Interesting Take on Splitting Rounds

Why would you split with an axe in the first place?

going to try this and see if it makes a difference on the box-elder....

i'm a rookie, still, but i find that on small splits or pieces that have chunked off wide but thin, it's way easier to keep splitting them on their face than from the end grain. however, i place them on my splitting stump (flat), not on a round log at an angle. it's a much louder split (gunshot-like), so that's kind of fun.

I have recently split some of the Mulberry that I received like that and it works pretty well, with the Fiskars x27...

I think it remains to be seen how this method would work on larger rounds. I doubt people are needing pointers on splitting small rounds.

I have some reservations. If the victim round is too far overhung over the support round and the maul hits it on the overhang, I can see the maul fling that round right into your forehead. Hit the round too far below the support and some of the impact thuds uselessly into the dirt. Hit the round a bit off center and you'll tend to rotate the round. Just seems like too much slop in the system to be very efficient.

Plus, my 5-ton log splitter agrees it's harder to split sideways than lengthwise, so I'm not sure that this is helping much.

But, I admit that's all just pessimism until my bicep tendon glues back together this summer and I regain one of my arms to give it a try.

I too saw the vid and thought it might be a quick one way ticket to injury

I picked up on the fact that he said the best way to split if all you have is an ax. Might make sense because you will be less likely to get the ax stuck in the round. Obviously large rounds you wouldn't even tackle.

For pieces where I had cut the end angled so it doesn't stand up well, I sometimes split this way. Normally, however, I don't find it easier than setting the round vertical on a chopping block.

I think this guy is KGB, I don't trust him[emoji51]

"Boom"

Don't think ill be trying this method. Have to agree with not liking getting hit on head with a round........LOL

The method as shown on the video works fine for smaller rounds. There is no one right way of splitting firewood. It is safe as long as the round to be split is set up properly. It should be hit directly over where it is resting on the log and at the edge of where it has been cut. Our Russian friend did not emphasize the safety aspect of doing it properly. From his stance and from the way that he was holding the axe he does not appear to have had too much practice at the game. Having said that, the points that he made are valid.

Being a Penguins fan I kept thinking of Evgeni Malkin listening to his accent!

I like the boots too!

Looks to be an interesting technique that very well may work. I am still a bit of a novice with splitting wood and such but the wood the CRH is splitting seems to be fairly dry. I wonder if the technique will work with some wood that seems to be less seasoned. That being said, I have both and will give it a whirl one of these days.

I tried this out yesterday on some super dry hickory rounds and limbs. Here's what I've got...

For slightly crooked limb pieces 6" and under, this works like a charm. I set it up with a roughly 8" round as my "chopping block", and set the piece to be split with the end just barely over the crown of the block. I found if I stand back a little farther than I normally would and try to basically clip the end of the piece to split, it pops apart like nothing. The key here seems to be NOT to drop the full width of the axe head on the side of the round, that just makes for mulch flying around. Eye protection seems like a must with this technique, because if you over strike, you're going to get chunks of wood airborne.

For larger pieces out of the trunk, this is basically a non-starter, as others have pointed out. I couldn't get a good crack going no matter what I tried, and the round tends to want to stand back up straight. Better to do these in a tire or even just on the ground. Once split in half or so, laying the flat part on the chopping block and working as I did for the limbs is pretty easy. Can't say I'd bother moving the wood if it were already in a tire though.

I also used this to great effect to make a little kindling out of a short straight ash split, and it was surprisingly effective.

Always good to have a extra tool in your tool box, this is just another tool which is sometimes practical.