What's up everybody? Welcome back to my laboratory where safety is number one priority. And today, I'm gonna show you pretty cool trick Chopping wood with the axe In case all you have is an axe to split wood, I'm gonna show you the easiest way to split the wood with an axe. Let's check this out Ok let's do another one Lay this one down like this Make sure it doesn't roll Pretty steady and grab an axe and go Boom! Did you see that? And then the two pieces right here. Done with this one so side Now this one, Easy. So here is a few reasons why I don't split wood vertical First of all, If you gonna try to split it on the dirt, you gonna keep hitting it and drive into the dirt...the log. So it's going to take a lot longer to split the log. And a lot more energy So that's why you need to find a bigger log, to set your smaller logs on top of it. But if they cut sideways... sometimes you are going to have trouble sitting them up. You see? You got to figure it out so they would stand. And you see it's all sideways. So if you hit it sometimes it will just fall sideways It's not very comfortable. It's annoying. When I split wood this way. Let's say I missed and it's going to go fly this way. So I gotta catch the axe. So it doesn't fly into my leg, this side or that side. So I'm going to lose a lot of energy catching the axe if I miss. And also, when I do split the piece of wood. Lets see! Split it, it just gets stuck really really hard. And... It's annoying to take it out You gotta reposition the log and hit it again. And just keep getting stuck So you gotta... reposition the log...take it out... and put it back up. But when you split all your logs falls on the ground. So you have to take it out. And again. Now it's a smaller piece. Now it's even harder to get it steady. And again, you see it kinda slip through and on the tip got stuck into this wood. Sometimes what's happens you hit it you you chop it aside and then it keeps going in between your legs so you gotta watch out for your legs When you split wood like this, you don't have to worry about its falling over it's just resting on it doing well and when you hit it here, it will split all the way through really easily And also if you miss it, it will stop at here, or stop at here, or when you go through all the way it just will stop on this piece of log. So let's see what I'm talking about. When I'm gonna hit it right here, boom, it split through, it stay in one spot, so I grab it, throw it away and also the axe stopped, I don't have to catch it So, I save a lot of energy and also it's much safer. I'm not gonna chop my leg off. So, this is like a safety. So let's see this from this angle I wanna hit it right here just like that and to pull it out, just go like this. Boom. You see, it's pretty thick piece of wood, so I'm gonna flip it around, but you see, it's cracked all the way almost. Now I'm gonna hit it from this side. And boom, look look, it's cracked almost all the way So just gonna do one more hit and it's done. Boom. Pretty awesome, huh? Now, I'm gonna grab this piece of wood and put it this way and just hit it right here again Easy. Now this one... one more time and you see and you see it splitted in half again Got my axe I wanna hit right here Boom. Look at this. One hit, and it splitted two hits Boom. and if it didn't cut all the way through, you could just flip it around Missed it. Done. So with practice, it just gonna get easier and easier so this is the easiest way to split wood with an axe like this. You see, sharp axe Well guys, be careful chopping wood and let me know how do you chop wood in comments below. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time.
It's a very common technique used by those who buck and split with an axe as well as the short handle bushcraft guys (variations of the same technique) for the obvious safety reasons. There are lots of ways to split. Guys use the flick and an axe on easy straight grained stuff. A maul and block and wedges on knotted hard wood. There are even people who tee off where it lays golf style and can do it very safely. Splitting it where it lays is efficient, no handling it multiple times. While there are definitive ways not to do things, there is no one way to skin a cat, and the above technique offers some saftey advantages.
Works great for smaller diameter wood or axe cut wood
I find the buster or flick technique to be more effective.