Reinventing the Axe

Nerval's Lobster (2598977) writes "The axe has been with us for thousands of years, with its design changing very little during that time. After all, how much can you really alter a basic blade-and-handle? Well, Finnish inventor Heikki Karna has tried to change it a whole lot, with a new, oddly-shaped axe that he claims is a whole lot safer because it transfers a percentage of downward force into rotational energy, cutting down on deflections. 'The Vipukirves [as the axe is called] still has a sharpened blade at the end, but it has a projection coming off the side that shifts the center of gravity away from the middle. At the point of impact, the edge is driven into the wood and slows down, but the kinetic energy contained in the 1.9 kilogram axe head continues down and to the side (because of the odd center of gravity),' is how Geek.com describes the design. 'The rotational energy actually pushes the wood apart like a lever.' The question is, will everyone pick up on this new way of doing things?"

Comments

Neat

[Anonymous Coward]

This is really damn clever. Few thoughts though:

- My wrists hurt just watching this guy. I gotta imagine some of that rotational force is transferring into the wrist and elbow, which can’t be good over the long term
- That tire: that's brilliant.
- That price: that's insane.

The question is, will everyone pick up on this new way of doing things?

The new way of doing things is called a log splitter. You can get one pretty cheap now (especially if you can do with electric), and while it doesn't have that same rustic appeal, it works really damn well. Personally splitting and stacking was my chore as a kid (I'd guess I’ve split at least 60 cord in my lifetime), and I'm not planning to ever split a log by hand again.

Re:Neat

[Anonymous Coward]

Also the video shows them splitting some very easy to split wood.

Re:Neat

[phantomfive]

It fascinates me how many people here on Slashdot have significant experience using axes.

weird axe

[smillie]

I cut and hand split a couple of cords of wood every year. There are some woods such as poplar (in the video) or willow that split really easy. There are other woods that can be cracked open at the top by three inches and still need a sledge hammer to split the two halves apart. Without seeing how it works on the tough woods I can't tell how useful this new axe would be.

For splitting wood.

[edibobb]

This might be good for splitting wood, but there are a lot more uses for an axe. This axe wouldn't work well for most other uses.

The real invention: Tire to hold pieces

[mspohr]

The splitting maul is interesting but it may take some getting used to and many not catch on...
However, from the video I see that he uses an old tire to hold the round and this keeps the pieces from flying all over the place. This is actually a great idea!