Natural Bushcraft - The True Spirit of Bushcraft

There is another solution to the whole thing.
Hold the wood like it was a handle.
Place the axe where the piece is to be split.
Now lift the axe and the wood, your hands should be somewhat parallell and holding almost the same grip.
Now let the whole thing down on whetever you are using as a chopping block.
You get the point even if I cant explain it properly.

If it's too skinny to stand on its own, you can just lay the wood down on your block. As long as you split in line with the grain, it splits just as easily from the side as from the end.

Nothing better than seeing it go wrong. Twice!!

A colleague decided one day to "teach" a student teacher how to split ash to make fire sticks. Hold it with your hand and then strike smartly with an axe. No mention of moving your hand at the last minute or anything. So there they are sitting facing each other splitting small ash logs and guess what? She's bleeding all of a sudden and has nearly skinned a finger from the knuckle to the tip. An hour or two later I arrive and immediately re-opened the wound, did some paramedic magic and took her to A+E. The good news is that there were no stitches required and the wound has healed nicely.

Completely bemused by the incident he later proceeded to show me how safe his method was. Guess what? More blood! I laughed long and hard and sent him on his way.

I am, however, a confirmed sissy and have always advised a sacrificial stick.

Sissy's live longer and bleed less!

Thanks Justin, I'm now officially a sissy lol