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Who still brings axes?

During SAR and at other times, I notice that many (most?) NYS Forest Rangers carry a 19" axe in their backpack. During a SAR crew boss training session I witnessed a ranger demonstrate a take down and dismantle an 8 foot balsam fir with a couple of slices. In less than a total of 2 minutes he used it to get a fire going with massive billowing white smoke easily visible for miles from the air through heavy overhead canopy.
Students in the NYS Ranger School are required to buy their own axe and they take a course in axemanship. Nephew of mine went through the program
 
Just a slight aside: what with it being winter and all and the heater on 'most of the time, it's a good time to finish drying those spare axe handles. A spare handle costs very little and it sure is nice to have a couple rat-holed away against the time of need.
And truth be told, a good spare handle, ready to replace a broken one, is probably the best insurance that you'll never need it!

Best Wishes, Rob
 
WOW!!! I got wore out just watching him. Great idea, but I don't think I want to be that efficient.
Ha! That's a good point Cronje.
I might be more concerned with efficiency if I had 1/2 a cord to split before nightfall, but I rarely see my axe these days. Living in a city, and with no real fireplace, the closest I can come to wood fired happiness is with my little clay pot chiminea. The neighbourhood street lights spoil the effect.
Far away and long ago, we lived in an old farmhouse. It had a wood burning furnace. That basement beast was my nemesis, belching smoke and coughing cinders before sitting cold by morning. I should've sought advice from older and wiser neighbours, but I was young and stubborn. Anyway, I did have a happy place to go. Next to the kitchen, and down a short and rickety set of stairs, was a spacious storeroom. In older days, it was likely the summer kitchen, but I used it as my wood storage/chopping sanctuary. Because the basement beast required a constant feed, and I was totally inept at managing it, I was often in my wood room. I loved it there. With the kitchen door ajar, I could still see my young bride leaning over her baking (and smell the promise of fresh bread), and see our newborn in his nested blankets next to the flour. I'd split a few logs, then gaze into the kitchen, just to confirm that this domestic bliss was all real. The last thing on my mind, was hurry up, but rather, slow down. Those were my happiest wood chopping days.
 
Wow Brad, A person will wait a long time before reading anything better than what you just wrote.

Thanks for sharing such a special memory.

Rob
 
This axe ain't pretty, but it splits wood pretty well.
http://vipukirves.fi/english/
You need to keep a firm grip on that handle when you swing!
The old car tire trick is pretty good, but ya might want to be standing in one for safety's sake.
And put the kids in the house. And get the dog outta the yard. And put the ambulance on speed dial.
I think I'll stick with what I've got; old fashioned, old school, and old dependable.

Hello.
I found this opinion about the Vipukirves/Leveraxe.
Hard to say whether it is written as a joke or seriously based to lack of knowledge.
That is why I want to clear up some things to confirm that you, readers will get the right kind of a picture about this invention.
First of all, the Vipukirves/Leveraxe is the very first hand operational axe-like wood splitting tool that uses leverage.
The design of the blade is eccentric, one sided. It gives a lot new advantages in safety ,efficiency and joy in firewood splitting.
Friction is the nasty fellow, when using the conventional axe or maul those bases to wedging. In fact most of the splitting force vanishes to friction.
When using the Vipukirves/Leveraxe the friction is nearly non existent. The blade penetrates into the block on an optimum strike only 5 millimetres, less than a quarter if an inch. It starts to lean to the right at the very moment when the edge of the blade touches the surface of the block. The leverage multiplies the splitting force many times bigger. All the kinetic energy turns to the left and pushes part of the block away. The blade spreads the block up to eight centimetres, three and a half inches. It is more than with any other axe before.
"Brad" above tells to keep a firm grip. Do not believe that bull crap. Now we are talking about security.
When splitting fire wood with the Vipukirves/Leveraxe you must hold the handle AS GENTLY AS POSSIBLE to allow the rotation.This way the safety elements function as they were planned to do. The blade stops on the top of the block. DO NOT SQUEEZE the handle. DO NOT RESIST the rotation.
Using the car tire is also my idea. It helps a lot the job, because now you can fill the tire with several blocks and series split them in no time. It also saves your back, because you do not have to pick up the blocks from ground continuously. All the firewood stay together on the tire. Remove the steel band from the tire. This way it is more flexible and the firewood will not get stuck in the tire.
There is NO NEED to have an other tire for yourself for safety's sake as our friend "Brad" tells above.
It is advisable that there is not any extra people and animals around when you use an axe or Vipukirves/Leveraxe. http://vipukirves.fi/english/users_guide.htm

"I think I'll stick with what I've got; old fashioned, old school, and old dependable."

