How To Swing An Axe!

hey everybody J here welcome back to the channel for those of you who are just joining us we heat with firewood we have an outdoor wood boiler that heats our 3,000 square foot home but anyways today I'm gonna show you I'm explaining you the correct way to split firewood now again there's multiple ways to skin a cat I think as the term goes this is my take on it maybe you can learn something from it I am NOT an expert but I've really when you heat with an outdoor wood boiler you go through a decent amount of wood in my first two years I didn't have a wood splitter so you figure out quickly how to save energy swinging an axe so anyways stick around let's grab some logs let's go over to the splitting area and now let's get right to it alright here we go we got our log for the split jig so now let's talk let's talk for a minute obviously if you're working with an axe or a splitting maul it really doesn't matter this video is about the mechanics behind it too often I see this I see guys going like this raise your hand have you done that you may think that this had this he-man looking thing is the best way to do it but that is super inefficient let me explain why when you get that axe head behind you now it's pulling your hole it's pulling your whole body back this is an eight pound Wooden's roaring axe if I put that behind my head now I'm using all this energy just to get it back up to me that's inefficient I see you guys do this all the time they go they're keeping the axe out in front of you and they're going they're doing these ridiculous I I came and described it that's what I've seen I'm not calling anybody out specifically that's just what I've seen but let me show you some mechanics behind it take anything of weight hold it close to you hold it far away from you I guarantee you you can hold this axe close to your body all day long out here you're gonna get real sore so how I split firewood again keep your hands wide keep the axe towards you again hold me axe out here is tiring it's put more pressure on you keeping the axe close to your body is fish it what I do is that basically I push up I push up with my left hand and then I slide the axe down and boom hits the wood so it looks like this I go up I go down like that if you noticed maybe I can hopefully you could see this if I switch the side when I go up the axe head never goes behind my head now I know what you're probably thinking Oh what do you know blah blah blah but again what what makes more sense if you go like this with the axe head behind you you're exerting a ton of energy just to bring that axe head back above your head the ax head should never go behind your head and you should keep it close close to your body and again you just push up slide your hand out so let me show you that again it's here I really can't demo it's slow maybe I can do a slow mo on camera but you push up slide your hand down versus this barbarian that's ridiculous you're gonna pull your back out after one log so let me show you the way I do it again again you readjust my log it's here it's close to my body basically touching my chest I push it up then I'm slide down my hand here is you got a proper stance too and you go like this your Maul should hit exactly where you want to hit I'm not moving my feet so again I push up it's that simple none of this barbaric stuff none of this whole I've seen all types of like Game of Thrones style kill shots you don't need to do that alright so I brought you guys over here I wanted it again I was over there behind the fence because the wind was blowing but the winds died down a little bit but I want you to get a side profile of how to properly split wood again like this with your hands where is that axe gonna hit if I'm not moving my feet I know every time I come down that axe is gonna hit right where I want it so get your footing first and then the second thing like I said keep that axe towards you push up come down like that none of this like I said no this barbaric behind-the-back stuff it's ridiculous it's it's not practical so let me let's move this out a little bit and I'll show you hopefully I can do some slow moles over - all right so we slip this out a little bit let's recap this is just to summarize um again get your footing I know my hands at the end of the axe that's what that axe is gonna hit again keep the axe towards you holding it out here that's that's a lot of work that's a heavy tool it's how you get hurt keep it close to your chest go shop with your left hand down just like that none of this none of this whole this whole wind up crap like that keep it close to your chest push up with your left hand down just like that it's that simple the closer you keep this towards your body the more energy you exit the more energy you save again hold it out here versus hold it in here guarantee you I'm hiking through the woods I'm not gonna be hiking through the woods like this I mean have the axle with my shoulder I'm gonna keep it close to my body so again I'm not a professional but this is just what I've learned over the feet over the last four and a half seasons let's split with wood like I said we just recently got our log splitter and I still love splitting by hand so remember the three things foot position never that act should never go behind your head keep it close to your body try it literally go out and try it I guarantee you it will make a difference again none of this whole game of Thrones this barbaric weave wild swing the less movement the better so getting close to your chest here up down just like that it's really not that hard so anyways um I just wanted to go over that quick little video it's not rocket science think of the science behind every move you do firewood makes you lazy I said that before fire with a lot of work so any little bit where you can conserve energy I'm all about it so again I hope this worked for you hopefully you didn't skip through the video shouldn't be too but hope you enjoy let me know you guys think hit that thumbs up and we're gonna go hang some more would so appreciate guys watching and we'll see you on the next one [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Homestead Jay

Views: 39,889

Keywords: How to split wood, Firewood splitting, How to swing an axe, How to swing a maul, Swinging an axe, Firewood, Proper axemanship, Splitting firewood with axe, Axe splitting firewood, Wood Splitting, Splitting Wood, Splitting firewood, Firewood Splitting, Homestead Jay, Homesteading, Firewood season, Log Splitting, wood splitting, Splitting wood vertically, Hydraulic Splitter, County Line, How to split logs, How to split logs for firewood, how to split firewood, how split logs

Id: sWAZ1wgVEzk

Length: 7min 22sec (442 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 02 2020