splitting wood with a Jess Horn

Cliff Stamp

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This is a really lightweight knife, 0.1" thick stock, hollow ground, very acute and thin edge and a needle like point. Direct batoning it out as is any significant prying. I started out with some Alders as they are soft wood and easy to cut with the knife, just bend them and slice across the part under tension. To cut them to length just work around the piece making little notches and then crack it readily by bending. Youc an just crack it without the notches but the wood splinters and you waste a lot of time getting rid of the splinters. Can you see the difference :


jess_horn_bucks.jpg


With the alders shaped to wedges the first cut is made by releasing the lock on the Horn and batoning it lightly into the wood with a section of Alder :


jess_horn_initial_cut.jpg


This is seasoned wood and is cracked already across the face in multiple places but the alder wedges are far too weak to use to try and crack the main body of the wood, they will actually just compress themselves if they have solid wood on both sides. However if you start on the side the wood the alder wedges can break off a thin slab and once this happens the problem is pretty much solved :

jess_horn_slabs.jpg


Carve the slabs into wedges and the rest of the wood can be broken apart :

jess_horn_round_split.jpg


The rock was the baton on the wedges and the alder stubs on the top of the round were the initial wedges. The Horn can then peel/slice the slabs into very thin strips which can be shaved very thin if necessary :

jess_horn_fine_splits.jpg


Most deadfall isn't cut in nice rounds of course, however the procedure is the same on broken woods of irregular ends. The process is much faster if you have nice hardwood wedges to start with as then you can just crack the round right in half. Most deadfall though is poor wedge material and the first wedges you would make locally tend to be useful only for making better wedges.

-Cliff
 
Great post and just want to mention how much I enjoy all your posts. You always do great pics to illustrate what you are doing and it's really neat:thumbup:
 
It is relatively interesting to explore common problems with really sub-optimal tool choices. We might not always have our hand picked tools. There is also the fact that after you have done such work that it becomes trivial in comparison with a small axe or large knife so it changes your perspective a little. Building a shelter with a Delica vs a Wildlife hatchet is a very different experience. Once you have done the former then the latter doesn't seem like much work at all.

-Cliff
 
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