How to Cut Kindling?

[Mary Fisher]

If there's a local rookery or magpie nesting area there'll be plenty on the ground, dropped by said birds.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Guaranteed?

Course not.

There's always the unusual, inexplicable event.

I always wonder what's meant by 'innocent bystander' though, is there a 'guilty bystander'?

Mary

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[Another Dave]

I use one. I'm 65 and not particularly large. You have to remember that some logs simply won't split. If at first you don't succeed - quit!

Another Dave

[Rod]

Many, many years ago I lived in Berlin. My parents told me that in any traffic accident everyone present shouldered a part of the blame 'for being there' - I think 10%. So, in that sense, German law appeared to say there are guilty bystanders. (I have no idea of the actual truth of this 'blame percentage', but it was passed on to me and I always thought it an interesting concept.)

[Andy Champ]

There you have it. I was doing it when I was 10. My kids weren't, because we've never had an open fire and we live in a smokeless zone where garden bonfires are forbidden. It's just a skill that most people never need any more; the OP has presumably moved somewhere where it is.

Andy

[geoff]

And a problem which could be solved quite easily by rubbing two neurons together

[geoff]

Schmarrrrrrren

[BRG]

Let's get the thing straight, you made the statement "Easy peasy. Get a big wide bit of log to use as a block, and swing it like a sledgehammer" - no mention of any splitting maul or other implement - as I said "someone giving advice without really knowing what to do himself".

Besides, as the OP was actually asking how to cut *kindling* then you would hardly go to the trouble of using a 'maul' (as you put it) on a block of wood around a foot long - you would simply use a sharp hatchet.

BRG

[BRG]

Very often Mary, there are people who raise arson and then stand and watch the fire-brigade fight the fire!

BRG

[BRG]

Where I lived there was nothing but coal fires and along with many others of the time, at the age of 10 it was my job to cut the kindling from 'blocks' that my father got from the local pit - and my two kids (boy and girl) were brought up in a house with gas c/h, but they were still taught how to use basic tools such as hammer, saw, axe, spanners, screwdrivers, checking oil etc on vehicles - along with how to prepare and cook a meal with ingredients that came from the garden and butchers and not the supermarket chill cabinet or freezer (kids usually grow up into adults and will need these skills at some time or other).

But lets face the true facts here - if the OP is intelligent (sigh, more comments I suppose) then it really wouldn't take long to work out how to safely cut *KINDLING* from a log around a foot long with a sharp hatchet (you don't need a two handed felling axe for this) - it's all down to Mr Common Sense really!

BRG

[Martin Bonner]

No, I don't think it is. It's pretty much all down to experience. My son (now at University) cuts kindling by balancing the target between two pieces of wood, and hitting the side with the axe - yes, I've tried to teach him to do it properly, but he just won't hold a piece of wood anywhere near where he is aiming the axe.

To the OP. Start out by practising with short pieces of thick wood that have been sawn square - that way they will stand up on their own. When you have got more comfortable that you know where the blade will end up, you can hold the piece in one hand, and cut with the other. It isn't as dangerous as it seems - you "know" where your fingers are (even with your eyes shut), and you quite soon learn where the axe head is going (because your hand is on the shaft)

[Rod]

Just in time for Shrove Tuesday?

[Doki]

The OP (as in original post) was about cutting kindling, the post I replied to was about how to use a splitting maul. The point of quoting replies is that you don't have to restate everything the last person said to make it clear what you're on about.

What other name is there for a splitting maul by the way? And I for one would like to see you split slices of branches or trunk with a hatchet for more than 10 minutes at a time...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Course there is.

Loitering within tent.

[Clot]

Absolutely tons in our garden at present. Many magpies which now appear to be considering nesting material.

[Anne Jackson]

The message from chris French contains these words:

Most of the people here have something of a clue, most of the time!

[Anne Jackson]

The message from Weatherlawyer contains these words:

In all my (50+)years of cutting kindling, I never, ever, cut it from logs! Logs don't make good kindlers, old bits of planks do...

[Anne Jackson]

Well, it matters marginally more to me than that of some johnny-come-lately, who doesn't even know how to cut kindling, then complains when someone gives him some very sensible advice!

[Huge]

Quite. I keep all the carpentry offcuts, which provides most of our kindling, and when they run out, the occasional pallet scooped up from the roadside provides the rest.