So… Axes… (Axi?)

a resonably sharp hatchet needs next to no force to make kindling – you dont need to swing it from afar meaning you dont risk missing your target – if they cannot miss their fingers from 2-3 inches i dont think they should be cutting fire wood with a real axe yet and should continue to practice with a plastic one – before i sharpened it it pretty much always needed 8-10 inches swing to split as its so light and was blunt like a hammer! – i dont mean sharp as my cutting axe but its sharper than my maul.

I use my splitting maul to cut kindling anyway as the weight of the head means it needs similarly little force. – it lives in the firewood shed – although i should really move my hatchet there also…. and i normally just split a log for kindling on the spot – takes a couple of minutes and lights better freshly split imo

a resonably sharp hatchet needs next to no force to make kindling

Wholeheartedly agree. In my vid you’ll see how little effort I use. I also give a clear view of exactly how sharp (or blunt) it is before pivoting my wrist to split. Sometimes, when I require it, my kindling is [i]french waiter[/i] wafer thin ![i]/french waiter[/i]. It really doesn’t need to be sharp – as Sweepy wrote, it just requires a cut down the grain to split most wood with ease.

Anyway – I’ll put up the vid later.

maybe its depends on what your burning as well ….

im using quite alot of knotty waste wood from rustymacs kitchen for kindling

To what – losing your fingers when you’re making kindling ?

Only if you’re a completely ham-fisted clot. Only hold the stick when you tap the top with the axe edge, enough for the stick to be stuck on the edge when you lift it up, then tap it hard on the block so the axe weight splits the stick. Easy-peasy. If the axe is blunt, it won’t get the initial cut going properly, and even a maul needs a decent edge to start the split going, otherwise it’ll bounce off or crush the wood, instead of splitting it. It doesn’t need to be razor sharp, though, just not blunt, regularly touching up the edge with a fine file will do, or a carborunum stone.

I have a Gransfors Small Forest Axe and got their small splitting axe for Christmas… Incredible difference.

SFA is ace at what it is designed for, such as limbing felled trees etc, but the SSA is brilliant at splitting… I have now got through my entire woodpile since Christmas going through stuff that the SFA got stuck in really easily…

Found the link;

To what – losing your fingers when you’re making kindling ?

Er good practice is to get your fingers well away. If the wood (to be split) need support, use a stick/another piece of kindling to steady it.

As taught to me by an ex soldier/bushcraft instructor. Seems sensible enough and works for me.

all that, plus a very sharp edge on a small axe means you can make shavings if you need them to start your fire.

all that, plus a very sharp edge on a small axe means you can make shavings if you need them to start your fire.

Feather sticks!

This is the difference between an axe and a firewood processor. Ive got a hultafors, its sharp and I use it for trimming branches, cutting poles and whatnot. But lying neglected in the woodshed is a cheap maul, and a cheap steel shaft hatchet and they see more use by a country mile.
I dont need to get them out or put them away, I dont need to hold kindling up with a stick, I just hold one side with my thumb and knock kindling sized chunks off the other, and if I **** up and catch my thumb its just a bruise. I never need feathersticks at home, although there is a lot of enjoyment to be had making them with the hultafors on a canoe trip but it is just recreation.

Did a bit of chopping tonight. Got my chopper in my hands. Needed to work work with some wood. It was hard.

Holding the axe up over my head and letting it almost fall onto the wood was a good way of starting.

Snigger

I dont need to hold kindling up with a stick, I just hold one side with my thumb and knock kindling sized chunks off the other, and if I **** up and catch my thumb its just a bruise.

Exactly the reason my edge looks like this…

Not sharpened once in over a decade of almost daily use. It replaced a similar all-metal hatchet that I used for the previous decade but sadly lost somewhere. Chops log as large as the Stoner gif with just as little effort, though I’d probably reach for the maul for anything other than kindling.

Here’s the vid, albeit slightly tongue-in-cheek as a someone once referred to me as the Gordon Ramsay of wood cutting. The eagle-eyed will notice it’s just some offcuts of treated softwood but I’ve used the same technique and similar speeds with beech, ash and various pines and firs split into about 20mm thick panels – easy when the grain is straight, not so if it’s knotted, obviously.

teasel – you really have picked the easiest thing in the world to split for that video.

Is there a reason you are wearing gloves? If there is advice I’ve been repeatedly given from many different sources is not to wear gloves when using bladed hand tools – be that an axe, billhook, sickle, anything.

