It sounds like a bad joke; two pieces of flat bar, a hinge, and spring all walk into a workshop and... But in all seriousness, I wanted a new splitting axe to split my wood up for my pot bellied stove. I wanted to build my own axe because I hate spending money, and honestly there was nothing good out there. The lever type of axe has a unique design, but it has some fatal flaws and I could see how I could avoid those flaws, make a simple axe with what I had kicking around the house, and have one of the best splitting axes made to date. It is a tall order, the axe has been around since...well...Caveman days. But I'll be darned if I did not do just that. This is an axe ANYONE with a mere amount of welding skills can build, with materials they have kicking around the house, and for no money. Mine cost $0 dollars! It also took around 3 hours to build. The axe works differently then most axes, the handle is off-set from the head of the axe so that as it strikes the block of wood, it immediately flips sideways. This uses kinetic energy, along with leverage to drive the wood apart. This is pretty basic for a lever axe, but my new axe differs from leverage axes in that mine is welded to a hinge. This means that as the wood is struck, the twisting force acts upon the hinge and leaves the handle firm in your hands...NO BLISTERS and no need for gloves either!! But my axe also has a spring, so that as the wood is struck the Spring automatically returns the axe head back to near vertical for another strike. It does all this in a fraction of a second. Trust me when I say this, NO ONE is surprised it works more than me! This is my first prototype so it could be refined to look better, and I might down the road. Here are some pictures, but in the first picture showing my gathered up materials, I never needed the railroad spike to build it. It has been a good day, it is not every day that a person redesigns an axe design so radically.
So it's pretty much replicating the vipukurves (sp) splitting axe. The offset blade naturally twists to split the wood upon striking the log.
Sort of. The Leveraxe (also known as Vipukurves) has an offset head that splits by wedging action AND by leverage, but it had a fatal flaw. Being a rigid mount axe, when the blade struck the wood, the twisting action would rotate the handle in the operators hands. Obviously one answer to that was to wear smooth, non-stick leather gloves, but I thought of an improvement. Rather than have the axe head rigidly mounted, if it was moveable and could be allowed to make that twisting action WITHOUT imparting that to the handle, it would be a much more comfortable axe to use. It is... But having the axe swing out on a hinge, I had one negative affect though, once swung out it is possible that it would have stayed there for succeeding blows. To stop that, I used a spring to return the axe head back to near vertical. When striking the wood, the kinetic energy is able to easily overcome the reaction of the spring, but when finished splitting, the axe head has no more force on it and returns via the spring. When you use it in real life in repeated blows, it sounds like, "Click, Click, Click, Click, Click" as the action works. The other fatal flaw that I could not get past on the Leveraxe/Vipukurves was that it has a $220 price tag. I wanted a splitting axe for my pot bellied stove, but did not want to pay that, especially for an axe that was hard on your hands. I built this one for $0 dollars.
Video will make all the difference! Personally, I wouldn't expect the hinge to stand up to cords of splitting.
I did not get to this today. I ended up changing out that flat tire on the skidder and that took about everything out of me for the day. I am still running on about 1/3 energy, but getting better. I am NOT looking forward to cutting wood next week, but I got to get into the woods.
I thought of a different, less complicated direction I can take that axe design in, and yet NOT have the problems the Leveraxe has. I was thinking about it all day, but my father had the grinder so I could not do anything. Then at the end of the day I was out in the barn putting away tools and there was the grinder...he did not take it after all so I could have toyed with that axe. Maybe today.
While you might be too sick to do a lot with wood, maybe you can think about this. You know how the lever axe works in design, but what do you think about mounting that type of head on a hydraulic or kinetic energy woodsplitter? IF the head was allowed to rotate on the hydraulic ram, as soon as it went into the wood, the lever action would rip the wood apart thereby eliminating some of the stroke, and thus make the cycle time shorter. I am thinking of a hydraulic rack and pinion system, coupled with hydraulics with it that would make the duo a really powerful, but short cycle time hydraulic woodsplitter. Same stroke, same force, just a lot faster! Chew on that for a radical new design in woodsplitters while you are on the mend. Myself I love thinking outside the box and making life easier. I also HATE spending money, but I can easily see a much better woodsplitter on the market then the ancient ones we have now.
Yeah do 90% of your splitting with the lever axe type head, but when you encounter a tough one that might not go, flip a standard wedge over the lever head and split what you need too. It would speed up the process a lot.
