Anyone can make this super simple tool for splitting wood when camping or backpacking
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Why is a convex edge is the best shape for an axe or hatchet? What is the best tool for processing firewood when backpacking or camping? I explain about edge geometries then show a simple, very lightweight tool that works just as well (maybe better?) than a hatchet or knife for splitting wood. Bring it backpacking, camping, or throw it in a bug out bag, survival kit, etc.
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Dear Sir, I appreciate you have made a modified splitting wedge. In the time and energy you expended in the demo I could have split much more wood and I am 76. With all due respect. I wish you much happiness. From my perspective, you made a lighter, less effective, splitting wedge.
great idea--- thinking outside of the box!
I wish you had ANY video showing it working well!
No axe of hatchet or machete I carry a cleaver & often baton with it.
I also carry a pocket chainsaw. I can deal effectively with wood with just these two lightweight items. The cleaver also serves as a shovel. I keep a file handy to stay sharp as the task requires. 🤠
Just made one in my workshop from some old scrap aluminium and brought in on 2-night bikepacking trip. It rocks compared to battoning with a knife or trying to use an axe on smaller logs. And its light and not really dangerous compared to a big knife or axe. The shape and the thickness of the material makes it so quick and effortless to use.
Since it's so light, make it longer? Maybe a handle. Then you could extend the splitting edge around to (part of?) the side and just start batoning horizontally? One of my favorite tools is a fiskars "brush axe" , similar to a british hedge layer's bill hook, but it would be nice if it was a bit thicker and sturdier and could have better splitting ability like your tool.
Good ideas, I especially like the idea of extending one corner around, that might be interesting. Maybe for the second prototype.
This is exactly what I was wanting, but hadn't arrived at using aluminum yet. Thank you!!! Going out to the shop to make one now!
A splitting wedge... I have also seen them made out of hardwood. I think if I was doing it out of metal I would shape the long edge and add a handle. Maybe about twice the length, then I could hold down one side and bang the crap out of the other side. I liked the discussion on the edge geometry though. Take a look at the several UA-cam videos on the wooden ones. My experience with wood moving through or over wood vs. Metal is that there is much less friction.
Also you can just carve your own wedge with your knife at the campsite. I second the Rogan tool the other commentator wrote about, I have one I keep in my pack to use when I don’t want to mess up my knife. Splits wood pretty well amongst other uses.
Nice idea. All I could get is some 6061 to try. 2" stock.
I applaud you for doing what most won't, thinking outside of the box. I made a very good living teaching manufacturing facilities that concept. Great work and thanks for showing us all how to carry an idea out to completion. For you naysayers, in 30 years you'll still be doing things the same old way.
But how to get those nicely cut wood pieces?
Is anyone paying attention to the fact that his goal is to create a device lighter than a knife?
Yes a hydraulic ram, cleaver axe or kindlecracker+mallet is way better, but that's not the point.
Thanks for a great video ✌️
Thats what she said!!
Just get a big chisel and sharpen one edge...
Weight doesn't bother me I carry a 19 inch carpenters axe with me in the woods
If you have a saw, make a small cut on the end of the wood you want to split, and use a wooden wedge. Wooden wedges have been used since before there were steel.
Knives are for cutting, not splitting, I definitely can do a much better job of spliting by batoning a hatchet than was shown in the video.
so basically it's a froe sans handle with a end blade. Nice
Yup! I talked about froes too but that footage didn't make the final cut
You are allowed to batton your hatchet. It works the same way.
Respectfully, I don't think you understand splitting wood well enough, yet. Splitting axes have the geometry that they have (which is different from a felling ax) because a dozen centuries of use has shown that to be most efficient. A slim gradual wedge to allow a starting cut into the fibers of the log followed by a rapid increase in thickness to force a splitting action down the length of the log's long fibers. No one is concerned about whether the split is equal and straight down the log. You can't fight the grain unless you intend to SAW the log down the middle. That's just life. And I'm curious as to why you hope that we are only chopping trees down when they are green? People have been chopping down dead trees since the ax was invented.
I do have a few suggestions that will help you be successful with time honored splitting tools and methods. First on the list would be, don't try to baton a log in half with a blade that is barely as long as the diameter of your log. The first attempt that you show in this video was, frankly, ridiculous to even attempt. There is a way to baton that log with that knife but it involves using some reasoning. Instead of trying to eat your elephant in one bite, eat it in several bites, as the story goes. Set your blade at the 1/4 mark on the end of your log. You can easily split that off, then maybe move to the same spot on the other edge of the log. Now you have a log with a cross section that can easily be split into halves or quarters with that knife.
The second suggestion I have is to strike your ax edge on the side of the top edge of the log while it is laying on the steadiest limb on the ground that you can find. Splitting down from the top just can't always be done because you can't get the log to stand up or you don't have a stump to provide a good base. And on that subject, you will find that many times when a stump or large round isn't available, because you are in a forest, you WILL be able to find a large root to use as your solid base. Maybe even as close as the end of the tree that you're trying to turn into firewood.
I couldn't help but notice that you made yourself a nice heavy flat base to work on in the section of the video where you demoed your tool. Why didn't you use it on a springy limb or on the dirt like in the opening sequence of the video? And again, respectfully, I don't see how, after you saw and edited that sequence you could say "I wish I had more footage to show how well this works. You were wearing me out watching you struggle through that little log.
Don't reinvent the wheel. Roll the one that has worked for millennia instead of flipping it end over end.
CadidZulu, below recommended a wood tree felling wedge. Plastic wedges are readily available and likely more durable. I have a set of 3, 2 of which I've modified.
Nice video. I am curious about a hollow grind for chopping. I know my chisels all have a hollow grind on them. Maybe that's just cuz they're easier to sharpen then any other kind of grind.
A straight razor might be the only true hollow grind and even then as soon as you sharpen it on a stone you are making a secondary bevel that's flat. Pretty much all cutting implements have either a flat bevel or a convex one when you look at the very edge. You're right, those chisels are probably faster to sharpen because the points of contact on the stone/strop are smaller.
An analogy for the concave shape would be the bow of a boat. It improves the boat’s efficiency and maneuverability for all the same reasons.
Next up, something new. I call it ... the wheel. Hold onto your hats. This could change everything. Make pizza deliveries easier.
Hatchets and small axes are probably popular because it's a bit of a general purpose thing? (For falling and chopping small trees, splitting, quick shaping.)
I only ever use a machete and Tomahawk to carve cut and split wood. Tomahawk is so amazing
just buy a bigger axe
Baronial the axe head will ruin the axe, by opening the eye. A axe is designed to split wood. So you designed a wedge? Really?
Nope, hitting with a sledge might open the eye, if you are trying to split a huge log, but splitting kindling as he was doing, never!
People think that scandi grinds or convex grinds make the blade duller quicker which is technically true but not when splitting
Ur hatchet edge is fatter( more blunt) then ur knife edge.....so it wont penetrate the wood as easy while striking ur hatchet while batoning
You have a axe, but baton with a knife? Mad! Right tool for the job!
Looks Great to me!❤❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉 🎉🎉 5 stars