wood splitting with a small blade and saw

[Cliff Stamp]

It actually got cold enough here recently to actually feel like winter (-20 F down to -30 F in the wind) and during splitting a bunch of wood I used the Safari Skinner on some rounds to check a few things. I picked a small, medium and large one at random, they were all medium difficultly in terms of ease of splitting, none were clear, but they were not highly problematic like v's or thick cross knots.

The first was small enough for the Safari Skinner to baton through directly, however it had two decent knots on the end which I would want to avoid trying to blast a 0.035" thick D2 edge through, plus I wanted to consider lighter use knives anyway, so I started the split from the other end mainly just to open the wood as much as possible and weaken the knots :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/swamp rat/safari skinner/ss_split_small.jpg

Once the cut is opened if the wood is weak enough you can just pull it apart, or you can saw through the knots, or jam a rock or wedge in the crack to open it :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/swamp rat/safari skinner/ss_split_small_fin.jpg

The next round was fairly clear with straight grain, however too large to start a crack directly by batoning the edge of the knife into the wood, so the point of the Safari Skinner was hammered in directly and then pulled straight down to open a cut. If the wood is really dense, twisted or knotted, this may have to be repeated to get a decent enough start :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/swamp rat/safari skinner/ss_medium_split.jpg

The split was then finished with wooden wedges :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/swamp rat/safari skinner/ss_medium_split_fin.jpg

A fairly large round (for local wood anyway) was then split with a couple of wedges carved with the Safari Skinner :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/swamp rat/safari skinner/ss_split_large.jpg

Wedges are like tinder, make more than you think you need, and also make them thin and long so they split gradually otherwise it takes too much force to drive them into the wood. The short and thick one in the picture was used to force a crack after several highly tapered ones started it.

I then did a few splits with a saw + baton, make cuts into the side of a round and then just crack them off by hitting them down and on an angle. The harder and more twisted/knotty the wood the closer the cuts need to be :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/swamp rat/safari skinner/saw_split_I.jpg

That one had a ring of knots at one end so the wood was split around it and then it was cracked off once it had no support :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/swamp rat/safari skinner/saw_split_II.jpg

This is *really* slow, though it can be done, on the above wood which isn't even hard to split, the cuts had to be made one inch apart, and it took 1-4 impacts per section. Direct batoning is a seconds to minutes type of comparison.

For the other assised splitting, direct batoning is usually much faster initially, however once you have a decent set of wedges and especially if you have either really nice seasoned hardwood ones or fire harden the edges, wedging will be faster on larger wood. If the knife isn't capable of taking really heavy hits while leaning on the handle, wedging is even faster on smaller woods, many times over.

-Cliff

 

[knifeman65]

Nice experiment. Like you said, it is nice to know it can be done if need be. Great pics and info. as always. Regards.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Thanks, there are a few problems with this technique, mainly in the winter. When you are outside you are generally not splitting rounds cut to length with a saw which changes matters so finding starting cracks isn't as easy and plus wedge material can actually be hard to find. Once the snow get down around here for example there is no chance of picking up seasoned sticks from the ground to carve into wedges and the small diameter trees are really soft (softer than white pine) and thus they make poor wedges. Plus if you try it after a lot of rain then a lot of the fallen wood can be rotted and also difficult to make wedges from. I did some scouting in the past few days and in order to make wooden wedges I needed to use a chopping tool to cut larger wood which kind of defeats the purpose with a blade/axe, but is still an option with a saw.

-Cliff

 

[Protactical]

Interesting. There is some survival value to this I guess, though finding splitable wood usually means wet wood, and it doesn't burn all that well.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Splitting is done to make the wood burn easier, either simply by reducing the size, or removing the outer wet layers, it takes quite some time for thick wood to soak all the way through, so even after heavy rain dry wood can be obtained inside of most deadfall. Fresh wood tends to have to be split for it to burn (some types burn ok when fresh) as it has too high a moisture content. Right next to a fire, wood split up into halves or quarters also dries out rapidly in a matter of days. Plus wood splitting has its uses for making things, either to use the splits directly, or laminate them for much greater flexibility and strength.

-Cliff