|
 Those
entered were Cody Friedlein, Casey Ballinger, Jon Norin, Zach
Darnall, Lawrence Dubblede and Bryce Muir.
After a Saturday evening rain shower and a foggy and chilly Sunday
morning the logs at the festival this year proved to be challenging
for moisture reasons, but also for some other causes. Norin had the
great misfortune of getting what was called a corkscrew log.
To explain, most of the time, a log will have a grain that runs
straight through the tree from top to bottom. When splitting a log,
the straight grain makes it much easier to get a nice straight rail.
For Norin, the grain was far from straight, and the twist in the
grain proved to be a big challenge. Commentator and overseer of the
even Bob Rankin said it is getting harder and harder to find good
logs for the competition. He said that if anyone knew a source, to
please let him know.
While Norin’s issues were unique, the rest of the competitors had
their fair share of difficulties with the tough logs that needed to
be cut into eight wedges or rails.
The rules that must be followed are that each rail
should have saw marks on both ends, there should be eight fully
separated rails and all tools and wedges should be removed from the
work area and thrown to the end of the pile before calling time.
During the event, last year’s winner, Ballinger got off to a rough
start. His closest competitor, Friedlein seemed to get a better
start in the first minutes of the competition and had his log split
in half before Ballinger was even close.
As the competition drew on, Ballinger worked harder and faster, and
for a moment of two it appeared that he could be the 2023 winner.
But Friedlein though slowed by difficulties with his log, was still
not to be taken out this year.
In the end Friedlein finished first with a time of 11 minutes and 33
seconds. Ballinger came in at 15:12. Norin with his corkscrew log
finished third with a time of 17:02.
Darnall made good time and might have beaten the
final two except for the fact that when he called time and looked
back, he had only seven rails. Eight are required. Because he had
already called time, he could not resolve the error and was
therefore disqualified. Bryce Muir also made
an error, leaving a “thread” or “splinter” of wood connecting two of
his rails, thus he too was disqualified from the competition.
[to top of second column] |
Coming in fourth for the competition was Lawrence
Dubblede with a time of 31:43.
For the second year, the Railsplitter Festival included an overall
winner award. The All Around Railpslitter was presented to the
person with the highest total points from all the competitions of
the entire weekend.
The top six contenders for the title included Casey Ballinger and
his son Ryan, Cody Friedlein, Heidi Mueller, Jon Norin, and Wyatt
Reinhart.
When all the scores were tallied, Friedlein was named the 2023 All
Around Railsplitter.
Friedlein was presented with a custom-made ax mounted
on a wood base with the Railsplitting Festival logo and the words
“All Around Railsplitter 2023” engraved on the ax blade, by Gary
Simpkins, portraying Abraham Lincoln.
As folks began to leave the area, moving on to other activities on
the Postville Courthouse lawn, Rankin said that all the rails split
during the weekend competitions would be offered for sale. Anyone
who wanted rails should speak with him before leaving the festival.
The professional split marked the end of the weekend.
[Nila Smith]
 |
