Six million people have watched the video below, featuring some guy swinging an overpriced, state-of-the-art splitting axe to turn a tire filled with logs into perfectly split matchstick kindling…
It’s like a Home Shopping Network advertisement for a new kitchen tool that turns a potatoes into perfect french fries in seconds.
The rub is that this “magic axe” can be yours, for one easy payment of… $350. I can almost see your eyes roll…
At best, we can only assume that the folks watching this video with eyes bulging (wondering why they haven’t seen this in the Brookstone catalog) are ignorant to the fact that there are already hundreds of products that will product nearly identical results for a fraction of the price…
Video:
Sure, it’s impressive, but a regular old splitting axe can do the same job roughly just as well — for $50 or less. In fact, well-seasoned firewood isn’t all that hard to split, especially with a good setup like the tire shown in the video.
Wouldn’t you rather buy an axe AND a cord of firewood for less than you’d pay for that high faulting Leveraxe? Of course you would. Here are the axes you should buy instead:
The Estwing small axe is a good general use axe for small stuff.
I do like the “tire” idea however in the video !!
I used a Council with 26 inch hickory handle .Best would be a Fiskars with 36 inch hickory handle. I’ve used equivalent of TWO Estwing AXE w/MAUL. Used the axe blade as a starter and then the maul to drive the split deeper. That way you do not have to worry about having fragmented chips. Works well where knots in pine tree is a problem.
Just watched the Bahco ruck ax handle fail in several videos. Simple operations with minimal loading saw it break against the head. This could be a safety issue. I’d probably dump this one from the list.
I also want to watch the video dude use his ax on seasoned oak, mesquite, hackberry, or mulberry. I don’t think he would have things his way all the time.
Steve, I will agree. The tire idea is worth looking into.
I like the looks of the Eastwing Fireside Friend. I may have to try one out. I usually use a standard hatchet or a roofer’s hatchet to split kindling. To me, this is the way to split wood. Batoning seems like too much work, plus risking a good knife, just my humble opinion though.
Just what kind of wood is he splitting? It looks like maple. I could split clean maple like that without effort, too.