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 ...

The Splitmaster can exert up to 55 tonnes of pressure when pushing logs through the splitting knife.

Stacking firewood is pleasant work. It’s quiet and even contemplative. The hard and sometimes dangerous work of felling trees and bucking them with a chainsaw is done. The laborious splitting by hand ...

⚠️ Before cutting with a chainsaw, familiarize yourself with chainsaw safety rules and always wear safety gear. Heating with wood is a study in stubborn self-sufficiency. It’s hard work, but as with ...

Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www ...