My third post... How you can make wood splitting safer...

[akkamaan]

No one wants to get hurt from an axe or a maul when splitting firewood. I have managed to stay out of trouble so far...knock on wood...

I do not know all types of axe/maul-head induced injuries that people have gone through when using axes or mauls, but I have a pretty good idea how it can happen.
Here are a few ideas...

1. Hitting one single small log
2. Hitting in the front of a large log
3. Hitting without a chopping block
4. Hitting with a chopping block

I start with the swing. Accuracy is key, and these 360 deg swings can not provide a safe accuracy.


A shorter straight overhead swing have the best chance to provide accuracy.
I like this guy...


Using 10-15 different swings doesn't improve safety either...

1. Hitting on a small single log, i poosibly the top reson to hur your self. They are hard tomake standing still on their own. They make a small target, and require very good accuracy. When over powering the axe or maul, the head will go straigt through, and land in your "foot or leg"...
2. When hitting the front part of the log, what ever size it has, the shaft/handle can't save you if you miss or the head go through. Same thing when "peeling" splits off the side of a log.. When hiiting the front part, the axe/maul-head is vertically already on its way away from the log, rather than going into the log, when its hit at the rear away side.
3. By hitting without a chopping block, you are breaking a fundmental rule. When swinging an axe/maul head, you should try to have your grip/hands as low as possible or at the same level as axe/maul-head when it is hitting the log. That will also square the edge to the log, which optimizes the design of a special splitting head design, like Fiskars and others have.
4. Hitting with a chopping block certainly requires a proper technique. A good idea is the place the chopping block so you can split all 360 deg around it. The larger and and mor dense block is, the more safety and more efficient inertia it will provide. If your logs are hand cut, and not perfectly square at the ends, you can benefit from have a chopping bloch surface plane that is sloping a few degrees. That way a not square log can always be put straight up. Hitting a leaning log is a dangerous call.

To prevent these possible injuries from happening, I use a bungee cord wrapped around a bundle of the smaller logs, and even the single large logs.
Actually, I many times build larger diameter pile of logs diirect on the ground, and I wrap it with a strap. Then I can put 5-10 logs at the time on top, and keep chopping them till I am done.
But the most important massage I have is to always hit the logs on the away side, rather than the nearest side.

Here is a video showing a little about this and about why hitting the "sweet spot" on a larger log.

 

[Oldman47]

Good post. I like that whole Terry Hale series of "lessons".

 

[Ashful]

I suspect the most common splitting axe or maul injury is to the shin of the user. A mis-directed or wild swing could easily send the head sailing in that direction.

I believe the worst axe injury I have ever seen or heard tale of is when the head leaves the handle, and strikes an observer standing in-line with the user. Never stand head-on with someone swinging an axe.