Made a Kindling Splitter today

[mayhem100]

Pretty cool idea, but I just use a sharp hatchet. Love it when people start thinking and innovating.

Hold the wood straight up and down and release it while you swing at it, even if its balancing on a point it'll stay vertical long enough for you to smack it with the business end of the hatchet and pop it open.

 

[Somesawguy]

Pretty cool idea, but I just use a sharp hatchet. Love it when people start thinking and innovating.

Hold the wood straight up and down and release it while you swing at it, even if its balancing on a point it'll stay vertical long enough for you to smack it with the business end of the hatchet and pop it open.

I guess I need to practice more, I always had trouble with my aim and with the hatchet getting stuck halfway down. Something about fingers and sharp objects being in the same spot always bothers me. Knives don't bother me, but one false move with a hatchet, and there goes a finger. opcorn:

 

[Streblerm]

Here's what I use. Some might say that I shouldn't hit the fiskars on the but end with a sledge. I nicked the corner of my thumb recently and it scared me enough to stop holding the wood while I whack at it. It wasn't too bad of a cut, but it was unpleasant and not healing well. If I knock the head out of the handle then so be it. Cheaper than a new thumb.

Anyway, the temper of the but end of the fiskars seems similar to a good wedge to me. It distorts a little with no cracking. I figure at the price point it really isn't a "legacy" type of tool anyway. It works really well too. Set the axe where you want it and one light tap with the small sledge. No more over driving the head of the hatchet into the ground. I have occasionally used the larger fiskars in a similar fashion. I figure if they didn't want people using it that way, they wouldn't have made it so easy to hit with a sledge.

 

[spanky1205]

I just use another piece of kindling to hold the piece up I am trying to cut. Kind of like using a push stick on a table saw. Worst case senario is I end up with some short kindling. I still have all of my fingers.

 

[tbow388]

I will post the one I made this weekend on Monday. Thanks for the super awesome idea.

 

[danrclem]

I cut cedar posts into approximately 8" sections and use my splitter to split them into small pieces. I have some boxes on the ground to throw it into. It doesn't take very long to split up quite a bit of kindling.

 

[Ayatollah]

I like the spirit of innovation as well, however, I use the table saw to make kindling

 

[TN_WOOD]

I use a cheap camp axe and some leather gloves.

I put a pretty good edge on my axe and it'll "stick" in the wood pretty good when I simply drop it. I then pick the wood up with the axe stuck in there and slam it down.

One day I keep telling myself I'm going to mount a vice on a piece of wood and clamp my axe in there (sharp side up) and then use a hammer and knock the wood down onto the axe.

Doesn't seem to be any more dangerous than operating a chainsaw or string trimmer.

[video=youtube_share;RE5wK6hITiE]http://youtu.be/RE5wK6hITiE[/video]

 

[tbow388]

As I said I am posting my version of this great idea. I like the swivel so I kept with round instead of square tubing.

I added a plate to the bottom. I can swing the head to the outside for a slightly longer piece of wood.

I also used a 1" solid bar as my post.

 

[tbow388]

Pic posting didnt work.

I will post it tomorrow.

 

[WidowMaker]

My hydraulic splitter produces more kindling then I can possibly use. I even throw in a couple of boxes of kindling with wood sale to seniors...but slick for those that don't use a splitter...

 

[zogger]

My hydraulic splitter produces more kindling then I can possibly use. I even throw in a couple of boxes of kindling with wood sale to seniors...but slick for those that don't use a splitter...

I get plenty of junk when I split, too, and that is splitting by hand. I also cut small, so what is leftover from the tree can be easily broken up by hand or stomping with the boots as soon as it dries out.

I have potentially 100 guys lifetime supply of kindling within easy reach, and 1,000 guys worth a little further away than that.

I wonder if there is a market for just kindling, oddball chunks in the round, not perfect split wood, just generic broken up small branches..hmmm.

I guess I never worried about kindling, I don't really "make" kindling. GF here just gathers it up around the yard from falling down branches and stuff from the ground around the splitter pile. that and I rip up cardboard boxes, that's it. Mostly. There's an old roofing dump pile with cedar shingles here, sometimes I grab a few of those if I am walking by and my hands are empty. that's about it for on purpose kindling, as far as I go.

I'd sell fatwood I guess if I bothered to get a lot of it and wanted to make it into small uniform pieces and stick them into a designer bag. I get some and just knock chunks from it sometimes, but that is more from sport than necessity.

Maybe if someone wanted to, following the general design idea of the OP, you could make like a 20 way wedge (cross cross, honeycomb like maybe) and just hand bust short logs with a sledge hammer all at once. Sort of like the TV commercial amazing veggie slicers and dicers, "but wait, it makes julienne fries..and kindling"!

