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COMMENT PAGE FOR:
HTML Firewood Splitting Simulator
dehugger wrote 1 hour 34 min ago:
I have completed 4 rows of firewood, onto my 5th! The stacking
animation is very satisfying, I am sad I can't actually see the wood
stacking anymore (because my wood pile has grown to large). It would be
nice if it persisted across refreshes, and maybe provided a counter for
how many rounds/cords of would you have split.
adamzwasserman wrote 2 hours 45 min ago:
It is insane how much I enjoy this
beaker52 wrote 2 hours 54 min ago:
Whereâs carry water simulator?
boombapoom wrote 2 hours 57 min ago:
where the part where my axe gets stuck and i have to lift up the whole
log
layer8 wrote 3 hours 45 min ago:
Unfortunately the traffic noises donât make this very relaxing.
epiccoleman wrote 5 hours 25 min ago:
I enjoy trying to get the maximal number of pieces from the log. My
record is 16. The game is slightly annoying about forcing a rotate when
i'm trying to shave thinner sections out of the log, so it's somewhat
constrained.
Can anyone beat 16?
carsonye wrote 5 hours 39 min ago:
Well designed. It has a kind of magic that keeps people hooked.
XorNot wrote 6 hours 50 min ago:
Okay so the thing is I want a wood fire simulation too. With as much
physics sim on combustion dynamics as possible.
RaSoJo wrote 6 hours 58 min ago:
Fun game.
But please don't leave it on in the background while moving on to other
tasks.
Pretty much killed my venerable i7 mac.
mdnahas wrote 9 hours 5 min ago:
I have warm memories of splitting wood at my uncleâs with a sledge
hammer and wedge. It is that right mix of physical activity (but not
too much) and a little brain work. Great to do early while my aunt is
making breakfast.
Advice: WEAR STEEL-TIPPED BOOTS! It saved my toes.
begemotz wrote 9 hours 33 min ago:
need numbers to go up.
PenguineDavid wrote 10 hours 24 min ago:
This is really cool!
I honestly spent like 30mins just cutting firewood.
wraptile wrote 12 hours 3 min ago:
I once lived in a giant country side house in Estonia and nothing
matched wood splitting when it comes a morning exercise. You start a
bit drowsy and cold but after a few splits you warm up, your mind
starts to wake up and body becomes engaged to take on the day. It's a
very good exercise that I miss dearly so this simulator is a lovely
reminder!
xlii wrote 13 hours 5 min ago:
This is fun. I checked other screen toys by the author, but sadly they
aren't as amusing as this one.
The animated gif on the bottom of the list though :D
Tommix11 wrote 13 hours 43 min ago:
It seems they chose the Fiskars Axe, good choice I own five of them.
joelverhagen wrote 7 hours 15 min ago:
Yeah, I recognized that too. Probably the popular X27 :)
codingconstable wrote 13 hours 46 min ago:
very cool
vladde wrote 14 hours 2 min ago:
i managed to get 8 pieces standing on the log, without any of them
falling off.
NoPicklez wrote 17 hours 40 min ago:
Reminds me of classic mini games on miniclip or addicting games.
I wouldn't call it a simulator but an arcade firewood splitting game
t1234s wrote 19 hours 1 min ago:
Wildly addictive.. did Phillip Morris develop this?
gverrilla wrote 19 hours 22 min ago:
Poms[0] is great. I'd like to be able to upload my dog's pic.
0:
HTML [1]: https://screen.toys/poms/
voidmain0001 wrote 20 hours 22 min ago:
For everyone referring to splitting with an axe and saying itâs hard,
no wonder, everyone in the know uses a maul for splitting, not an axe.
dwd wrote 20 hours 37 min ago:
Used to watch the competitive wood chopping at my local agricultural
show all the time.
The highlight was always the tree felling competition. Each competitor
has an axe and four springer boards, and it's a race to basically chop
the top off a standing telegraph pole.
That would make a better game.
gverrilla wrote 19 hours 17 min ago:
It's a toy, not a game.
NooneAtAll3 wrote 21 hours 14 min ago:
webgl :/
jakedata wrote 21 hours 47 min ago:
The most satisfying part of splitting wood is doing it in temperatures
well below freezing. The wood is crystalline in hardness and really
does tend to split as it does in this over-optimistic simulation.
"Split your own wood and it will warm you twice".
CSB: I had no idea my uncle was unaffected by poison ivy. He invited me
over to harvest some dead ash trees on his property. I was destroyed
for a month by rashes and he didn't even know the wood was covered in
urushiol.
mrighele wrote 22 hours 46 min ago:
What this miss is a second part where you put the same wood that you
split in a fireplace and watch it burn.
crtified wrote 23 hours 31 min ago:
This task has what I'd call asymmetrical reciprocity.
