Tuesday 21 October 2014

A Wood-Splitting Luddite No More


    Since moving to McBride in 1977, I have split a lot of firewood.  Once I had the firewood cut and unloaded, I grabbed my splitting maul (sort of a cross between an axe and a sledge hammer or an ax with a really heavy thick head), and began swinging it down on the wood, thus splitting it.  It always worked pretty well, unless the piece of wood had a lot of knots in it, which meant multiple swings, or pounding on the maul’s head with a sledgehammer.
    Splitting firewood can get tiring, but I would just work on the pile little by little.  Friends and relatives, after looking at all of my finished and stacked firewood, often asked me, “Do you have a log splitter?”, to which I would answer, “No, I use a maul.” 
    After hearing this the response was always, “You should get yourself a wood splitter, its so much easier,”   but I guess I am a bit of a luddite when it comes to splitting wood, and I just kept on using my maul.
    When I was away, visiting down in Indiana, a friend contacted Joan to tell her that Costco was having a good special on a small electric wood-splitter, and she ordered it.   A day or so after I returned she came home from town and told me to go out and look in the back of the car.  I was totally surprised to see what she had bought me.  It came just in time to deal with the big pile of firewood that Gary Moore gave me.  
    So now I am a high-tech wood-splitter, and instead of swinging the heavy maul, I put the firewood on the rack, and press two buttons.  The wood-splitter does all of the hard work.

Take a look at my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

No comments:

Post a Comment