard you strike the log you still need a good sledge to drive the ax or the maul on through.
this thing has an even wider angle than just about any splitting maul making it harder to split the tougher wood since it has such a short penetrating edge