That is, it's probably easier for the development professional to code
a pretend version of chopping wood, than it is for the professional
axeman to chop out a pretend version of a computer.
However I do eagerly await being proven wrong.
tonymet wrote 23 hours 50 min ago:
Add beers and drunkenness , and a scene where you miss the log and bury
the maul into your leg.
Animats wrote 23 hours 54 min ago:
I kept at it until firewood filled 3/4 of the surrounding circle. After
that, new firewood just seemed to disappear.
You can't win.
Aboutplants wrote 22 hours 35 min ago:
You need a path out
alliao wrote 1 day ago:
if you click fast enough you summon additional axes from the ether
cratermoon wrote 1 day ago:
Fruit ninja but for logs. Now I can finally play lumberjack like Iâm
Nicole Coenen.
rvnx wrote 1 day ago:
The page was developed by Claude, maybe you can share the prompt(s) so
we can develop variants of it ? I was surprised to see it handles 3D
like that so well
coolfox wrote 1 day ago:
I was able to get 19 slices out of one log
the_af wrote 1 day ago:
Small nitpick (not of the neckbeard type): if you split the wood in
slices then rotate it so the cut strikes perpendicular to the slices,
it tends to split horizontal pieces of wood without touching the rest,
even if it's "sandwiched" between the other slices, which seems odd
since it makes the axe edge feel like a surgical strike rather than
something with length.
I think it would feel better if it modeled the length of the edge,
which should disturb the other horizontal slices.
sva_ wrote 1 day ago:
Here's a script to automatically chop wood, if you're so inclined:
setInterval(_=>{a+=.13;['down','up'].map(e=>$('canvas').dispatchEvent(n
ew
PointerEvent('pointer'+e,{clientX:innerWidth*(.2+a%.6),clientY:innerHei
ght*(.4+a%.2)})))},a=9)
eh8 wrote 22 hours 24 min ago:
"Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game."
thomasfl wrote 1 day ago:
Gaussian splat based game will probably become popular. This game is
not gaussian splat rendered 3d, but it is pretty close. Next step is
gaussian splat and animations.
Choco31415 wrote 1 day ago:
I chopped so much wood that the browser was starting to lag. Thanks for
sharing the simulator, it was fun!
foxmoss wrote 1 day ago:
This is cool, but I just got incredibly sidetracked by the fact that
author Gavin Shapiro has a fake museum in the arctic
(museumzoetrope.org). Half as a ploy it seems to raise the value of his
penguin NFTs, half as quite a little prank on the internet.
niraj-agarwal wrote 1 day ago:
Got the chop wood, now need the draw water and then we will be good
m12k wrote 1 day ago:
In case anyone is wondering, the quote "Before enlightenment, chop
wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water" is an
ancient Zen Buddhist proverb. It speaks to how the life you live, and
actions you perform, before and after enlightenment are not
materially different. But how and why you do and experience them
changes, becoming more mindful and less mired in âattachmentâ and
overthinking.
wxw wrote 1 day ago:
Wonderful. I appreciate that it auto-rotates when the piece is too
narrow to split along one axis.
gblargg wrote 10 hours 23 min ago:
That kept annoying me. I thought I was moving the mouse while
clicking. I repeated and found it forces a rotate even when you just
click.
BrenBarn wrote 1 day ago:
This is oddly satisfying. Only weird part is it seems to split
whichever piece I click, even if it's behind another piece or in
between two other pieces, where it would be difficult or impossible to
hit just that one piece and not the others around it.
david422 wrote 1 day ago:
Didn't even get my maul stuck once.
imagetic wrote 1 day ago:
I have never wasted so much time doing something so useless.
imagetic wrote 1 day ago:
It was a lot of fun!
CWuestefeld wrote 1 day ago:
If you like this, then try playing Red Dead Redemption 2. While just a
tiny part of the game, you improve your relationship with the rest of
the gang by doing chores like splitting wood, and also carrying hay to
feed the horses.
mauvehaus wrote 1 day ago:
Red Dead Redemption 2? The birding simulator also has firewood
splitting and horse feeding simulators?
HTML [1]: https://www.audubon.org/magazine/birding-its-1899-inside-blo...
felooboolooomba wrote 1 day ago:
Bug: No error displayed if WebGL is disabled.
ryanisnan wrote 1 day ago:
I like how it stacks the firewood.
greenbit wrote 20 hours 17 min ago:
Right? My inner 17 year old wonders where that magic was, back in the
day.
