Wood splitting with the Twist

Split these this past week. I just used my GB maul. Had to go around the edge and cut plates off for these bad boys. Two or three oaks grown into one. Super twisty wood. I bartered for this and another big oak for restoring and rehandling my neighbor's axes.

I like using my maul to split the big rounds into something more manageable for further splitting with an axe. Plan on practicing this twist technique more.

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cattledog said "Sometimes it doesn't split off but it sets up the round for a 3 way split."
Exactly! often it works to split a round into three or four pieces before they fall over. Trying to split them as they topple over never works too well though… ;)
Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Btw, I'm naturally left-handed, but pretty much ambidextrous for everything but writing. I think I'm a lefty splitter though; my left hand is 'up front' towards the head, and my right hand below.
How about you folks?
 
Never could split lefty. Limbing, a little bucking, etc I can manage lefty out of necessity. I attribute that to learning hockey from age 2 right handed.
 
Amen G-pig. I started playing hockey lefty at age three was forced to righty and now i'm all messed up... Mostly righty anymore but I'm still decent with my left side. As my judo instructor would say, the west is a land of right handed retards (no offense he cussed alot...). In eastern countries such as Japan and China all martial arts are taught ambidextriously which means that most people become naturally ambidextrious as they grow older. Right now I'm trying to learn how to flip a balisong lefty, and not cut myself in the process...

Soon gonna be grabbing me a Council tool boys axe and after some sharpening and reprofiling will be hitting the woods to do a little trekking. By the way does anyone else take axes backpacking/hiking with them? I find that most people have designated the axe as a homebody and seem to leave it behind on trips, and wanted to know if anyone takes their axes with them when they go into the woods. Also do you think the twist technique could work with a tomahawk as well, in an albeit smaller fashion? It seems like the mechanics would be similar. Let me know what yall come up with, and have a great day!
 
medcommander said:
Amen G-pig. I started playing hockey lefty at age three was forced to righty and now i'm all messed up... Mostly righty anymore but I'm still decent with my left side. As my judo instructor would say, the west is a land of right handed retards (no offense he cussed alot...). In eastern countries such as Japan and China all martial arts are taught ambidextriously which means that most people become naturally ambidextrious as they grow older. Right now I'm trying to learn how to flip a balisong lefty, and not cut myself in the process...
Soon gonna be grabbing me a Council tool boys axe and after some sharpening and reprofiling will be hitting the woods to do a little trekking. By the way does anyone else take axes backpacking/hiking with them? I find that most people have designated the axe as a homebody and seem to leave it behind on trips, and wanted to know if anyone takes their axes with them when they go into the woods. Also do you think the twist technique could work with a tomahawk as well, in an albeit smaller fashion? It seems like the mechanics would be similar. Let me know what yall come up with, and have a great day!
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Axes and Martial Arts?! now, if you were a beekeeper instead of a hockey player, we'd probably get along great! ;)

I've never used that technique with a Tomahawk, but I think it would be worth a try, it may work quite well...
 
medcommander said:
Amen G-pig. I started playing hockey lefty at age three was forced to righty and now i'm all messed up... Mostly righty anymore but I'm still decent with my left side. As my judo instructor would say, the west is a land of right handed retards (no offense he cussed alot...). In eastern countries such as Japan and China all martial arts are taught ambidextriously which means that most people become naturally ambidextrious as they grow older. Right now I'm trying to learn how to flip a balisong lefty, and not cut myself in the process...
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Mhmm. I took Aikido for bout 8 years. Mr. Sensei tried very hard to calm me down and make me think about things more, I don't rightly now what he saw in me back then, probably not much. I was a "bull" he said (albeit a tiny one). I think a lot of that stuff helped me "calm down" in the long run though. Hockey certainly didn't. Was always a nervous wreck out there, even though I only played pickup. Being 5 foot 5 120 pound and a slow skater playing D was probably not my ideal place but I enjoyed the technical game more. Call me a euro right? Maybe I need to play pickup in Sweden. Bigger rinks and smaller players ;)

Obligatory axe point, A tommy might work depending on the profile of it. A lot of them are super thin and generally that is not so good for splitting, even with this twist technique. Give it a try though.
 
Nice load of wood! Split by hand, I presume?
The photo is to small to see what kind of wood it is, but I'm going to guess maple. Is that way off? :)
 
Split by hand with the axe on the truck. Maple, cherry, and elm. Been splitting wood since I can remember. I love it. Relaxing, whole a good workout at the same time.
 
Me and my neighbor split about 2/3 of a cord of sugar maple over the week end. Still bucked with a chainsaw but im working on that. All the splitting was done by hand though. One of us would go through with the 7 pound maul and split all the bigger rounds in half, and then the other would come through with a 4 pound double bit and split into quarters or eigths. This seemed like a good system that works well even for people who arent great with the lighter, thinner axe. Couldve split more if it werent dark and my callouses werent out of shape (that was painful!)
 
Yikes, I'd be wearing something on my feet. Not sure what that confusing disclaimer at the end meant.
 
Liam Ryan said:
Yikes, I'd be wearing something on my feet. Not sure what that confusing disclaimer at the end meant.
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A sneaker or thin boot isnt going to put up much resistance to a splitting swing from a 3 1/4 pound axe. I think Peter meant that people do far more dangerous things every day without even thinking about it, which is true. Drive a car? Someone else could slam into you and kill you. Not much you can do about it. At least with this type of work you can follow some basic guidelines to keep your feet and shins protected.
 
I drive a car but I wear my seat belt. I think this is a case of the emperors new clothes, a cute girl on the internet tends to make some of us a little funny in the head. I recall a thread where someone posted Wetterlings new CEO was a cute girl, it was a quite popular thread. If I posted a video of myself prancing around barefoot while chopping wood I doubt it would get a similar reaction.
 
Liam Ryan said:
I drive a car but I wear my seat belt. I think this is a case of the emperors new clothes, a cute girl on the internet tends to make some of us a little funny in the head. I recall a thread where someone posted Wetterlings new CEO was a cute girl, it was a quite popular thread. If I posted a video of myself prancing around barefoot while chopping wood I doubt it would get a similar reaction.
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Short of full on steel toed boots, I don't see the difference in shoes or no shoes. Maybe that's just the hippy in me talking though. :D
 
The 'no shoes' bit was done to emphasize the fact that the axe doesn't go through the wood but lays out flat atop the log. That's also why many of the logs are set up on rocks - it's drives the point home.
 
It was indeed a neat trick I would like to learn, but a glancing blow is always a possibility. I believe the most important point to make is how paramount safety is over all else.
Anyway I am finished preaching, I just remembered a cool Finnish invention called the Leveraxe, Vipukirves in the native language.
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