Proly...guessing..I burn a lot of stuff most guys would call kindling, I just call it "grab three chunks in one hand instead of one chunk and chuck it into the stove" firewood.

 

[Somesawguy]

I use a cheap camp axe and some leather gloves.

I put a pretty good edge on my axe and it'll "stick" in the wood pretty good when I simply drop it. I then pick the wood up with the axe stuck in there and slam it down.

One day I keep telling myself I'm going to mount a vice on a piece of wood and clamp my axe in there (sharp side up) and then use a hammer and knock the wood down onto the axe.

Doesn't seem to be any more dangerous than operating a chainsaw or string trimmer.

[video=youtube_share;RE5wK6hITiE]http://youtu.be/RE5wK6hITiE[/video]

That's a neat idea. That way you can just use a hammer. :msp_biggrin:

 

[Somesawguy]

Pic posting didnt work.

I will post it tomorrow.

Try photobucket or some other free site if you're having trouble with pics. That's what I use.

 

[Chris-PA]

I get plenty of junk when I split, too, and that is splitting by hand. I also cut small, so what is leftover from the tree can be easily broken up by hand or stomping with the boots as soon as it dries out.

I have potentially 100 guys lifetime supply of kindling within easy reach, and 1,000 guys worth a little further away than that.

I wonder if there is a market for just kindling, oddball chunks in the round, not perfect split wood, just generic broken up small branches..hmmm.

I guess I never worried about kindling, I don't really "make" kindling. GF here just gathers it up around the yard from falling down branches and stuff from the ground around the splitter pile. that and I rip up cardboard boxes, that's it. Mostly. There's an old roofing dump pile with cedar shingles here, sometimes I grab a few of those if I am walking by and my hands are empty. that's about it for on purpose kindling, as far as I go.

Ditto - it's a clever design but I never thought of intentionally making kindling. Thin shreds just kind of happen, and then there's sticks. And of course the postal service delivers fire starter 6 days a week. I just wish I could get the kinders to get the kindling so I don't have to spend time on it.

 

[jdc123]

Neat idea. I've been wanting to get froe or what some would call a shingle splitter to split kindling.

 

[zogger]

Ditto - it's a clever design but I never thought of intentionally making kindling. Thin shreds just kind of happen, and then there's sticks. And of course the postal service delivers fire starter 6 days a week. I just wish I could get the kinders to get the kindling so I don't have to spend time on it.

*Snort* Ye aulde laydee here must be on every junk mail list in existence, we get a right fair collection of delivered fire starter...

One of my dogs years ago would drag in a whole giant brush pile, plus some decent logs. He was always trying to do what I was doing. I mean he just got it into his head one day to drag in a stout deadfall branch, after watching me do it, then he went nuts with it, kept me in campfire wood at my camp.

That's the same dog went up the cliff and banzaied off into the water, after watching me and some local kids do it. This was like 40 feet, my limit on how far I want to do that (or that I ever have).

Same dog, same camp, decides he needs a den, so he, over around a week or so, excavates out this *huge* under an old stump den cave. So, one weekend, my bud comes over to my camp and both our girlfriends..this big storm comes up, it is tearing the tent up, so I said, "quick, down into Blue's cave"! We all fit! Four people plus one large dog, we all sat out that storm down there.

 

[mga]

*Snort* Ye aulde laydee here must be on every junk mail list in existence, we get a right fair collection of delivered fire starter...

One of my dogs years ago would drag in a whole giant brush pile, plus some decent logs. He was always trying to do what I was doing. I mean he just got it into his head one day to drag in a stout deadfall branch, after watching me do it, then he went nuts with it, kept me in campfire wood at my camp.

That's the same dog went up the cliff and banzaied off into the water, after watching me and some local kids do it. This was like 40 feet, my limit on how far I want to do that (or that I ever have).

Same dog, same camp, decides he needs a den, so he, over around a week or so, excavates out this *huge* under an old stump den cave. So, one weekend, my bud comes over to my camp and both our girlfriends..this big storm comes up, it is tearing the tent up, so I said, "quick, down into Blue's cave"! We all fit! Four people plus one large dog, we all sat out that storm down there.

he knew you'd be needing that "cave".

that's why he dug it out.

 

[tbow388]

I will post the one I made this weekend on Monday. Thanks for the super awesome idea.

I used a 1"solid bar on mine and added a base. It works totally awesome.

 

[zogger]

Bet it is fun

I used a 1"solid bar on mine and added a base. It works totally awesome.

Another good hand built thing here! All you guys are great, I need to learn to weld better, I just stink at it..

Hey, did ya try two stacked rounds on that thing? Might work!