Making a Bushcraft Chopping Log | TA Outdoors

Description

This short video shows you some good tips on how to make a chopping log for Bushcraft Axe work. In the video I use natural resources to make a digging spade to dig a hole around half a foot deep. The ground in this pine forest is very soft therefore it naturally absorbs the shock of an axe, which hinders the efficiency of the chopping log. So by digging down to the harder soil and gravel, it creates less shock for the chopping log to be absorbed by, and therefore makes it easier to chop wood! Watch the video to see how I do it. I hope you enjoy the video - Mike

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Tags: bushcraft,chopping log,axe,axe log,wood,cutting,camp,wild camp,outdoors,super camp,survival,wilderness,skills,forest,woodland,woods,natural resources,resources,simple,efficient,making,make your own,diy

Video Transcription

well guys just a little quick video really on making yourself a chopping block now I found myself a nice big piece of wood here obviously this is very wobbly if I were to put blocks of wood on here and try and split them with an axe I could miss it's dangerous and this could fall over like that so my plan is I'm gonna basically make a pit dig a pit the same diameter is this log here half bury the log you know get it buried in there that way all that's shot you know that the wobbly nurse and all that shotgun power coming from the axe will stop it from wobbling the other thing obviously I'm in a pine forest here there's lots of moss there's not much light coming through it's you know it's a thick canopy therefore the ground is very peaty it's very mossy and it's soft and obviously if I'm hitting something with an axe the impact and the power of that axe coming down is going to be cushioned in this in the softness of that ground and I'm it's not going to have much of a you know efficiency and an efficient cut so what I'll do is I've got a piece of wood here about two foot long you can make one two or three foot long and all I've done is I'm basically making myself a little Spade little shovel and I've just gone down one side with the axe really fine movements as you can see I'm not swinging my axe worldly just fine movements making a nice flat as you can see there that's pretty much ready like that so looking at that angle you can see that's just a scoop there it's basically making a shovel effect it's quite straight forward and I can now use this as leverage to dig my hole right so you've got basically the other thing I've wanted to tell you the diameter of your stick if you've got a big thick diameter like that it's gonna be very hard for you to get a grip you want something where you can get a grip basically like a spade handle where your fingers can touch at the end there like that then you can get a good firm grip so you can dig it different angles anyway you can dig and twist but as you can see this is soft ground but you can see already and it's almost like growing about some of the leverage this actually chops through reach there's a tree root dealer if you watch see that tree root just nice vertical couple of chops and it straight there you go broken root keep digging around you can pull that out by hand then once that's out of the way

you can actually see there's a big tree root there so it may not cut that one however you get the idea and you get the prints of a lot of it well as you can see now I've gone down through that soft soil layer and I'm actually starting to hit if you see here stones gravel that tells me that I've got now and deep enough where that log can sit and absorb you know there's no soft soil there to absorb that shot it's hard ground now therefore it should be good enough to do some shopping

you see bigger stones coming up now I'll just go a bit deeper get a good diameter long hole in it goes now this is the key part is moving it until I get a flat platform there that's now level that's pretty flat all I need to do is compact some soil the saw that I've used here Pat it around they're building it up compress it down and then it's got a nice firm rigid cutting lock all right so I'm just getting this the majority of this round here first round the back because I put it all up this side and actually there's not enough around this side here you use this flat end as well just to compress it down over time the soil will naturally after some rain fill around this but it's just good to compact it now let's go around that edge then I know it's really really safe and secure ready for some axe work well the chopping logs now in there it's really as you can see really firm I can't move that's really rigid I've got a little bit of wood here it's that slight angle so you have to move it round just to make sure that your angle is flat and it's not wobbling or anything like that I might not go split this first time but if I don't and the axe is stuck in there I can use the weight of that to then split it but we'll give it a go I'm making sure that my legs are obviously shoulder width apart that way if I miss that log my yeah the axe is not coming into my shins the last thing I wanted to have my shin there and then it goes into my shin it's just common sense guys just be careful when you're using sharp tools use your knees as well when you come down straight to connect with that log and that obviously that's not completely split in half but I can now get that log right again there have another go at it line it up these are the these thin bits of the perfect bits that you want for a bit of kindling I could almost batten that down with my knife now just processing that word whatever you go guys but what my bits of chalk would there I hope you've enjoyed the video just a short video don't forget this can be used for a variety of things you can also use it as a sawing block

I had a saw got a nice strong support there just to saw the ends of wood and things like that real simple tip great tip that really helped me just using you know a little bit of just shape that would off a bit just to make a shovel and you know try and use what's around you thanks for watching please give us some feedback comment like subscribe and things like that thanks guys you