That is your choice, let the others take theirs. You are right, "it splits wood pretty well".

The Vipukirve/Leveraxe has been on the market over eight years, There has happened NO ACCIDENT. Based to this truth I consider not necessary to "put the ambulance on speed dial". Of course there is no harm in doing it especially if you have experiences about accidents with your conventional axes and mauls.

As you have possibly guessed, I am the inventor of the Vipukirves/Leveraxe. The knowledge about this invention has spread al over the world. Based to the feed back there is not any more so called problem trees. Also hard wood is easy to split.
Thank you very much for sharing your time with me. I will attach some links to be checked in purpose to get more knowledge about this invention.
I wish you all the best from Finland.
Regards
Heikki, the inventor


http://www.mnn.com/family/protection-safety/stories/weve-been-splitting-wood-all-wrong

http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=h...=channel&list=UL&start2&authorName=meahwahwah

http://videodoubler.com/combo/40344

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vipukirves&sm=12

https://www.google.fi/search?q=leveraxe&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:fi:eek:fficial&client=firefox-a&gws_rd=cr&ei=QE_MUpOTFaGTywO77YHABg

https://www.facebook.com/pages/VIPUKIRVESLEVERAXE/112802602087540

http://www.networx.com/article/weve-been-splitting-wood-all-wrong
 
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I think the translation button made a mistake, inserting bull shi% for "opinion" in the above post, and he is right, Brad is our friend.

Mr Karna made it clear that he wanted to respond to this thread when he replied to my venting email.

Thanks for taking the time to give us more information on your invention.
 
Well, the world's a smaller place than we thought! I enjoyed Mr. Karna's video of him splitting wood. There doesn't seem to be any doubt his invention does indeed split wood and well. For a person who was laying up the winter's supply of firewood it may well be the way to go. I can surely understand his exasperation with folks who misunderstand or make jokes at the expense of his invention. I'm defensive of things I've put a lot of work into.

That said; we are a canoeing/camping site here and I would venture to suggest that most would find bringing a tool of that mass, along with automobile tires, might prove just a little clumbersome in our canoes.

The axe as a tool goes back to a time before men knew the taste of bread, everywhere there is wood people use it. Most everyone has a image of what an axe looks like and when presented with something of such breath taking originality as Mr. Karna's invention the very least one can expect is raised eyebrows. I know for myself, now well into my seventh decade, that sixty some years have pretty well cemented an idea of what I'm going to use to chop wood.

Brad, I'm sorry, but it looks as if the plans to make you ambassador to Finland have run into a snag.

Very Best Wishes and sincere admiration to the wonderful people of Finland!

Rob
 
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There is NO NEED to have an other tire for yourself for safety's sake as our fried "Brad" tells above

Well I'm pretty fond of our friend Brad, whether he's fried or not, although he doesn't look like the type that partakes of the magical herb. But on to more important things….Mr. Karna, I split between 5 and ten cord a year by hand. I had a look at your axe, and then i looked at the price. Then I almost spit my coffee on my keyboard. For the same price as your axe, I can buy a gas powered splitter, which will split a lot more and for a lot longer than your axe. I'm not saying that it won't work, but at the price you are asking, I'll never find out. My 8 pound splitting wedge cost me 35 canadian bucks, and it does pretty well. At that price, I think your axe is only going to appeal to rich wanna be's who split a tire or two full at the cottage on the weekend.
 
OOH I love this site with morning coffee...

except the vision of a fried Brad who might not know he is fried.
 
The languages are sometimes quite complicated.
When looking at the word friend, the meaning is quite obvious, it is positive.
When missing one letter "n" the meaning changes totally.
I am sorry because I made this mistake, it was not written intentionally.
I have corrected the mistake in the original text.
I would still like to concentrate more to my invention and answer to your hopefully relevant questions.
I may make more mistakes in my writings, but try to read between the lines and use your imagination.
I hope us to end up to a fruitful and constructing conversation. I have a lot to tell you based to my 67 years experience in firewood splitting.
Best regards
Heikki
 
Heikki, I would be willing to give it a whirl, if there was some place i could try it out, I would. I wouldn't part with that kind of cash until i could try it out though.
 
