Good Thinking

Mr. Quicksplit makes kindling quick

Mr. Quicksplit makes kindling quick
Mr. Quicksplit in wood-splitting action
Mr. Quicksplit in wood-splitting action
View 2 Images
Mr. Quicksplit in wood-splitting action
1/2
Mr. Quicksplit in wood-splitting action
Mr. Quicksplit is a simple device, designed to make it easier to split wood into kindling
2/2
Mr. Quicksplit is a simple device, designed to make it easier to split wood into kindling

If you don’t camp or have a fireplace, then you probably don’t know this, but ... making kindling can be darn difficult. A simple-but-clever new device known as Mr. Quicksplit, however, looks like it makes the process a lot easier.

Ordinarily, if you’re trying to split a large piece of wood into small pieces of kindling, you have to prop it up on end and then whack it length-wise with an axe. Once you’ve split it in two, you then split each of those pieces in two, and so on and so forth until you’ve got kindling.

While the first couple of splits might be relatively easy, however, it gets more and more difficult to land the axe in the top center of the increasingly-narrower pieces of split wood. It’s not uncommon to end up delivering unproductive glancing blows, or getting the axe stuck in the wood because you haven’t hit it hard enough.

Mr. Quicksplit is a simple device, designed to make it easier to split wood into kindling
Mr. Quicksplit is a simple device, designed to make it easier to split wood into kindling

Created by Canadian blacksmith Martin Reinhard, Mr. Quicksplit uses precisely-applied leverage instead of axe-swinging heft to make kindling. Users just mount a piece of wood in the device, then use the torque generated by its long handle to drive its blade down through the wood.

It can be more or less permanently mounted in place using screws, although campers can also temporarily attach it to a tree trunk using ratcheting straps.

Mr. Quicksplit is available direct from Reinhard’s online store, for CAD$148 (US$150).

Source: Willow Creek Forge via Dragon’s Den

12 comments
12 comments
Jon A.
This is the camping equivalent of an egg yolk remover.
Just learn to use the tool you already own for this, and maybe spend some time resharpening it.
Russell Vonthien
OMG, Nice invention and maybe slightly useful for home or cabin use, but for "camping" i have got to say "what a waste of time and money, pack space and extra weight". Is splitting kindling really that hard with a tomahawk/hatchet?
The Hoff
Come on Jon A use yer yolk. This is for your house not camping. Keep it close to where your firewood is stored. It's smart, I like it!
Gerald Grey
Wisest thing you said all day Jon :-)
Bob Stuart
Smart people split their kindling off the side of a chunk, instead of trying for a series of even divisions. Campers use twigs. For an easy fire, just set up two reasonably dry chunks of firewood with about a 3cm wide vertical gap between them. Add a bit of kindling, light it off, and those two surfaces will radiate at each other and keep going easily.
chomper
I saw the pictures and thought, "what a great idea, I'm going to order one." Then I saw the price and I thought, "another product presented by Gizmag that is unobtainable or unreasonably priced." Chopping up kindling with a hatchet is kinda dangerous but for $150 I could buy enough bundles of kindling at the store to last an awful long time.
Mary R
How about an objective comment from someone who owns one, and uses it regularily? I purchased one at the store about a year ago, after my husband gashed his hand with a hatchet that deflected off a piece of wood he was splitting. Now I make kindling myself (prior I was nervous) - this tool allows you to position the blade, and press slowly - much more control. And yes, split the kindling from the side of the log, we find the thinner the better. My husband used to sound like you fellows, but even he has admitted that the splitter is safer and more efficient. It looks too simple, but in fact works very well.
Joe Sobotka
$150???? A "tad" pricey. I was figuring about $20. I'll stick to using my tomahawk.
Guido666
For those that heat their homes with wood, or for some other reason prepare lots of firewood and kindling regularly, this would seem a very helpful tool.
I'm not sure why people are arguing whether it solves a problem that they do/don't have. I'm sure the egg yolk separator inventor is laughing at you all, while he swims in his piles of money like Scrooge McDuck - he's probably sold a billion of those things, regardless of if people use them. There are thousands of perfectly useful tools that would fall under your foolish logic, if we stopped trying to improve anything that already had a crude tool to use.
Chic Tyson
Great craftsmanship, not a new idea however! Search google images and you will see several, almost identical models. Most are from Europe where a lot of wood is used to fire boilers.
I thought my ski bike conversion kits would be new, but as is turns out the first one was patented in 1895 LOL
Charles"Chic"Tyson
Load More