Wood splitting however has me very paranoid. My old boss lost his son when a neighbor was splitting and a piece flew and hit his young boy in the head. I have since always had the policy that my kids are well away from anywhere I am chopping.
Awful story. This is a big issue for my family, since -- if I'm home, I'm usually working with or around machinery of some form. I'm either cutting wood, splitting wood, or working in the shop on something. There's a similar story from years back, of a kid getting killed when his father was ripping a board on his radial saw, and it kicked out, nailing the kid in the head (he was standing in-line with the fence). My son always wants to go help dad, but dad's usually running the bandsaw, jointer, planer, radial saw, or log splitter.
Me? I got my first pocket knife for Christmas at age 8, and I still have and use it! I took it to school that year to show my friends, even though I knew it wasn't allowed. Thankfully, as was probably normal back then, the teacher just told me to put it back in my pocket and not to ever let him see it in school again. Message received and obeyed, without messing up my school career with a zero-tolerance suspension.
I think dad let me start using the 12" electric chainsaw on wood he would set up in the sawbuck (safest possible scenario), with his help and/or supervision about the same age. I remember splitting wood with wedge and sledge as far back as age 4 or 5, using a special sledge dad had re-handled shorter for me. I still have all or most of dad's old tools... I wonder if I can find it for my son, now age 4.
Dad used to split with wedges and a crazy heavy sledge, which I still have today. I've not weighed it, but can say it's still too heavy for me. I split all of my wood by hand for many years, and have quite good aim with a sledge... but not good enough with that monster.
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