Small Hatchet Skills

I've started watching these Youtube videos on making kindling, etc. I would love to get to this point to use tools so effortlessly.

 

That was cool, learned some things I didn't know.

 

I just screwed up just now and knicked my hatchet blade. Didn't have wood underneath and the cut went through and hit a rock. Just sharpened it, and it's ok, but still.... I hate when I do dumb stuff like that.

Was using this rock at work underneath the wood and of course my splitting went too deep. Between granite and steel, granite always wins. From now on, another round underneath for when you go through all the way.




I think I need an axe in between a hatchet and a splitting axe. I can justify that..

 

Better hitting a stone than losing your pinky toe or something....

 

Yeah...trying to master the various techniques I've seen in various videos. My hatchet is sharp enough to easily take off a finger.

 

That's a good video. I don't swing an axe much these days, but I always tried to have a short 6" log behind the stump or round I was splitting on... so if (when) I glanced off a split and it kept coming toward my shin, it would hit that log instead.
I hit the damm log about as much as I did the splits...

 

My axe swing certainly isn't accurate. In time....

 

cut my little toe off with a foot adz. just got through bragging to a fella about being sharp enough to shave!

 

Welcome to the FHC forum pigpen. You'll find lots of good folks here. Sorry to hear about your toe though... ouch. I've come too close swinging a 30" pickeroon at a small split right at my feet.

 

the doc sewed my toe on but it just hangs there. what hurt my feelings was ruining my boot and my got for Christmas socks!

 

Oh chit

 

wasn't bad when it happened. folks laugh when I tell them I put my tools away and cleaned my work area up.

 

I've got a hole in my running shoes right next to my little toe on my right foot.. The blood from my little toe has long since worn off. I came about as close to cutting that sucker off without actually doing it... Just nicked it enough to take a layer of skin off and bloody the sock and shoe... Did this with the Fiskars X-15. One thing I learned to do is ensure that my hand position is low at the intended time of impact. It's easy to stop your hands at a given position but the head of the axe continues to travel along a radius of a circle who's center is at your hands (think of a batter trying to check his swing).. When I hit my toe, my hands were higher than the head of the axe which meant that when the axe glanced off of the split, it was already traveling toward me. If my hands were lower at the intended time of impact, it would have been traveling away from me and likely lodged in my splitting block or the ground. In the video he seems to accomplish almost the same thing by putting the log to be split on the rear side of his splitting block.. Can always learn something new.. Don't feel like buying metal shin guards.. Also, I'll answer the obvious question: What the hell was I doing splitting wood in running shoes?..... I have no idea!!!

 

I was using a brand new Estwing Fireside Friend back in December of 2012 to split up some old 2x4s for kindling. They are great for that. A word of warning. They are very sharp. Don't ask me how I know...

I found out the hard way, I have no idea how I even did this. I was splitting a bunch of scrap 2x4s for kindling. I must have steadied a small split with my left hand and the Fireside glanced off the side. Dumb dumb dumb.

46 years old at the time and had never had stitches. Got 8 that night. Nice clean deep cut.

 

Lucky it didn't cut through the bone. Always good to be warned.

 

Hand position was the first thing my uncle taught me about splitting back in 1975...keep them low, and don't "throw" the head at the wood. My problem seems to be the splits are "iron" and my shins are "magnets"! BTW Stuck..where in NH are you?..spent 4 years in Laconia back in the 70's.

 

Here is luck on the receiving end of a wayward hatchet.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/massachusetts-passenger-survives-hatchet-lodged-in-windshield/

 

....

 

I wonder if that glass took the edge off the blade?