Roller maul

A splitter head including a body generally symmetrical about a central vertical plane, the lower portion of the body being bounded by opposed smooth-surfaced side walls converging downwardly to terminate in a cutting edge lying in the central plane. Spaced upwardly from the cutting edge, first and second sets of rollers are mounted in ports formed in the body, the rollers being rotatable about axes parallel to and disposed on opposite sides of the plane. The outer cylindrical surfaces of the rollers lie outwardly of the side walls. The upper body portion is defined by upper continuations of the side walls and recessed in at least one of the continuation walls there is provided a layer of phosphorescent material covered by a protective translucent coating. The side walls in the lower portion of the body may be formed to provide recesses flanking a central smooth vertical strip extending upwardly from just above the roller ports.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates generally to cutting tools, and more particularly to 
a splitting head or wedge having antifriction means to facilitate use, and 
phosphorescent safety identifying means to minimize injury in locating the 
tool in a dark environment. 
Prior devices have been proposed in this general field, including those 
shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,163 to Root and U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,808 to 
Kolonia, which provide levered means intended to facilitate splitting a 
workpiece such as a log. The present invention improves over those devices 
and provides a blade having a downwardly directed cutting edge, and a 
plurality of rollers mounted in the blade body on horizontal axes. The 
outer cylindrical surfaces of the rollers extend outwardly of the adjacent 
side walls of the blade, which converge downwardly from a upper maximum 
blade thickness to the cutting edge. The surfaces of the side walls are 
desirably smooth so that, if portions of the workpiece contact the 
sidewalls despite the spreading effect of the rollers, friction of such 
contact will be minimized. Portions of the blade side walls may be 
recessed, leaving only relatively narrow smooth strips to possibly be 
contacted by the workpiece during use. Above the level of maximum blade 
thickness, the head may have formed therein a recess bearing a layer of 
phosphorescent material, protected by a translucent coating, to serve as a 
useful identifying and locating means for the tool where the light level 
is low.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
A splitter head of the present invention is indicated generally at 10, and 
includes an upper portion 12 terminating upwardly in a flat anvil 14. The 
head is provided with an opening 16 for receiving the end of an axe 
handle, fragmentarily shown in dotted outline at 18 in FIG. 1, and the 
head includes a lower blade portion 19 which terminates downwardly in an 
arcuate cutting edge 20. The parts thus far described are conventional and 
well known in the art. 
In the upper portion 12 of the head there are provided safety means for 
identifying and locating the present cutting tool in places of low or no 
illumination such as a tool shed. These safety means, as best seen in FIG. 
4, include a quantity of phosphorescent material 25 applied to a surface 
26 which is recessed inwardly from the adjacent surface 27 of the head. 
Over the phosphorescent material there is provided a translucent 
protective coating 28, housed within the recess and thus protected from 
abrasive contact during use of the tool. 
Means are provided in accordance with the invention for facilitating both 
the entering of the lower cutting portion of the tool into a workpiece, 
and also the subsequent removal of the tool. Thus the body of blade 19 has 
formed therein a pair of rectangular ports 30 and 32 divided by a central 
partition or septum 34. A pair of laterally spaced bores 36 and 37, best 
seen in FIG. 3 are formed in the blade body, extending across ports 30 and 
32 and through partition 34. Rods 40 and 41 are fixedly mounted in bores 
36 and 37, the ends of the rods being recessed inwardly from the outer 
ends of the bores. 
Antifriction means are journaled on rods 40 and 41. Here such means are 
shown as including rollers 42, 43 and 44 rotatably mounted on rod 40, and 
rollers 46, 47 and 48 rotatably mounted on rod 41. The rollers are 
cylindrical, and their outer arcuate portions extend well beyond the 
adjacent side walls of blade 19, so that the exposed portions will contact 
the side walls of the partially split workpiece, as seen in FIG. 2, thus 
greatly diminishing the frictional component of the resistance of the 
workpiece to penetration by the blade. 
As best seen in FIG. 3, the rollers on one rod are interleaved with the 
rollers on the other rod, with their circumferences overlapping thus 
permitting, for a given diameter of roller, the rods to be placed closer 
to the cutting edge than would otherwise be the case. Otherwise stated, 
and assuming that all rollers are of the same diameter, as is desirable, 
the axes of the two rods 40 and 41 are spaced apart by a distance less 
than twice the radius of a roller. 
In FIG. 5 there is shown a modified form of the invention comprising a head 
indicated generally at 110 similar in many respects to head 10 heretofore 
described. Modified head 110 includes a blade body 119 whose side wall 
seen in FIG. 5 is provided with a pair of recesses 120 and 122 flanking a 
central vertical strip 124. This strip, which is desirably polished and 
smooth, extends from just above the roller assembly indicated generally at 
126 up to approximately the thickest section of the head, about even with 
the opening 116 in head 110. Central strip 124 is no wider than the width 
of the roller assembly 126, and is desirably substantially narrower than 
that width. As indicated at 128, the opposite side wall is similarly 
formed, so that the entire head 110, like head 10, is essentially 
symmetrical about a vertical central plane. Thus, in the event that 
portions of a workpiece tend to contact head 110 above roller assembly 
126, the friction resulting from such contact will be minimized. 
Minor modifications and changes from the illustrative forms of the 
invention are within the contemplation of the invention and are intended 
to be embraced within the scope of the following claims.