Maybe I won't be buying mortice chisels...

[Jacob]

...That looks like an excellent technique (which I will remember) where accuracy is needed (blanks for dowel making, perhaps), but my aim with both billhook and axe is good enough that I don't need it for hearth fodder.

Having split a log into rough planks, I simply hold the plank in my left hand, and make kindling sticks at around 1 per second - it's like chopping carrots for a stew, no guide needed. Chop, chop. chop.

I chop firewood freehand (ironic, isn't it?)

BugBear

Much easier with a prop - you can hit harder, faster, more precisely, with bigger axe, without risking your fingers.

Then I guess our experiences and opinions differ - unless you're just arguing for the sake of it, which I wouldn't put past you.

BugBear

No I'm just trying to tell you something useful, and perhaps saving your fingers.
Non so blind etc.

 

[bugbear]

Here's my preferred tool, a billhook with a convex blade;

(yes, jimi, a hedgehog logo...)

And here's a guy chopping kindling just the way I do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OqJkx4ExJQ

Works for him, works for me. YMMV.

BugBeaf

 

[Jacob]

Just like one of those american TS demos - will he won't he lose a finger!!!
A good demo of how not to do it. If he held his little board with a bit of kindling across the top like a push stick he'd be safer and be able to cut faster, finer etc.
Works for him, works for you. Until you lose a finger (or more likely get a nasty cut).
The thing about push-sticks, or hold-downs in this case, is that they are not just inconvenient safety measures which hold back the real man :roll: , they make the work easier and faster, as well as safer.

 

[bugbear]

Just like one of those american TS demos - will he won't he lose a finger!!!
A good demo of how not to do it. If he held his little board with a bit of kindling across the top like a push stick he'd be safer and be able to cut faster, finer etc.

I've been doing it that way all my life, and I'm still able to play the piano. Safe enough I think. Same as chopping carrots; most housewives still have all their fingers.

I await the Jacob technique video - you say the technique is well established, so you should be able to find one - or make your own.

Let's see this purported speed and ease - evidence or STFU, as another forum has it.

BugBear

 

[Jacob]

STFU! Silly boy! :lol:

 

[bugbear]

STFU! Silly boy! :lol:

I guess you were ignorant of the meme:

http://evidence-stfu.blogspot.co.uk/

Assertions, even repeated ones, don't constitute evidence, or even an argument.

"an argument is an intellectual process, while contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says."

BugBear

 

[Jacob]

burble burble burble.

 

[bugbear]

In a spirit of open mindedness, I headed for my wood pile this morning, carrying a 2 1/2Lb kent pattern hatchet, a 1 Lb kent pattern hatchet and my 8 1/2" billhook.

The technique Jacob shows definitely helps aim the big 2 1/2 Lb axe, but the axe must still be held up near the head to generate the sort of low force needed for kindling. A full swing would be ridiculous, wether accurate or not, sending the kindling for miles, and embedding the axe deep in to the chopping block to no purpose.

With the small hatchet, I found the increased accuracy interesting, but getting the aiming block in place was fiddly and slow.

With my normal billhook, I found similar results.

My conclusion after the test? If I find myself making kindling with a 2 1/2 Lb axe, I may use this technique, but when using a more appropriate tool it's just slow, and the accuracy it gives is more suited to the workshop, or green woodworking than getting on with the job of making kindling. I suppose if I were making a bundle of kindling to be tied in red ribbon as a gift I might use it to make "perfect kindling".

I also note (this came up whilst googling for kindlng and axes) that the Swiss Army (of knife fame...) appears to agree with my choice of tool, albeit under another name:

http://abrentisart.wordpress.com/2010/1 ... dling-axe/

So - returning to the analogy that Jacob so "interestingly" found fault with, a task can be performed with stand in tools at a pinch (Robinson Crusoe style)), but dedicated tools are better.

BugBear

 

[Jacob]

That's very interesting BB well done. You have been busy!
I still think you should use a push stick thing (wossitcalled?) to save your fingers and make it easier. Otherwise I can imagine you measuring your kindling thickness with a vernier calliper and having to change tool mid-stream.

 

[bugbear]

I still think you should use a push stick thing (wossitcalled?) to save your fingers and make it easier.

I tried it (see previous post). It doesn't.

BugBear