Galt's Gulch

Physics-exploiting axe splits wood in record time

Posted by Eudaimonia 10 years ago to Science
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One of the oldest human tools reinvented.
This is kinda cool.

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SOURCE URL: http://www.geek.com/news/physics-exploiting-axe-splits-wood-in-record-time-1591725/

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  • Posted by NealS 9 years, 12 months ago
    Most of my firewood doesn't split that easy and much it has knots. Since I'm now 72 years old, I use a Northern Tool 30-Ton Vertical and/or Horizontal Splitter. Works Great.
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  • Posted by plusaf 9 years, 12 months ago
    Yep, innovative, efficient and wonderful for firewood-splitting. Useless for wood-turners...

    But if I ever needed a wood-splitting axe, that would be my weapon of choice!
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 12 months ago
    I will wait for the price to go down...but then I will buy one. Wow. How can I not? (See prior thread on buying stuff to make yourself happy. Sigh - but this is such a 'helpful toy' [rationalization alert!!].)

    When camping and using fallen softwood (alder), I find that smashing the wood (against a granite boulder) is TONS more efficient than cutting it with an axe. I find fallen wood that is 4-6" in diameter, and each smash can break off a chunk about the length of my forearm.

    Jan
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  • Posted by johnpe1 9 years, 12 months ago
    I have been using this technique for decades, with a traditional 8 pound maul. you swing it with a slight spin (think of it as "English") which generates a twist at impact, prying the wood apart shortly after the blade enters the wood. right-handed, I find that a slight counter-clockwise spin is easiest. [entered this comment without reading any of the other comments] -- j
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  • Posted by $ Susanne 9 years, 12 months ago
    I wonder how it would do on some of the knottier local woods (Oak, Walnut, Almond)? We normally burn through a few cords every winter, and I've been tempted to get a hydraulic splitter, but that may change the equation. Pretty nifty axe! (And the tire idea... that's one of those Why didn't I think of that things...)
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 12 months ago
    OK, that's cool. But, those logs were also incredibly dry and cold. I suspect that a traditional axe blade could have done a similar job.
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  • Posted by barwick11 9 years, 12 months ago
    That's pretty sweet (the axe).

    On the tire everyon ekeeps talking about, I used to split my wood with a tire at the old house, it's super duper handy if you have the right size tire and splitting block.
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    • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 12 months ago
      Correct. If you have too small of a log, you're going to get the split pieces falling over and jammed in or under the tire, and if the log is too large, there won't be enough room around the log to allow for the pieces to split apart. But, overall, a neat idea. I could maybe see a metal cable wrapped around the log to hold it in place, with the ends attached to a fixed post via bungy or springs to allow for variations in size and to let the pieces split off but not fly off. Hmmm - maybe I should get a patent app in on that?
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  • Posted by Temlakos 9 years, 12 months ago
    Sounds like the kind of ax that Andrew Stockton might have invented during the great strike. If would have been just the thing when so many men made their permanent homes in the valley, and they all built them out of wood.
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