It has been just over a year since I wrote of the oak trees around my cabin that had either been felled by a summer storm, or were obviously diseased and needed to be taken down before another storm ...

No matter how you slice it, chopping firewood isn’t easy, but a good splitting axe makes all the difference. Wood splitting tools come in a wide array of styles, lengths, and weights, so you have ...

The right axe for you is the one you feel most comfortable with. A good starting point for the size of your axe starts with the handle. Ideally you want the length of the handle to go from the ground ...

Camping axes are all designed to do one thing: make wood smaller. Whether they do it by felling a tree, delimbing, splitting, or shaping, an ax needs to efficiently break down wood. As someone who ...

Splitting wood for the coming winter isn’t just great exercise. It can be a time for reflection and even meditation. There is something deeply satisfying in seeing the pile of split wood grow larger ...

In the southern Appalachians, where I live, fall means primo mountain-bike conditions and car camping without the mosquitos. It’s the beginning of bouldering season and arguably the best time to take ...

If, like me, your credentials as a woodsman come primarily from watching movies set in the woods, you might think you can just swing any ax down the center of a log to split it. That’s not quite right ...

Vipukirves is an efficient tool for chopping firewood, possessing many advantages, such as speed and work safety, over traditional axes and small hydraulic log splitters. Vipukirves separates sections ...

This quick video demonstrates a clever human-powered device that makes splitting firewood easier by setting an ax into a frame to guide it. Adding a counter weight and a spring allows the log splitter ...

There’s nothing cozier than a fireplace or wood-burning stove in the winter. Yes, it can be a pain to chop all that wood, but think about it like this: you’ll get ripped and cut your heating bill at ...