Heikki, I expressed my scepticism regarding your invention with sarcasm, and that clearly hurt your feelings. For that I'm truly sorry. My pessimistic sense of humour is a character flaw I should try harder to erase. You couldn't tell if my post was a joke, or "seriously based on lack of knowledge". I read your website, and found it informative and entertaining. I was serious when I said it split wood pretty well. The video looked fairly convincing, though I remain somewhat sceptical. I was also serious when I said the car tire trick was pretty good. It is. It works well to keep the wood gathered. (I wonder if that might not be another invention waiting to be explored.) I was exaggerating and joking when I talked about safety issues. I guess that was the part that confused you. Don't worry though, it wasn't all that funny anyway. If anyone laughed, it was likely at me, rather than with me. It was also the part that bruised your ego and caused concern for your invention and investment. I certainly don't want to put a ding in your sales. If this axe is as good as you say it is, then I hope it brings you much success. If it is instead just another gimmicky, over priced, heavy and less than functional "tool", then I wish you some success anyway. We have an expression in English "Let buyers beware". It means that consumers should be careful when shopping. If they buy a good article, then good. If they buy a bad article, then it's too bad for them, as they should've been more careful. Because of marketing and sales, it's difficult at times to tell junk from jewels. I'm not sure which your axe is, but I see you're keen enough to Google your product on forums, and aggressively defend it's attributes. That is perfectly sensible, and I understand your personal commitment to this invention, and admire you for it.
I also congratulate you on your impressive grasp of the nuances of the English language. bullpucky might not be a commonly heard English word used around the world, but you seem quite comfortable with it rolling off your tongue, onto the screen, and around the WWW. It's often applied here when we hear information we suspect as being questionable, like in marketing and sales. I avoid the word, and instead lean on bad sarcastic humour. But, you know that already.
Heikki, I will look out for your axe here in Canada, and if I get the chance to try it, I will.
Best of luck with your business,
and kindest regards,
Brad.
 
Well I'm pretty fond of our friend Brad, whether he's fried or not, although he doesn't look like the type that partakes of the magical herb. But on to more important things….Mr. Karna, I split between 5 and ten cord a year by hand. I had a look at your axe, and then i looked at the price. Then I almost spit my coffee on my keyboard. For the same price as your axe, I can buy a gas powered splitter, which will split a lot more and for a lot longer than your axe. I'm not saying that it won't work, but at the price you are asking, I'll never find out. My 8 pound splitting wedge cost me 35 canadian bucks, and it does pretty well. At that price, I think your axe is only going to appeal to rich wanna be's who split a tire or two full at the cottage on the weekend.

Free country, free choice. Only wonder, why to use external power if you can use your own "fat power" + you'll get your exercise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTag8CLWeqw
 
Well take that memequay, Heikki makes a very compelling argument. You could do all 8-10 of those cords in an afternoon. Actually, why wouldn't you have the kids do it all for you, you could claim it was a school thing like Mr Miagi getting his cars waxed.
 
Well, the world's a smaller place than we thought! I enjoyed Mr. Karna's video of him splitting wood. There doesn't seem to be any doubt his invention does indeed split wood and well. For a person who was laying up the winter's supply of firewood it may well be the way to go. I can surely understand his exasperation with folks who misunderstand or make jokes at the expense of his invention. I'm defensive of things I've put a lot of work into.

That said; we are a canoeing/camping site here and I would venture to suggest that most would find bringing a tool of that mass, along with automobile tires, might prove just a little clumbersome in our canoes.

The axe as a tool goes back to a time before men knew the taste of bread, everywhere there is wood people use it. Most everyone has a image of what an axe looks like and when presented with something of such breath taking originality as Mr. Karna's invention the very least one can expect is raised eyebrows. I know for myself, now well into my seventh decade, that sixty some years have pretty well cemented an idea of what I'm going to use to chop wood.

Brad, I'm sorry, but it looks as if the plans to make you ambassador to Finland have run into a snag.

Very Best Wishes and sincere admiration to the wonderful people of Finland!

Rob

The car tire hasn't got anything to do with the splitting itself. It's only an idea how to ease your job.
With the Vipukirves/Leveraxe you can split on ground on the rock on the asphalt, where ewer the block happens to be. The blade will remain on top of the block. It will not go through the block. It will not touch the ground.
http://vipukirves.fi/kuvagalleria/pages/Vipukirves_j_Uusimaa_Katja_Juurikko_1_11_2005_789_jpg.htm
 
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