About splitting kindling. Any of you who have will know what it's like holding a piece that won't stand on it's own while you hit it with a hatchet or axe. And then when you get it split you get to go pick up the pieces some go quite a ways and hide under the snow or thorn bushes. Black eyes, picking thorns, hopefully NEVER having to ask the better half to help stop the bleeding.

With me so far?  A couple winters ago a friend on another forum posted a link to a guy who had a decent idea. He'd driven three stakes in his copping block and would hold the piece being split with a bungee. It worked a treat, it holds the wood so you don't need to get near it and keeps the splits contained.

I like the idea but a lot of hassle. This spring I remembered to ask the guys at the tire shop for a junk ATV tire. They're happy to find someone to take the things, they have to pay to dispose of them. 

So, one fat wheeler tire, a couple long wood screws and no more holding, chasing or worrying about missing  and sticking an axe in my foot, leg, etc.

7 whacks with the double bit shown, knot and all. Please note the black skid marks on the sidewall, those were misses from earlier. The tire just stops the axe without damaging it. You literally have to TRY to make the axe glance, the rubber grabs the edge. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

 

"Hey everybody, watch this!"  and hold my beer. That is possibly the most dangerous thing in the shop.

i have a big hot cut that i use in my shop to split kindling. i put the end grain of the log on it and hit the top of the log with a hammer. works wonders on small stuff.

1 hour ago, Tubalcain2 said:

i have a big hot cut that i use in my shop to split kindling. i put the end grain of the log on it and hit the top of the log with a hammer. works wonders on small stuff.

Heh, heh, heh. You aren't the first smith to bring a hardy in by the stove, yes it works a treat and is a lot safer than using a hatchet or axe. My only concern was keeping it out of the way so nobody could fall on it, laid it on it's side and under the stove. Well, it isn't really a hardy, more of a tall anvil devil.

Frosty The Lucky.

My wife prefers to use a froe.  She had one when I first met her 33 years ago in Arkansas.

And Deb prefers I split the kindling. 

Frosty The Lucky.

As we're often 200 miles apart my wife prefers to be warm...

6 hours ago, Frosty said:

7 whacks with the double bit

Thanks Frosty, you just help me update my therapeutic ore crusher - was using a 3# plastic coffee can up to now.

2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

My wife prefers to use a froe.

Very coincidentally, I was recalling the time I spent in northwestern New Mexico, helping friends shingle their cabin. Aromatic cedar. A froe would have been sweet.

I still have to make a froe. I have never seen any for sale here. I use a knife as froe for the small kindling I use in the forge. Otherwise I use an axe. Strangely enough I have never had any pieces jump up but I hate the picking up so I will try your idea Frosty.

They can be very simple to make. My wife's is just a flat section of leaf spring with the handle going in the eye. It's had a bevel ground in cold.

It is not very hard to make and it is a very handy tool.

Good ash handle material can be had for free if you are patient and persistent. Search the baseball fields for broken hats. They are excellent and can be turned on a lathe or shaped using a draw knife or other similar tool.

Then again bats soon may be made of other hard wood. The emerald ash borer is rapidly turning the ash tree into an endangered species. We can thank the Chinese for that lovely looking insect.

The above has worked for me.

SLAG.

I've found broken pickaxe and shovel handles easier to find and use; though my wife's has an osage orange handle that I turned for her.

SLAG, sorry to hear that there is an ash borer. Out here, it's the Golden Oak Borer - very bad.

I have a lot of black locust and mulberry curing - too bad the ambrosia beetles find both delicious.

I've only worked one piece of orange wood - love it.

Froe-like-objects are a go-to geometry for me: It just makes sense. A heavy meat cleaver, the spoke shave, and the machete are currently my stand-ins, but a nice massive froe is appealing.

What does all of this have to do with the most dangerous tool in the shop?

I think the froe is one of the safest tools around.

Robert Taylor

Anachronist58,

The emerald ash borer is destroying ash trees in all of central to eastern Canada and The U.S. Our Missouri Department of Conservation suggests that ash trees should not be planted as ornamentals. (yes! the secret is finally, out I'm from Missouri).

I suggest that you can paint an antifungal and insecticidal solution on the surface of the curing wood. When you, finally, wish to use that wood, rasp or slice off the wood exterior and you are ready to shape the wood.

A local garden center or California state forest office or agricultural department can suggest a chemical for such use.

If you can not get that information, you can always fall back on copper sulfate. But do not drink it nor inhale it and wash your hands thoroughly after use. It was a popular rodent poison in the nineteenth century.

The froe is relatively safe but it can do a right proper good job on innocent toes.

Regards    Anach...

SLAG.