Indeed, it could probably be split with a butter knife. I do claim in my post that I’ve done exactly the same with various other wood and how I prep them to be make that possible. If you really need that proving then I’ll go out of my way to make another vid using something a little thicker, just for you. It’ll have to be this summer when I get around to chopping some of the ash I have. I’ll name the thread Too Tall Tales or something…

Gloves are because my hands were splitting at the tips of the thumb and forefingers and it was pretty bloody cold that day. Never heard the advice you’ve given – is there a reason why I shouldn’t be wearing them whilst using the tools you mention…?

its a no gloves for swinging tools policy at work.

have seen the aftermath of a hammer(12Lb rubber mallet) slipping out of gloved hands and it wasnt pretty –

Ah, yeah. Makes sense.

Never had a problem myself in over twenty years of holding the tools in question with and without gloves. I’ll be sure to pay closer attention, though – just in case. Besides, the only things I’m likely to hit if it should slip out of my grasp is trees or slow moving wildlife…

like you say – works work – homes home – if its cold and i need to wear gloves then im old enough and stupid enough to make my own choice regarding gloves 😀

old enough and stupid enough

I fit into both those categories, too

🙂

As someone new to this whole splitting wood / wood burner ownership, having moved from a flat in Surrey to a house in Norfolk (as my wife is from Norfolk, not in an attempt to recreate the Good Life), I have purchased a cheap as chips maul and small hand “kindling” axe paying about £19 for each from Machine Mart.

The maul does the job of splitting the logs great, but the small axe is blunter than my father in law when talking about immigration, from the comments above some are recommending this is best, others seem to say it should be sharper than David Beckhams suits?

I have a wet stone that i use for kithcen knives, is that best for the small axe as well?

no idea RE the whetstone – i used my bench grinder on the small axe…. just dont hold it on for ages and screw the heat treatment of the blade or itll go soft/brittle dependant on metalurgy – just do as i would when sharpening drill bits – little by little and keep it cool – and it has only ever needed doing once in the 3 years ive owned and used the hatchet.

Start with a file first, to get an actual edge, otherwise you’ll be there until hell freezes over!
Use a coarse file, then a finer one, and that might be all you’ll need to do, just run the fine file along every so often if it seems a bit dull.
That’s it, really.
Have fun, and mind yer fingers!

I do claim in my post that I’ve done exactly the same with various other wood and how I prep them to be make that possible. If you really need that proving then I’ll go out of my way to make another vid using something a little thicker, just for you.

Given you put the disclaimer up I wondered why make the video in the first place. Just pondering on the strange things people put up on the internet.

I hear ya, Tall Tool, I hear ya. You’re basically saying I should’ve waited and posted a vid using knotty hardwood just to prove my point – silly me. It was an impetuous step, I’ll grant you, but hey, we all have to pop our cherry at sometime or another.

But I’m hurt, man, what with it being my YT debut n all…

OK. Wood store is full again. Lessons I’ve learned. (I don’t what all my wood is, it has silver bark for the most part)

1. The maul is rubbish at splitting against the grain. I can take it right over my head, hurl it down with all my might and it’ll just bounce off.
2. It’s fricking awesome for splitting sawn logs. Very little effort needed.
3. My normal wood saw is much, much better than my bow saw for cutting think logs up. Not sure why that is.
4. Sawing and axing is lots of fun and proper man work.
5. Oooh, my back and shoulders ache
6. I need at least twice the amount of storage space. I think I’ll build a much better and larger store with posts driven into the ground.

The wood has all been stored for about 6 months out in the open so I’m assuming that it will be ok for burning once the water on the outside has evaporated. I certainly don’t have the wood store space to season for years.

Fully concur with points 4, 5 and 6.

You would be daft to use knotty wood for kindling, and if you do a sharp hatchet will make little difference. When i’m splitting the knotty bits get left big and when I get a knot free bit, thats what gets split down for kindling.

You would be daft to use knotty wood for kindling

That’s not for my benefit, is it. Knew I should’ve used a sarcasm font. 😉

Here ya go, TT – just for you. I’m splitting a few slices of seasoned beech about the same thickness as the stuff in the first vid. Same blunt and ragged axe…

🙂

That was more in support of you in fact. There seemed to be some concern that your splitting was unrealistic or staged as the wood was not knottty.. My point was anyone with any sense picks just that type of wood for kindling..

Ah, gotcha. I’m probably just being a tad paranoid; it’s hard to tell those with something useful to add from those with the beginnings of a fire shoved up their jacksie…

Samurai, point 3, you probably need a different blade in the bow saw, you can get different blades for dry and green wood.
I sharpened my axe with the angle Grinder with sanding disc because it’s only a cheap axe and I’m lazy, seems to have worked out ok though.

alright, I’ll have a look next time I’m in the shop. Ta.

from http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/gifs-you-could-watch-all-day/page/44