This tool comes from Finland, where the risk element is particularly acute due to the number of trees and soapstone furnaces to burn them in. This tool, however, solves the problem once and for all, combining as it does the technology of the wedge with that of a drop hammer. A heavy solid piston is inserted into a cylinder with a forged wedge at one end.
The wedge is positioned on the spot where the wood is to be split. With one hand holding the cylinder, the other extracts and drops the piston. With a stroke of 50 cm and weighing 3.5 kg, the wedge safely splits the wood. In this way several problems are solved; there is no need to aim because the axe head is positioned exactly where the log is to be split; lifting the piston is infinitely better than lifting the axe over one‘s head and, finally, the whole process carries very little risk of injury, movement is controlled at all times.