CamouflagedKiwi wrote 1 day ago:
This is kinda fun, but doesn't match most of my experience splitting
firewood.
The wood barely moves after it's split. If you split it perfectly, the
two halves will almost certainly both fall to each side (they're pushed
outwards by the axe).
You can't just randomly split it across the grain into slices like
you're slicing bread.
I guess mostly: it's not tiring, which sort of sucks when you're doing
it for real, but it is satisfying. This doesn't scratch that itch for
me, but I guess it's fun in a way, similar to that cleaning simulator
thing.
rurp wrote 4 hours 25 min ago:
As a very novice wood splitter the thing that most jumped out to me
was the wood splitting in one swing every time. That's one or two
orders of magnitude off from my experience.
shash7 wrote 15 hours 26 min ago:
Use a nice large maul. Will go through most wood like a butter knife.
I stupidly used a axe for a long time.
xlii wrote 13 hours 6 min ago:
TIL about existence of (non-game like) mauls and that they might be
used for splitting firewood.
kjkjadksj wrote 3 hours 57 min ago:
Wait till you see the hydraulic mauls.
razorbeamz wrote 17 hours 54 min ago:
That's because the AI that generated this doesn't know what splitting
wood is like.
tclancy wrote 21 hours 31 min ago:
I dunno, what are you splitting? For full rounds or the large chunks
that first split off them, I often do have stuff go flying when it
finally splits. Typically I am splitting on top of another round so
that adds to the distance.
jonstewart wrote 23 hours 29 min ago:
There should be a "hickory" option where the axe just bounces back at
you or gets stuck in the round.
telesilla wrote 1 day ago:
As someone who spent a teenagehood doing the same, I agree it was far
too (un)satisfying to be able to cut the pieces and not having them
fall to the side. But if you have an excellent axe and true flat
surface you could get pretty close to the game. But for better
reality it needs more indication of splinters and blisters after a
few runs. I suggest adding a cast iron wedge splitter as a next level
option.
Reason077 wrote 1 day ago:
Was just doing this literally the other day! But with a hydraulic log
splitter which made it pretty easy and fun. The hardest part was
lifting and stacking all the logs!
Fokamul wrote 1 day ago:
yeaa
HTML [1]: https://i.imgur.com/Uc60Y2z.png
neilv wrote 1 day ago:
For players who are new to the game, there should be a 1/4 chance you
go to bed proud of an honest day's work with your hands, and wake up
the next morning having strained a muscle you didn't even know you
had, and you can't chop wood for the next couple weeks.
channel_t wrote 4 hours 6 min ago:
Yes, and possibly a constellation of little cuts and bruises on
your shins.
XorNot wrote 6 hours 53 min ago:
As someone who recently did some hand splitting of firewood I can
directly relate to this.
shmiga wrote 1 day ago:
Just fucking relax and enjoy!
CyLith wrote 1 day ago:
You missed the best part: analyzing what to do around knots. There's
a skill and artistry to it. Those who are good at it make it look
absolutely effortless:
HTML [1]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsIFvStf9Oz99GMitW4vD_g
gaudystead wrote 23 hours 35 min ago:
For anyone reading the above comment and wanting to see what the
commenter might be referring to, here is the first YT video I found
on that channel that is relatively brief but has an example of the
techniques involved:
HTML [1]: https://youtube.com/watch?v=G_QZIGVYX_4
AngryData wrote 18 hours 47 min ago:
And as someone who has split my own firewood by hand for heating
for the last 30 years, he definitely knows how to throw around an
axe, almost too well because he makes it look easier than it is.
But even when everything splits clean, him throwing an axe around
for 30+ minutes straight and not being out of breath and able to
still talk shows both immense fitness and experience.
nutjob2 wrote 1 day ago:
> This is kinda fun, but doesn't match most of my experience
splitting firewood.
Neither mine, I have a machine that does it for me. Much safer and
efficient.
mindslight wrote 6 hours 41 min ago:
I'm right there with you. I've manually split wood with wedges when
I was a kid. It was tedious. Now I just use the wedges for felling
the trees. I get enough exercise from the stacking.
I've always felt the attraction to manual splitting was some
idyllic vision of country life, backed up by the movie trope where
characters are having "alone time" but still "being strong". I'd be
interested to hear if anyone in this thread burns a significant
amount of wood (say 4 cords), and actually splits it all by hand.
