2. Someone commented that you should never use an axe like a wedge, striking it on the back end (opposite the sharp edge). The comment was that it can damage the axe. Yes! And the damage is that repeated blows can swedge the walls of the handle socket from oval to more round resulting in a loosened axe head which could fly off. Using a splitting maul like a wedge does not create the same hazard as the walls of the maul are much thicker & stronger and are meant to withstand the blows.

Also regarding cutting blocks: I don’t know if my observation is correct, so please comment. I remember from high school physics (about 100 yr ago) that the force of an object (mass) increases with speed. So if the aim of striking wood with a splitting maul is to maximize the force of the maul hitting the wood, you’d want to hit the sucker as hard as you can. That means you’d want to take advantage of the acceleration contributed by gravity as much as possible. So, you’d want to increase the free fall distance the maul head travels as much a possible. Therefore, you’d want as low a cutting block as possible (as in the buried block design suggested a short while ago). Or you might use an old stump cut off at ground level. Either of these plans increases the fall distance by about a foot. This sounds to me like the best alternative when trying to avoid the problem of spongy ground under the log absorbing the blow of the splitting maul. Comment?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMTnhDr8Wa4

I came to think I was not using the right tool. So I bought a splitting ax yesterday and split in 30 minutes what would have taken me the week.

So happy!!!

Carl, watch the video at the top of this page…

You got your religion; I got mine, but I don’t go buttonholing the good folks who ain’t asked me to be their personal evangelist.

Now, some tips:

1. Get a rubber “handle saver” for those splitting mauls. I used to make my own handles, but no time anymore. Last handle I bought a few days ago cost me over $15. Handle saver, $7.00. Been splitting all my heat fuel since 1978–and a LOT of it since the 1960s, and even now, over-strike happens.

2. The shape of the maul has more to do with successful splitting than its weight (to a point). Too rounded tends to bounce off and too straight tends to stick. So far, my best has been a Stanley axe-eye 6 lb. maul I bought in the late 1970s or early 80s.

3. On big, fat logs–especially if they have knots–use the chainsaw and cut them into flat disks about 4 to 6 inches thick. Then you can split them carefully into straights, parted at the center of the disk, and a couple of half-moons on the sides (perimeter) of the disk. These short-grain square-ish chunks season faster than that same knotty piece split long and they don’t waste too much wood in sawdust (splitting knots makes a lot more chips, wedges and splinters than straight long rounds).

4. When that maul is overhead, linger a fraction of a second longer (seems like an eternity) as the whole axe and its rhythmic motion stabilizes in your hands. You’ll find your accuracy improves.

5. Chopping blocks are a “must” for squeezing out all the force from the blow so it isn’t absorbed by soft dirt below. But don’t make them too tall; if they need length so they won’t split too from the remaining momentum after a split, then dig a hole and put the but end into it to get it lower. When the block is low, you can bend your knees into a “deep knee bend” and its surprising how that improves your accuracy. Like dry-firing a pistol, it takes away your “flinch,” the worst bane of accuracy in splitting or shooting.

5. Woods like hemlock and sycamore split better “bastard” usually, which means the rift or crack doesn’t pass radially through the center of the round, but tangentially to its circumference.

6. You can often split long logs with an axe alone and without bucking into short rounds–say if you’re camping near where timbering has left a lot of slash tops. Score a line right down one long side of the log, say about two inches deep (axe bit sinks into the wood 2 inches along your score line). A good straight easy-riving log like red oak or tulip tree or basswood will often pop in half as you get toward the end. If not, roll the log over and come down the opposite side. Draw or snap a chalkline on that second side–first side too–if possible. Then you can do the same down the length of your half-rounds (hard to do with quarter-rounds though). With red oak’s pores running so nicely from end-to-end even on an 8-foot log, a “star fire” (long pieces radiating out from the fire zone like wheel spokes) drives the sap out at the other end. I’ve kept many a fire all night near my bed roll in the big woods on frigid wintry campaigns–though I confess we usually sought out small enough hang-wood so the axe wasn’t necessary.

7. That last tip brings up a point: Some wood cures very fast: Sycamore’s about the fastest to cure and will dry in the middle-latitude U.S. in about 20 days, up to 7-inches thick, or 45 days in the winter if there are a few days that rise above freezing and the wood’s off the ground. Thicker wood needs to be sawn short, say no longer than 24 inches, for a quick cure. Tulip poplar, cucumber tree, soft maple and basswood will dry fast too, but they’re all whispy when dry and don’t make great coals (except red and a very few silver maple).

8. Holly and ash will both burn quite well without seasoning at all, as they’re low in moisture. But all other woods benefit by splits and stacks up off the ground where the sun can hit them. What happens is the daily heating/cooling cycles allow the wet to equalize in the pores at night, and the heat “sucks out” the moisture from the ends next day. In a 4-foot tall stack, an inch of rain on the wood
is like only 1/48th of an inch per inch of stack height–very little rewetting to slow the seasoning, no cover really needed. Note: Snow is more insidious as it melts and runs off slow, allowing the wood to soak more of it up–same like hay rolls and stacks.

9. Long logs can be “beathed” dry in a small dammed-up puddle. Beathing works like this: If a bunch of logs are piled into the water (which must be moving, if only a trickle) for two to three weeks before hauling them out to season, they will season far faster. The water has mostly dissovled and taken away the resins and gums that slow the seasoning.

10. Speaking of fast seasoning, I know this is obvious, but when you drop a tree in warm seasons, it’s good to let it alone with its leaves on it for a week or two to suck out the moisture. Admittedly this method is often over-rated, so if in doubt, a quick limbing, bucking, quartering and stacking will likely dry it better, and quicker, in the long run.

BTW, dry wood is much easier to haul out of the bush than green, so if you’re able, work your wood up where it fell, then hitch up ol’ Dobbin (or your vehicle) if your cutting location is fairly honest and free of wood thieves.

I like the old Baltimore-Jersey axe pattern, and the Tuttle-tooth crosscut saws, as well as the Stihl pico chain (narrow kerf makes it cut real fast even with lightweight, low-power saws that us old men can use).

Instead of wrestling it back out, I (confirm that it is REALLY stuck and then) simply swing the ax at the chopping block with the log still on it. Obviously, this only works with the smaller logs being split for fireplace use size, not the huge ones being split for fire pit size.