Product: Tool: Cutting
Wood score   (+1, -2)  [vote for, against]
Hit wood and make fires with it

The end of this axe-sized hammer-like implement would resemble six small axeheads joined together facing the same direction, or a somewhat less complex surface than a meat mallet, with much deeper scoring. If you hit a large piece of firewood with this a couple of times you deeply score the surface giving a place for fire to bite into and making the wood easier to light.
-- Voice, Nov 13 2017

Snowed in with cabin fever and several cords of wood already ?
-- normzone, Nov 13 2017


This seems harder then just splitting the wood.

Also these parallel axheads would 'wedge' the wood together and get stuck.
-- mylodon, Nov 14 2017


//This seems harder then just splitting the wood.//

Splitting the wood makes it burn faster, which isn't the point.
-- Voice, Nov 14 2017


From one post-cave man to another, making kindling is the point.
-- mylodon, Nov 14 2017


What might be good is a posi-drive-head shaped axe. This would split your log into bits as well as prevent wedgedge.
-- mylodon, Nov 14 2017


I think this is brilliant , a fundamental change in structural form with a physical blow. My only concerns is that to get the change wanted, fluffy wood, more than one directional force vector is needed.

Maybe the implement needs velcro like hooks to randomise tearing away action. [+]
-- wjt, Nov 14 2017


Why not just use a shaped charge, then thermite ?
-- 8th of 7, Nov 14 2017


//From one post-cave man to another//

I am not!
-- Voice, Nov 18 2017


Why is this better than instructing one's batman to light a fire? We don't need to know the piffling details of how this is achieved. Multi bladed hatchets serve a better purpose when used to burst open the heads of persistent nuisances.
-- xenzag, Nov 18 2017


Chauve souris man, shirley?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 18 2017


// Why is this better than instructing one's batman to light a fire? //

On campaign, a fire may emit smoke, giving away your location to the enemy. When you require something hot to eat or drink, this should be prepared on a spirit stove, which produces no smoke and very little flame. Some Fortnum's hampers include such a stove (or gelled fuel).

// We don't need to know the piffling details of how this is achieved. //

Knowing the gory details adds to the salacious joy, however.

// Multi bladed hatchets serve a better purpose when used to burst open the heads of persistent nuisances. //

We disagree. A heavy, blunt mace can produce a lethal depressed fracture of the skull with a single well-aimed blow, without even breaking the skin if the surface is smooth and rounded; no arterial spray, very little noise, immediate incapacitation and rapid death.

Once the target has been dealt with, a hatchet is admittedly very useful in dismembering the remains.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 18 2017


Have you had a particularly frustrating day in Poundland again, [8th]?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 18 2017


Ah yes, but the meat on the head is simultaneously tenderised when struck with a multi-bladed instrument of the type being described here. This is a useful feature for the cannibalistically inclined. (notes Max now taking an interest)
-- xenzag, Nov 18 2017


People are really not that tasty. I have wondered if one could make goose-friendly foie gras by simply pandering to the needs of the morbidly obese, but to be honest geese are cheaper to manage.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 18 2017


How about a hammer with a bed of nails. The nails are hollow with wire filaments inside. After slamming the hammer into the wood, a hit is applied to the back of the hammer pushing the wire filaments out holes in the sides of the nails. The back of the hammer is then levered up, pulling the wires back out. The hammer is pulled out and burning match placed on fluffy dent.
-- wjt, Nov 18 2017


I know this is the Halfbakery, but I am compelled to ask .... is anyone actually having difficulty starting a fire using old school methods?
-- normzone, Nov 18 2017


If you wanted fluffy, couldn't you start with dehydrated sheepskin? The lanolin, though not an accelerant, is supposed to provide the same sort of steady combustion as candle wax.

{Space is left here for uncalled-for remarks about the Welsh.}

{Space is left here for uncalled-for remarks about New Zealanders.}
-- pertinax, Nov 19 2017


If the wires were Firesteel, this tool could also be the igniter.

Looking for names,I came up against guns, Hammer Fire, Striker Fire. May as well have a cartridge that lights a fire in a log at close range.
-- wjt, Nov 19 2017


As a child it was my job to light the fire every day when I came home from school. This consisted of making a large number of paper sticks, with a mixture of fresh coal and some of larger bits of unburnt material sieved from the ashes from the previous day placed on top. A full newspaper sheet held over the fire opening assisted with the draft. (a dangerous process) I can still build and light a roaring fire in a matter of minutes.
-- xenzag, Nov 19 2017


HA ! Of course, WE can light a roaring fire in a matter of seconds .... hehheh ..
-- 8th of 7, Nov 19 2017


[xenzag] Your own little fireworks. Any experimentation for control of the thrill?
-- wjt, Nov 20 2017



random, halfbakery