AngryData wrote 18 hours 46 min ago:
Not if you also want to get excellent exercise. It would take me no
time at all to build a splitter for my tractor if I wanted one, but
I plan on chopping by hand until I can't because otherwise I will
either be significantly less fit or have to take out additional
non-productive time to workout.
kmoser wrote 1 day ago:
I find it much easier to use AI to vibesplit my firewood. Sure, it
costs me lots of money to buy axe tokens, and sometimes all I end
up with is a useless pile of splinters or sawdust, but it's the way
of the future; just imagine how efficient it'll be when the tech
has matured?
mindok wrote 16 hours 36 min ago:
If only you could pipe the waste heat from the data centreâ¦
thenewwazoo wrote 1 day ago:
You're right, and I'm sorry. You specifically instructed me to
split the logs in the side yard, and I split the cat. I recognize
now that this was a strategic error, and cutting the cat into
chunks does not accomplish the goals.
edit
AGENTS.md
+ Only chop things made of wood. Meat does not split well.
NEVER cut up the cat.
I've updated the AGENTS.md file to track this mistake in the
future. Should I continue chopping the rest of the firewood?
cyberax wrote 17 hours 56 min ago:
Never set the cat on fire, it surely will annoy it.
Chaosvex wrote 1 day ago:
The new model is so good at splitting firewood that it's too
dangerous to release to the public without safeguards to stop it
from splitting things that aren't actually firewood. The old
models are terrible - I can't believe we ever thought they were
good.
Remember: this is the worst that splitting firewood will ever be.
notrealyme123 wrote 1 day ago:
It might split atom's
helterskelter wrote 1 day ago:
There's a surprising amount of technique and knowledge that goes into
splitting firewood. It isn't rocket science, but I know a 75 year old
who can chop wood faster than any young guy who works out at the gym.
larodi wrote 13 hours 48 min ago:
It takes understanding rotation and momentum to do right. Also
different to bet chops in different ways.
gknapp wrote 14 hours 43 min ago:
I had to take down two absolutely enormous Douglas Fir trees on my
property (> 36" base), and asked them to leave the wood rounds for
me. I knew it was going to be a lot of wood, but even then, I was
not prepared. I spent about a fair bit of my free time over the
next 1-2 months just out there slowly working my way through the
pile, and you're absolutely right - you get substantially better at
it. For me, it looked something like this:
Stage 1: At first, I could chop essentially nothing, probably 60+
minutes per round as I mostly puzzled about how to make progress
and got lucky from time to time with a round that split easily
(fortunately, I had a nice splitting axe)
Stage 2: Then I bought some splitting wedges, and I used a handheld
sledgehammer to drive them in to what I thought were the weak
spots, and then ultimately pried open the log, to pieces that I
could split more readily.
Stage 3: I bought a massive demolition sledge hammer (essentially a
two-handed battle hammer) and used that to drive the wedges in
after getting them started, and made a bit more progress on
actually splitting the rounds.
Stage 4: After doing this countless times, you just a knack for
reading the wood, and where it will / won't split. I reverted back
to using just the splitting axe, since if you hit the wood in the
right spots, it really just splits on its own.
Here's where I ended up, if it helps any of you:
- Start by establishing the fracture line that will be used to
split the round in half. I would eyeball any existing line on the
round towards the center, and use the axe head to mark a line, away
from any knots , from the center to the edge. These two
center-to-edge didn't necessarily need to be inline. They could be
slightly offset, like hands on a clock.
- With moderate force, just repeatedly strike that line, working
from the center outwards. You'd be shocked out how quickly repeated
strikes widen the line, and eventually the wood's own weight almost
causes it to fall apart.
- Recursively do this with the two halves: Draw the line from (what
was the center), radially out to the edge. Repeatedly strike until
these pieces have been halved.
- Continue this process until you have proper pizza wedges. At this
point, it's pretty trivial to just chop the pizza wedge, from the
wedge to the base, into 4 or 5 smaller firewood-sized logs.
I know y'all probably didn't care to read this, but this was quite
honestly weeks of my life in learning this, and I couldn't find a
great guide on YouTube or anything, especially for rounds this big.
altairprime wrote 4 hours 46 min ago:
I cared to read this :) Thanks for the effort invested.
bregma wrote 10 hours 8 min ago:
I don't burn softwood because hardwood is a much better fuel as a
primary heat source, especially when you live in a mixed forest.
Sugar maple, red oak, birch, and beech. Beech is the best:
straight grain, good density, but less common where I live.
The trick to splitting hardwood, other than avoiding burls and
knots, is to shave off chords around the outside of the buck. If
you tried radial cuts or splitting on the diameter, well, best of
luck with getting a season's wood split in one year. Chords
around the circumference for about 50% of the buck, thenif you're
lucky the core will split on the diameter.
