In the last 12 months, I opened my first tool store, had my first child and decided to make all my wood with an axe.

Previously, I was doing my wood (12m3) with a crosscut saw and an axe. Not so convinced by the durability of a crosscut saw nor its accessibility for most people, I practiced cutting wood with an axe.

Chopping wood with an axe requires little effort as long as the crosssections we are dealing with are reasonable. It is possible to chop mediumlarge sections with an axe, but the traditional Vnotch technique produces a lot of chips and requires a lot of effort.

Inspired by the work of traditional carpenters with an axe, I developed a technique of splitting the wood directly from the trunk into small, planklike pieces. This technique produces little waste, the wood obtained dries faster, it requires less effort than the traditional technique and I feel that it is just as fast.

This technique can only be done on wood species that split easily, like ash or chestnut. My tests on walnut and poplar were inconclusive.

In this video, I show you how I do it.
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Chapters :
00:00 Intro
00:20 Quick explanation
02:00 Zoom and advanced explanation
03:00 Demonstration
07:00 Why I keep material all along the trunk
09:40 Cut of the remaining
11:00 Why I hit the narrowest surface
12:40 A point on the direction of the strike

Thank you all for your support, I continue to work on https://www.lafrontiere.fr, as well as the experience of a livelihood without machines, replicable by means and techniques accessible to everyone.

Axe used: Trade Axe 1200g
https://www.lafrontiere.fr/stockout...

Video made at the beginning of March, don't cut down trees after March 15th to make your firewood, preserve biodiversity.