Flipping through channels I saw on a survival show a guy doing what would get you stabbed if it were mine. To make kindling they were using a fixed blade knife and hammering it into wood to split it. Have any of you tried this and what advantage is there to this other than wrecking a knife?
Don't know exactly what went on; probably trying to make do with whatever limited materials/tools they had. Don't car much for "reality" shows......
I've seen it done with a stout fixed blade knife. It is similar to using a froe to split. The advantage over a hatchet is not having your hand hold the piece while swinging down.
Done that many times over the years. If your traveling the world on 2 wheels the ability to carry an axe or hatchet aren't always an option. And if it makes the difference between keeping warm or trying to eat a raw wild rabbit, you do what you gotta do. I have an old mil. surplus bayonet that is the chit for all kinds of purposes. Need to cut some razor wire?
It is a technique that works extremely well. It is good for fine dicing your kindling. It is very easy to make pencil sized splits. I've been doing it with a Buck 119 for the past 35 years.
Long as you use a piece of wood for the striker and have a good fixed blade knife their should be no issue.
You can even buy a kindling froe. I picked up one of them cause I wanted to teach some scouts how to do it and I wasn't letting them use my Buck. http://www.traditionalwoodworker.com/Kindling-Froe-by-Mora-of-Sweden/productinfo/109-1980/
The knives we use for underground splicing at work are great for that too. I'll get a pic of one when I get a chance, can't think of who makes them offhand. I really like mora knives. For the price they are good quality and it's not horrible if the kids break one or lose it.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Maybe I may need to look into this so mama bear can make kindling instead of trying to smoke start 1/4 rounds for half an hour and a sunday paper because she is afraid to hatchet some kindling.
When I was young my now dear husband and I moved in together in a hurry, it was a rental with a woodstove only. I pinched/split the palm of my hand trying to cut kindling with a hatchet. I didn't have the accuracy to swing it correctly on the dry split so I tried using the palm of my other hand on the the butt of the hatchet for more force. Yep, not a tight fit and the blow pinched my palm between the handle and head. Our next home had tinder dry pine cones, much easier. We no longer have the cheap hatchet......... Don't tell him I tried his splitting maul first and missed and hit the gravel a few times
Not to worry about the maul and gravel. They're tough. Mine sure has had it's share of hitting the ground over it's life span. Over 30 years! I'll tease 99 lbs when she cuts the grass at the cottage to "help" me. I can hear the mower running and I can also hear that loud sound of the blade bottoms out, hitting rocks, etc. I always ask her if she wants me to put the landscaping blades on the mower for her....
No worries, been sharpened a hundred times since then. Sadly when his last hickory handle broke, there was not a replacement in town that would fit that ancient maul. We had super dry rounds, but they needed split so I bought what I could find.......fiberglass handle with grippy things. Not sure about other men, but he always starts his swing with his right hand chocked up, then slides it to the end as he goes over his head. Stupid rubber grippy things made him learn a new swing. What a PIA. Ahhh, wifeys with lawn mowers, good times I plead the 5th on what I have done to blades....
Line man or phone guy? I got several old old buds of mine that are retired from Ma Bell here in the mid west and they got some of the best dammed cutting tools you ever did see. Always amazed me at the scissors they all carried in their pouch. Kinda looked like kindergarten kids scissors but we could sit at the bar and cut dimes and nickels in half with them things.
Lectric Lineman. Those scissors the phone guys use are indeed awesome. You guys never made bar bets with people bout cutten them coins did ya. All in the way you use the scissors IIRC.
Naw, no bets. Years ago when you could still get a glass of beer for a quarter at the Thunderbird tap the owner decided to raise the price of a draw to .30 cents. Soooo... out come the scissors and quarters and cutting dimes in half to pay fer the beer. Didn't work out so well cuz the owner got pizzed and raised the price to fifty cents. It was all in good fun though. And man oh man, was that a long long time ago!