Also, use a maul with fat cheeks and no edge rather than an axe.
It's the right tool for the job.
kelseydh wrote 7 hours 26 min ago:
Advice I would add: use a tire when splitting firewood to hold
the logs together. See: [1] Wood no longer goes flying. Much
easier to chop quickly.
HTML [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMv6-SYzv-Q
tyleo wrote 4 hours 23 min ago:
Thatâs a rad technique. Thanks for sharing.
butlike wrote 7 hours 41 min ago:
Between yours and the parent comment, I'm just surprised how
LONG splitting wood takes. A year for a season's wood feels
much longer than I would have imagined.
bregma wrote 2 hours 18 min ago:
My experience is it takes 100 hours to buck, split, haul, and
stack the 7 or so cords of wood it takes to heat my house. A
cord is 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet. The total time includes
time it takes to sharpen the saw, and time it takes for trips
to the gas station for gas for the saw and the splitter. Time
for replacing the handle on the maul or the oil in the
splitter is extra.
But that 100 hours is using a hydraulic splitter.
Hand-splitting using a maul takes several hours longer. But
it keeps you twice as warm: it heats you once when you split
it and once when you burn it.
LtdJorge wrote 6 hours 38 min ago:
I donât know. Each year, my dad and I bring the chainsaw
before November, fall some dead pines and cut them into logs.
We either split them into firewood that evening or the next
day. Thatâs enough for around 3 months of winter (center of
Spain, cold, but almost never below 0C and never snows).
We donât split the, into very small pieces, some logs we
donât even split as they fit into the fireplace in one
piece. We donât look for the highest girth, but for
whatâs more practical, yearly fires kill enough trees for
that.
bregma wrote 2 hours 15 min ago:
I live in Canada, winter is 6 months and we get a few weeks
below -30 and deep snow November through March. It's a
different story.
helterskelter wrote 13 hours 26 min ago:
You can also score the ends of the rounds with your saw about an
inch deep, laid out radially like you're cutting a pizza, then
work your wedges in.
smackeyacky wrote 20 hours 59 min ago:
My grandfather was like this, and not with soft wood. We try to
burn Australian hardwoods and that takes quite a bit of force to
split. He could pound through it like a knife through butter.
Thereâs a definite art to hardwood, looking where the slightest
fault might be. You canât just smash it in the middle, your
block splitter (preferred) or axe just bounces off it.
NuclearPM wrote 20 hours 49 min ago:
Try to burn hardwoods? What does that mean?
_carbyau_ wrote 20 hours 18 min ago:
As a fellow australian but now former wood chopper: "Try"
should be "prefer".
IE when you get a load of firewood for the winter, you want it
to be hardwood. The person you buy the wood from may mix in
softwood depending on their trustworthiness...
Why prefer hardwood? Hardwood density means it will burn for
ages. So you have to mess with the fire less and it'll still
have at least hot coals in the morning if you put a log on
before bed.
defrost wrote 18 hours 26 min ago:
Jarrah, one of the hardest of the hard woods burns hot and
long and (well ventilated) leaves almost no ash behind.
If you want hot coals in the morning, throw in a log or two
of river gum / softer ashy woods before bedtime and the
Jarrah coals will not burn out and disappear while the house
sleeps but get buried in ash and stay hot but smothered.
Stir and throw in light kindling at dawn and it'll be roaring
by the time you get back to the house for breakfast.
smackeyacky wrote 20 hours 26 min ago:
Itâs wood. You put it in your fireplace and set fire to it
for heat
bregma wrote 10 hours 1 min ago:
Ah, sweet summer child.
When the days you have to break the ice on the dog's water
bowl in the morning come, you will quickly learn what kinds
of wood there are and what you want to burn for heat.
For example, if you choose a lot of paper birch (it splits
easily, lights easily, and smells nice while burning) you
will quickly get to know all the local firefighters after all
your chimney fires.
tclancy wrote 21 hours 29 min ago:
Highly recommend [1] while cautioning that she seems to be
genetically engineered to split wood. Her technique is like
watching an Olympic athlete. No wasted motion at all, all energy
delivered to the maul straight down. Sheâs a muse.
