The ax has been a constant companion of man since the Stone Age. His "younger brother" - the cleaver - is about the same age as our era. But since he appeared, not a single piece of firewood can do without him. Now manual labor has ceased to be the only one, because various electromechanical and hydraulic devices have been invented, including in order to quickly and safely chop firewood. But when the current is cut off and the hydraulics fail, nothing will help - only a manual wood splitter will help out. And in order to manage it skillfully and without risk to he alth, you should know the rules for handling this tool.
An ax will never replace a wood splitter, and vice versa. These two tools complement each other, as they are designed for different jobs. The ax cuts tree trunks, which will later be sawn into chumps. The cleaver splits them into firewood.
That's why they are so different even in their appearance. Axes, the blade of which is designed to cutwood, in short, is lighter and with a fairly figured ax handle. Splitters for chopping firewood are much more weighty (3-4 kg), with a straight and long ax handle (on average 70-80 cm) and without any hint of figure. It is a crude and efficient tool.
Increased mass and long ax provide more momentum and impact force. In addition, the narrow blade of the cleaver (70-80 mm) is also sharpened at an angle in the range from 40 to 60 degrees. A significant part of the force of impact with this tool is aimed at tearing the fibers of the wood apart.
They diverge perpendicular to the direction in which the firewood cleaver enters the block. This explains the "lethal" effectiveness of this tool.
The blade of a cleaver is not only straight, but also semicircular. With this shape, raw wood and resinous logs are easier to split. There is also a double-sided cleaver for firewood: on the one hand, the blade is sharpened, on the other, a sledgehammer is formed. This is done to drive wooden or steel wedges into a particularly "stubborn" block of wood to widen the crack.
For chopping thin and dry firewood, there is work for a short cleaver with an ax handle 40-60 cm long.
The best wood for an ax is ash. Birch, maple and beech are less durable. Also, an ax handle can be made from oak and acacia, but they still try not to use this wood. Its specificity is that with an ax handle of this lengthit does not dampen its vibrations in the plane perpendicular to the plane of the palms after the impact. As people say, "dries hands".
It often happens that a blow follows a miss, and the wood splitter hits the block with an ax handle. This contributes to its rapid wear at the point of attachment. To protect it, it is advised to nail a piece of iron in this place or wind several turns of aluminum wire.
For chopping firewood, a chopping block or a deck (a wooden stump, obviously larger in diameter than any block of wood), the base for which must be solid and not elastic, so as not to absorb upon impact and not "eat up" a significant part of the momentum.
Each blow with a cleaver should be applied, confidently standing on fairly wide apart legs, and it is better to put a block of wood in the part of the deck that is farthest from the stabbing person. This is done for safety reasons: in case of a miss, the blade of a heavy tool will stick into the near part of the deck or into the ground between the legs. Cleaver is a necessary thing in the household of a hard-working independent man. With proper care, this tool will last for many years.
