Splitting wood in an old tire, something I had to try.

During this past year I became aware of a new splitting axe, the Leveraxe. The inventor demonstrated a phenomenal technique in videos, rendering block after block of clear, crisp, straight grained Birch (or so it appeared) into neat, cleanly cleft sections.

R S  Leveraxe

I was taken by the demonstrations and had an impulse to order one but, looking soberly at the unhealthy number of items already in the consumerist queue, decided I couldn’t swing it.

One thing I can manage is to try splitting my chunks of wood in a tire that rests on the stump. That was a technique I hadn’t seen before and, if that’s all to be gotten out of it, it was time well spent watching.

Most of my firewood doesn’t require splitting, thankfully. The locust that comes from thinning our reforested land is just the right size.

R S Chopping 7

 

Some of it is a little too big, though, and there are dying Elms and the occasional blow down of other “volunteer” woods.

Waiting until the dead of winter when the bound water is frozen solid has proven effective, though the Elm is uncooperative in every season.

Splitting firewood is an activity that doesn’t get me too excited. Lots of lifting and picking up, lifting and picking up, lifting and picking up, which is taxing to the old spine and arm joints. Accuracy somehow eludes me, as in the situation where you have a piece too large to split from the middle and have to “slab” it down to size by breaking out thin outside sections. It is a damning reality that the split- off piece and the axe head go forcefully flying to the side. Another tiresome fetch.

Missing the intended mark on the log and having to calm a hurtling maul head can cause me to loose my mirth faster than you can say BushCheneyRumsfeld.

Behind our garden is a small gulch where a farmer left a number of agricultural objects good riddance, tires among them. I picked out one for the chopping stump that had an unusual contour to its wear: the tire was concave, curving in toward the axle rather than the normal outside doughnut shape rounding. This I will continue to ponder.

Some folks opine that fastening the tire to the stump with lag screws is a good idea and that it might be also good to raise the tire above the chopping block with spacers, heightening the net, as it were. I waited to try it first.

The first piece was punky Red Pine. That’s two pieces I’d have had to pick up but didn’t.

R S Chopping 4

Next came a stringy and dense block of Black Locust.

R S Chopping 5

 

This required slabbing.

 

R S Chopping 6

 

Count seven pieces I didn’t have to pick up off the ground.

That was enough of an experiment for me to reach a confident position on the matter: splitting firewood in a tire is a good idea.

After that I’d say that not fastening the tire down has the advantage of being able to remove the tire when you have a really big piece to work on that’s as big as the chopping stump itself. Furthermore, the tire opening quickly builds a floor of broken bark shards  and other irregular splinters such that the firewood no longer contacts the stump surface,  diffusing the chopping energy. Lift the tire and brush them away.

Here’s a guy whose videos on felling trees and splitting firewood are worth watching: Terry Hale.

Wood Splitting Tips

which will lead to several other in his series:

Wood Splitting Tips 2

Leaners

Widow Makers

Pulling Trees Down with Rope

Pulling the Tree Down with Chain and Winch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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