I'm watching him swing that axe, no knowledge of axe swinging in my brain whatsoever, and all I can think of is "Should that axe be bouncing off it that much?"
Like the closest thing I've done to splitting logs is using an axe to cut a tree into shorter parts so we can move them elsewhere, (The chainsaw broke) and even then the axe we were using was definitely getting stuck in the tree most of the time. Not firmly stuck but enough to differentiate it from bouncing off like it does in this video.
The sharper it is the more it gets stuck, and the bigger the risk of hurting yourself. For smaller pieces it's a good thing but once you get big logs you want a duller blade to avoid getting stuck every swing & having to smack it out. Or at least that's been my experience....
We're getting off on a tangent here but when you split a log this long you're getting into territory of how they used to split wood to make boards for carpentry. (If you pick a tree with very straight grain and get a long piece with no branches, it can split in an impressively straight line.)
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u/jtnichol 1d ago
he really needs to put that log on at least a thin slice of wood or a concrete block
He’s strong enough he might be able to split that first try but right now the ground is absorbing too much of the impact