For everyone referring to splitting with an axe and saying it’s hard, no wonder, everyone in the know uses a maul for splitting, not an axe.
Firewood Splitting Simulator
211–220 of 302 posts
Re: Firewood Splitting Simulator
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
My dad and his father built the house my family grew up in. The fireplace had two vents on either side of the fire box that drew air from the floor and vented near the ceiling. The ceiling fans in the room would circulate the air in the room. It was the only place I've spent time that a fireplace actually was useful.
When those work well they're fine but be very careful. It's not uncommon of for smoke to go out what you think is the in intake and often those aren't correctly built as a chimney and so you can burn your house down.
Knowing how ours were built, I don't even know what you describe could happen. The intake vents are on the floor with a standard height raised hearth (12"???) while the exit vents are about 6' off the floor. Not really sure how smoke is any where near the intake. The smoke is contained within the chimney. I'm at a loss at how to design something so poorly that the smoke is near any vents. Then again, I've grown up around construction, so maybe that knowledge is preventing me from thinking dumb???
Re: Firewood Splitting Simulator
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
My grandfather was like this, and not with soft wood. We try to burn Australian hardwoods and that takes quite a bit of force to split. He could pound through it like a knife through butter. There’s a definite art to hardwood, looking where the slightest fault might be. You can’t just smash it in the middle, your block splitter (preferred) or axe just bounces off it.
Try to burn hardwoods? What does that mean?
As a fellow australian but now former wood chopper: "Try" should be "prefer".
IE when you get a load of firewood for the winter, you want it to be hardwood. The person you buy the wood from may mix in softwood depending on their trustworthiness...
Why prefer hardwood? Hardwood density means it will burn for ages. So you have to mess with the fire less and it'll still have at least hot coals in the morning if you put a log on before bed.
Re: Firewood Splitting Simulator
#214I like how it stacks the firewood.
Right? My inner 17 year old wonders where that magic was, back in the day.
Re: Firewood Splitting Simulator
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a surprising amount of technique and knowledge that goes into splitting firewood. It isn't rocket science, but I know a 75 year old who can chop wood faster than any young guy who works out at the gym.
Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC872sqjMNC8kHU0GU0ShZFw while cautioning that she seems to be genetically engineered to split wood. Her technique is like watching an Olympic athlete. No wasted motion at all, all energy delivered to the maul straight down. She’s a muse.
Wow! Great link. I’m better than average but… yeah, I’d upgrade her to goddess. She’ll just carve a new axe handle when she feels like it. Truly humbling.
Re: Firewood Splitting Simulator
#216This is kinda fun, but doesn't match most of my experience splitting firewood. The wood barely moves after it's split. If you split it perfectly, the two halves will almost certainly both fall to each side (they're pushed outwards by the axe). You can't just randomly split it across the grain into slices like you're slicing bread. I guess mostly: it's not tiring, which sort of sucks when you're doing it for real, but…
this is the most hacker news comment possible
So many of the top comments look like parodies of HN comments
Re: Firewood Splitting Simulator
#217Poms[0] is great. I'd like to be able to upload my dog's pic.
Re: Firewood Splitting Simulator
#218Used to watch the competitive wood chopping at my local agricultural show all the time. The highlight was always the tree felling competition. Each competitor has an axe and four springer boards, and it's a race to basically chop the top off a standing telegraph pole. That would make a better game.
It's a toy, not a game.
Re: Firewood Splitting Simulator
#219Wildly addictive.. did Phillip Morris develop this?
Re: Firewood Splitting Simulator
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
You missed the best part: analyzing what to do around knots. There's a skill and artistry to it. Those who are good at it make it look absolutely effortless: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsIFvStf9Oz99GMitW4vD_g
For anyone reading the above comment and wanting to see what the commenter might be referring to, here is the first YT video I found on that channel that is relatively brief but has an example of the techniques involved: https://youtube.com/watch?v=G_QZIGVYX_4
And as someone who has split my own firewood by hand for heating for the last 30 years, he definitely knows how to throw around an axe, almost too well because he makes it look easier than it is. But even when everything splits clean, him throwing an axe around for 30+ minutes straight and not being out of breath and able to still talk shows both immense fitness and experience.