HTML [1]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC872sqjMNC8kHU0GU0ShZFw
dotancohen wrote 14 hours 35 min ago:
She's got a video where she explains in detail how to chop. She
goes through everything from stance - including protecting the
shins - to axe technique. Absolutely terrific - I feel a strained
shoulder just watching the videos.
altairprime wrote 4 hours 34 min ago:
HTML [1]: https://youtu.be/CQmom_0R1Wk
tomcam wrote 20 hours 16 min ago:
Wow! Great link. Iâm better than average but⦠yeah, Iâd
upgrade her to goddess. Sheâll just carve a new axe handle when
she feels like it. Truly humbling.
cpncrunch wrote 23 hours 32 min ago:
It's a combination of technique and the type of wood. Even with
perfect technique, some wood is simply too hard to split. I've got
the bottom 5 or 6 rounds of a bigleaf maple sitting in my yard that
I simply can't make a dent in. You're welcome to take it if you can
split it :)
jimnotgym wrote 15 hours 21 min ago:
If it didn't require flights, I'd bring my maul and wedges and
take on your challenge.
Big rounds are the most fun.
Merad wrote 16 hours 8 min ago:
Are you trying to split it with an axe? You need a sledgehammer
and a few splitting wedges. The sledge lets you apply a lot more
force than an axe and striking the wedge focuses that force onto
a small area. The first wedge will open a crack, then you use
additional wedges to expand that crack until she splits.
Source: grew up in a wood burning family, helped split many
stubborn hardwood trees (all by hand).
butlike wrote 7 hours 39 min ago:
The dude in the comments above suggested a maul, which seems
nice (kinda like an axe and a sledge built into one tool)
HeyLaughingBoy wrote 1 hour 19 min ago:
A wedge is still useful with a maul. Sometimes to split a
large-diameter log, you'll want to start a split and insert
the wedge to open it, then you continue the split with the
maul. It's helpful if you have timber that doesn't have a
straight grain and doesn't want to split open.
helterskelter wrote 22 hours 49 min ago:
If it came from the base of the tree the wood grain will probably
be squirrelly and practically unsplittable. Get a chainsaw or
hydraulic woodsplitter, or throw them in a bonfire.
Alternatively, use them in a woodworking project or innoculate
them with your favorite mushroom spores.
bregma wrote 9 hours 59 min ago:
I got some burly maple ends that even my 22-ton hydraulic
splitter can't handle. Toss 'em into the woods, let nature take
care of 'em.
cpncrunch wrote 20 hours 38 min ago:
Well they're about 4ft diameter and not really even possible to
move. My electric chainsaw would just burn up trying to cut
them, and the cost of a hydraulic woodsplitter wouldn't be
cost-effective.
Current plan is just to leave them there until either they
start drying/rotting enough to split, or I find someone who
wants to take them off my hands.
grantmuller wrote 22 hours 5 min ago:
These are also good for those "Swedish logs" where you drill a
hole in the top and the side, and then cut grooves with a hand
saw in the top and make a fire right on top.
Theodores wrote 1 day ago:
In former times you had to serve a twelve year apprenticeship
before you could be trusted to split wood for barrels, you can do a
PhD in rocket science in less time.
warumdarum wrote 1 day ago:
I miss the part where the axe gets stuck and you hsve tovturn it
over. I found it well made and deeply satisfying
helterskelter wrote 1 day ago:
> I miss the part where the axe gets stuck and you hsve tovturn it
over.
Hit it around the edges, like taking a chord from the edge of a
circle, and try to use the top half of the bit to do cutting. Good
ax technique depends on accuracy, on top of which you can slowly
add strength as your accuracy improves. If there's a crack in the
end of a round, you should be able to put the bit of the ax
directly into it, which will normally split it wide open without
much effort. Different species of wood have different
characteristics though, so terms and conditions apply.
JodieBenitez wrote 1 day ago:
> If you split it perfectly, the two halves will almost certainly
both fall to each side
Just put it in a old small tire :)
apercu wrote 1 day ago:
I only like splitting perfectly seasoned wood ( I do about a face
cord every summer/fall). Otherwise itâs just too much work. Got any
tips in to tooling? I use a maul.
tclancy wrote 21 hours 32 min ago:
I have a couple diamond/ grenade wedges, a rescue wedge and a
traditional wedge I barely ever use. I have the big Fiskars maul
and that is great for a lot of stuff. Bigger things, whole rounds I
use two wedges near each other and hit them in concert with the
sledge side of the maul.
