48/2025: The Swing I Imagined

Image © Jose 2025

Funny how so many things that look easy on YouTube are not that easy. If and when they look deceptively easy, then you should really worry. Splitting wood with an axe is one of them.

This weekend I was sorting out the wood for the winter, which everyone says will be a harsh one. I trust less and less weather predictions, not necessarily because I don’t trust the people or the science, but because I feel the weather will become harder and harder to predict. We have a nice stove in the living room, a Napoleon 1100C that is probably 30 years old, in perfect working condition. We had someone come in and check the chimney; it needed a liner, but the chimney itself is generous, so no issues there. After the flames pick up, it burns through a couple of logs in less than 30 minutes, and if we’re to use this as intended and lounge around the living room sofa listening to music and reading, we need a steady flow of wood. I have explained in some of my other posts that I have not grown up in winter climates. In Chicago we didn’t have a fireplace, and in the last house we were in there was a fake one installed (ugly thing) and we actually covered it with the sofa, so this is the first fireplace I am having to deal with.

I remember an incident a long time ago, I went up north of Portugal and it was bitterly cold (don’t believe those who say Portugal does not get cold…). I went to spend the weekend in a family house and it had a fireplace. I wanted to impress my date, and decided to give it a try. I didn’t know the first thing about it; when the house filled with smoke because I forgot to open the chimney exit, the owners came out and… let’s just say my date was not impressed. This time I read the manual, and it went as planned, my wife was impressed. A few weeks ago, I made a fireplace wood shack; it was great to materialize a project from sketch to reality, using treated wood and my new set of “manly” tools. But we went through some of the wood that was lying around, so I had to get on with the next stage of my training, getting wood for the fireplace. I know I can procure wood, and any wood I cut now, even if it has been lying around, is not ready for the fire – check. But with so much wood lying around, from fallen branches and trees, I decided to have a go at cutting wood with an axe.

Certain things I always hope no one is watching; this was one of them. The previous owner left behind three different size splitting axes. The axes are beautiful objects, the handles weathered by age and usage, you feel special holding something like that. I watched a few videos and read the beginner’s guide from the U.S. Forest Service. They cover the right tool, the splitting area, safety gear, stance and grip, how to target the right place to hit, how to control the swing, and even dealing with things like a stuck axe (yes, I had that happen). The whole thing is about technique over brute force, which to be fair, I am not that big or strong to claim brute force was getting in my way. It is purely lack of practice, and just like everything else, even if I don’t plan to take this on as a way of life, I need practice.

I cannot blame the tools, and the previous owner did leave plenty of ways to sharpen them, but this was hard. It took me a couple of hours to produce 20 usable pieces of wood, because there were plenty of bits and pieces that were not up to my standard. After a while, I understood the most important thing was to look at the wood, carefully. Instead of using straight-grain dry logs, I was trying to learn on green knotty wood, bad choice. And once you look carefully at the wood, you might find it has some cracks; makes complete sense to start there, but took me a while to learn that. Also, I kept aiming at the center of the log, perhaps afraid that otherwise I’d miss, when in fact you should be aiming at the edge, where the impact is more effective.

The most interesting part to practice is the swing. There is an image in your head of this controlled, relaxed arc the axe will do, you with almost straight arms, gravity doing all the work… what comes out is not that pretty, nor controlled, nor effective. I guess this applies to so many things; I played golf for a while, same opposing realities, same misery, until you actually hit the ball with some level of control.

I am sure for those who have done this since their early age are shaking their head and using NSFW names, and I get it. I am sharing this with all the embarrassment that comes with it. Maybe some of you will empathize; learning implies doing, and learning how to do it. I’m in the splitting-wood phase of learning and doing, and every time I swing and miss, at least I know I’m trying.