ABuff 10 Packs 5/8 Inch Heavy Duty Wedge and Feather Shims

These work great, what else can I say? Drill your 5/8" holes, pull the wedge out a bit, almost to the top of the feathers, then drop the feathers into the hole up to the rubber ring and get to hammering. Alternate hitting different wedges when you hammer them in. Eventually you'll hear the crack start to propagate (such a satisfying sound), then you keep hitting the wedges and the rock just falls in half. If it doesn't split after they're hammered in, give it a little encouragement with a pry bar or heavy hammer, it'll split, promise. Just make sure to wash and oil them after you're done to prevent rust. OH YEAH! One more thing, make sure to keep the wedge IN the feathers when you put it in the hole. Without the wedge in there, the rubber ring isn't enough to hold the feathers in place, and they'll drop into your hole and you won't get them out unless you have a magnet wand or you split the rock. Learned that one the hard way.

Works fantastic. Used it to tap into prefilled holes for a large rock in my bamboo trench. Split without issue.

I haven’t used them yet. They look like they’re pretty nice and do the job though.

Wedges worked perfect for help in crack apart a concrete step. Only issue I had was the o ring that holds them together broke on all but one allowing wedges to come apart and fall down into hole.

I wanted to split a some thicker rocks to be thinner to be able to use as cap rocks for a rough wall. This tool can be used for this purpose. You will get the best splitting with harder rocks than with softer rock. You need to drill the holes deep enough to coerce the rock to crack in the way you may want. In my case I used a Milwaukee 12" long x 5/8" dia concrete bit and was mostly successful in cracking a number of single rocks to get two flat rocks out of each original rock (each split rock being about half the original rock thickness). The image shows a very nice split. Clever tool...

This is an excellent product, but it does take some practice. The rock that I was breaking up was granite, and I found that a spacing of about 4 inches was ideal for the drilled holes the feathers go in. Using gravity to create a tensile stress (pulling apart force) at the intended crack is helpful, if it's possible. Think of how putting a small piece of wood under a log where you are cutting it helps open things up at your cut. I found that for the 3/4" feathers, a 5/8" masonry hammer drill bit worked best (rather than using a full 3/4" width bit). I would extend out the outer sleeves by about 2/3 the wedge length and then insert them into the hole up to their shoulder. Then you hammer each wedge a few times, alternating as you go, as needed.

OK, so after years of banging up my mower deck hitting the top of this boulder that was sticking out of my yard I decided no more! Picked up a $90 HF rotary hammer drill and got to work. ~25 6” holes later (20 min total) And I was ready to tap in the wedges. It was amazing how easy and how little effort you have to put behind hammering these in. I used a 3 lb sledge. A few minutes later and the sweet sound on the rock splitting apart. Would definitely buy these again…great deal for 10 wedge/feather sets! One of the rubber o-brings broke but that didn’t affect how these work. Can prob pick up a replacement for a few cents at the hardware store.

They seem to be a bit smaller than 5/8” and too big for a 1/2” bit. There’s probably size between but not for this project of mine.

I bought this after seeing how to do it on YouTube. I had to split a sizeable granite rock in the garden that was in the way. With a row of holes drilled at approximately 100 mm distance and the depth of the feathers, it did not take more than four or five relatively gentle taps with a small sledge hammer before the crack appeared and the stone split. I am very impressed with the method and also with the product that did exactly what I hoped for.

Works well. You don't have to hammer it hard. Little bit at a time. As you tap. You will know which one to hit by the sound. Breaks rock easily

I’ve split a lot of rocks with these. I did break one already but because it’s a ten pack I’ve got lots left.

I was very impressed with the overall look and feel of the shims.. Though haven't yet tested the relative merits of the steal.

Excelente.