Unless you’re the creepy guy from The Amityville Horror, you’re probably not the biggest fan of chopping wood. Yet splitting wood by hand remains a crucial skill for cottagers who often rely on stoves for heat during the cold winter months.
A cord of wood goes quickly, which means the job of the wood chopper is never complete. Sure, you can buy a mechanized pneumatic splitter, but such tools are expensive and not much faster than the old-fashioned method.
Enter a very clever Finnish company that looked at the centuries-old axe design and saw a better way. Their masterpiece is called the Vipukirves, which is designed to minimize the toil of chopping wood.
The key innovation that separates the Vipukirves from traditional axes is its unique weight distribution, which turns the axe head to the right after each chop, transferring the kinetic energy sideways to loosen and eject the wood.
The axe design is also safer, minimizing bounce-back and uncontrolled swings. Sorry, designer of the axe (whoever you are), but it seems you can re-invent the wheel.
Check out this video of the Vipukirves in action, and if you like what you see, you can order one for yourself at their website.