Splitting firewood

Having cut your logs down to discs, there's still more to be done to get them ready for the fire. I've assembled a good set of hand tools for doing this quickly and effectively.

I'll get into more detail on the various bits of kit and their use in another post, but for now, here's the video:

What to watch out for:

• Wear steel toecaps and leather work gloves at a minimum. I like to have ear defenders for the wedge and sledge work, as the impact sounds like a shot, over and over again.
• I find the whole process is quicker over all if I split the disc into halves or quarters (depending on size) with the wedge, before moving on to the axe.
• Minimise effort when lifting the hammer. This is a 3.5kg (about 8lb) sledge. Choke up to the hammer's head with one hand when lifting it and raise it straight up, so you don't have the lever working against you.
• Let gravity do as much of the work as possible.
• Check out the leveraxe! A new concept in axe, from Finland. I love using it.
• An old tyre fixed to the top of the splitting block is a great way to keep split pieces from flying everywhere.