Splitting wood is one of the manliest things a person can do. It’s also a great way to let out aggression, get some exercise, keep warm on a frosty winter day, and, of course, produce some wood with which you can make a fire.

While men have been chopping logs into firewood for untold thousands of years, the fact is, proper wood-splitting can be something of a challenge. This is all the truer when a gentleman is faced with a stack of logs lacks the proper tools for the job. Learning how to split wood will help you build roaring fires for years to come.

If you want to chop wood properly, you should have, at the very least, a good, heavy axe. To be more accurate, you should have a maul, the type of axe with one sharp edge set into a thick, heavy head. The maul’s shape concentrates maximum force into the blade and helps split logs apart as it is driven down into the wood.

Better still, you will have a maul, a wedge, and a sledgehammer. Many logs will fly apart with one single, satisfying strike of the maul, but larger and/or harder (and damper) logs might require the use of a wedge and sledge combination.

You should have a decent chopping block, which is usually just a large, squat log, but is ideally a tree stump. Also consider gloves, boots, safety glasses (or any glasses, really), and a damn fine pair of jeans. There you have it, men — the tools of the trade.

Technique

Contrary to popular misconception, the best stance for splitting wood sees your shoulders squared off relative to the doomed log, not with one foot forward and one a step back. This position concentrates maximum force down through your swing.

Put your dominant hand right under the head of axe; it will slide down as you swing, directing the blade (or the sledgehammer) and increasing force as you move. Your other hand should grip the axe handle right near its bottom. Swing for the center of smaller logs (hit with the grain when possible) and cut nearer the outside of larger logs, with the blade striking parallel to an imagined diameter (not perpendicular to the arc of the log, if you follow).

How to split wood with an axe

If your maul gets stuck, you can either pull it out and try again; you can drive in a wedge and knock that through with the sledgehammer; or you can leave the maul in the log, turn the whole thing over, and pound away at it with a hammer (or with another log, if you are sans sledge).

With a maul, a wedge, a sledgehammer, and some persistence, you should be able to split most logs that are less than two feet in length and two feet in diameter. Above that size, consider using an electric log splitter or hiring a Norwegian man with an impossibly gorgeous beard to help.

There are a few other tricks you might try to make your log-splitting go a lot quicker. For example, you could place an old tire on your splitting block, set the wood round inside the tire or wrap a bungee cord around the base of the log; then get to swinging as you normally would. This will keep your wood in one place while you’re splitting it so you don’t have to worry about setting pieces upright before every hack.

 

Article originally published December 2015 on themanual.com, last updated December 2018. Contributing authors include Steven John, Bryan Holt, TJ Carter, and Nicole Raney.