Most wood is easier to split when dry/ aged, but I recently learned
that does not apply to elm and a few others, so itâs worth
checking. Elm is awful no matter what.
greenbit wrote 20 hours 51 min ago:
Elm is awful even at burning. Cold, smoky stuff.
rebuilder wrote 1 day ago:
In my experience, fresh wood splits much easier. I prefer a big
splitting axe. But mostly the wood I use isnât terribly gnarled
or wide.
scottcorgan wrote 1 day ago:
this is the most hacker news comment possible
chamomeal wrote 19 hours 24 min ago:
So many of the top comments look like parodies of HN comments
adamddev1 wrote 1 day ago:
Delightful little experience. Very nice. What would be even cooler
would be if the axe only went partway down sometimes and then you have
to lift the log up with the axe inside a couple of times to finish it
off with that satisfying full split.
anon1094 wrote 1 day ago:
It's all very satisfying: the animations, the chopping, the graphics,
and the sounds. I spent more time than I should have chopping splitting
firewood.
kwdev wrote 1 day ago:
Can I have a "Carry Water Simulator" to go with it?
ptman wrote 1 day ago:
Looks like a Fiskars axe
HTML [1]: https://www.fiskars.com/en-us/collections/axes-and-wood-prepar...
supertroop wrote 1 day ago:
Thankfully there are no knots and it is softwood. Oddly satisfying.
basedbertram wrote 1 day ago:
Fun experience, but the forced rotation after a certain number of cuts
diminishes it.
kiriberty wrote 1 day ago:
But why?
Aboutplants wrote 1 day ago:
Because
troyvit wrote 1 day ago:
There was this old Piers Anthony short story about a little kid who
likes playing with his dad's wood-splitting kit. He's a little kid so
he doesn't handle an axe, but he does use adzes, hatchets, I dunno
stuff I don't remember now[1]. Anyway he gets kidnapped by aliens and
gets to join a great intergalactic wood-splitting competition. I won't
ruin it but maybe if you get really good at this simulation you could
be next.
HTML [1]: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?46184
conception wrote 1 day ago:
Haha this is also the plot of The Last Starfighter but with video
games. I wonder if the screenwriter was familiar with it.
jcims wrote 1 day ago:
Damn I loved that movie!
wartywhoa23 wrote 1 day ago:
This is HN I'd like to see more of.
Mocking too nerdy gripes on "simulator" accuracy, sharing some real
world experience with physical things beyond the screen frames, and on
in the same vein.
A breath of fresh air, really, in the prevailing AI smog.
tylerrobinson wrote 1 day ago:
FWIW, the creatorâs Insta post for this thing says #vibecoding
@shapiro500
No shade if so, I think itâs an awesome little toy.
underdeserver wrote 1 day ago:
I don't think I could have vibe coded that.
At the very least, he photographed and built models of logs and his
own yard.
jenniferhooley wrote 1 day ago:
I do a lot of game stuff (professionally and just for fun) and
play around with maxing out vibeing little feature samples.
This would be fairly straightforward vibecode over a day or two.
Definitely not to throw shade at the guy. But yea, there is
nothing here that wouldn't be easily vibeable.
underdeserver wrote 15 hours 18 min ago:
My point is that it's easily vibeable for you, because you do
game stuff.
I don't - I did large scale web, embedded, data, and security,
but no graphics or games. I wouldn't know where to begin.
mrguyorama wrote 4 hours 18 min ago:
Remaking this exact game on your engine of choice would
actually be a great starter project. It's extremely small and
self contained, very little actual interaction, simple models
and whatever textures you can make or steal.
gaudystead wrote 23 hours 32 min ago:
Minimum Vibeable Product
lukan wrote 1 day ago:
"in the prevailing AI smog"
How do you know AI was not used in the making of this?
(personally I don't care, the result seems nice to me)
wartywhoa23 wrote 1 day ago:
This I don't know, but at least the topic is not related!
jeron wrote 1 day ago:
only a small subset of the HN front page is AI related lol
encom wrote 1 day ago:
What bizarro world HN are you reading? I'd like the link,
please.
wiml wrote 1 day ago:
Looking at the front page right now, only about 8 out of 30
are about AI.
jfengel wrote 8 hours 35 min ago:
Only?
davidee wrote 1 day ago:
Missing the splitting axe getting a little jammed at a knot.
Otherwise excellent.
makach wrote 1 day ago:
I spent too much time on this.
mac3n wrote 1 day ago:
Nothing beats coming home from work, chopping something into pieces,
and setting it on fire.
KillerRAK wrote 1 day ago:
good exercise!
adm4 wrote 1 day ago:
great game and very satisfying.
bicx wrote 1 day ago:
People here seem a little confused. This is a simulator in the same way
Goat Simulator is a simulator. Itâs from a collection called
âscreen toysâ and itâs meant to be mindless fun.
frollogaston wrote 5 hours 16 min ago:
All those virtual desk toys in the Mac OS X Tiger Dashboard. You had
to be there.
pranavm27 wrote 1 day ago:
And this is HN, its acting as its meant to xD
binoct wrote 1 day ago:
Here here. This was a joy to wake up to and wish I hadnât stumbled
into the comments.
sowbug wrote 23 hours 57 min ago:
Then you're really going to love this.
The proper term is a shortened form of "hear him, hear him," which
was necessary because British Parliament didn't allow clapping or
cheering. Instead, if you wanted to show agreement with a speaker's
point, you'd shout out that everyone else should "hear" him.
Not to be confused with "hear ye," which evolved from the French
"oyez," which is the imperative form of "to listen," which was
shouted at a crowd before an important announcement.
binoct wrote 20 hours 40 min ago:
Thanks, that was interesting to learn, Iâd never thought about
how odd the phrase sounds as-is.
Thereâs a fascinating complexity to what constitutes
constructive feedback, criticism, or dismissal. And to when
itâs okay to provide one, the other, or none at all.
numlock86 wrote 15 hours 1 min ago:
France is bacon.
Timwi wrote 23 hours 59 min ago:
For future reference, the phrase is âhear, hearâ.
thih9 wrote 13 hours 59 min ago:
There, there. ;)
jfengel wrote 8 hours 36 min ago:
Yeah, yeah.
1e1a wrote 1 day ago:
This is fun and looks amazing, however there seems to be quite a bit of
texture in the out of focus blur. There's also a lot of aliasing on the
grass. Also, I think the camera shake could do with a very slight delay
after the axe hits, and maybe a slightly slower decay curve.
cinntaile wrote 1 day ago:
It bothers me that I can split a log in 3 parallel pieces, rotate 90
degrees and then magically can split the middle piece. That's
physically difficult!
Besides that it was fun.
MatthiasWandel wrote 1 day ago:
Looks like its coded by someone who has never split firewood.
The challenge is not deciding where to split, its executing the split.
Like hitting the same gap if it doesn't split, deciding orientation to
aoid knots, figuring out how to put it on end if it wasn't cut
straight.
And some of the cuts it allowed me would hit the ax handle on another
part, the shock from that damages the ax handle and is painful on the
hands.
And then there's the lifting the stuck block by the axe and hitting it
axe side down to finish the split instead of pulling the stuck axe out.
So the simulation handles none of the challenges of splitting wood.
hasgarion2600 wrote 15 hours 41 min ago:
And the domain expert has build how many playable wood splitting
games?
greenbit wrote 20 hours 41 min ago:
Well, what about when you get into a piece of apple wood, and as soon
as you hit it, carpenter ants boil out of it, all over your chopping
block, up the handle of your axe, and you don't even realize 3 or 4
of them got up your pant-legs until suddenly your shins feel like
they've been hit with white phosphorous rounds?
That would be pretty hard to simulate. Guess they had to stop
somewhere
InsideOutSanta wrote 1 day ago:
I can't tell if this is a parody of HN comments or a serious response
to a little toy app.
alamortsubite wrote 1 day ago:
It's perfect because the kind of people who will enjoy it shouldn't
be allowed near an axe, anyway.
As someone with a wood stove, for my first few chops I rotated the
log to orient the checking. Then it dawned on me that the simulation
likely wasn't that sophisticated, and I came here to meet up with you
guys.
Daub wrote 1 day ago:
Experienced wood splitter here. All your points are valid. I had to
ruin one perfectly good axe handle before I learned how to swing.
However, the sim is still a lot of fun.
embedding-shape wrote 1 day ago:
> I had to ruin one perfectly good axe handle before I learned how
to swing.
Is it really that difficult? Maybe my memory is vague, but chopping
wood in autumn/fall for the winter just took a bunch of time, and
wasn't very fun, but wasn't that bad, especially compared to other
things like harvesting veggies stuff where you have to be on the
ground. I'm not sure how you'd manage to ruin a axe handle before
understanding how to do it well-enough, takes a couple of swings at
max.
AngryData wrote 18 hours 38 min ago:
I think it very much depends on the wood too, the species and how
seasoned it is and how dry it is. Some chunks you can hit it
almost anywhere and it will cleave across the entire block, but
other woods you will hit a half inch in from the edge of the bark
and the board will split under the blade and let it through, but
leave a half inch near the edge unsplit that the axe handle hits
with full force. Do it enough times and the front edge of the
handle can get messed up.
Sometimes you will see wire or something else wrapped up near the
top of the handle for that reason to help protect it a bit. But
if you get enough practice you can reliably hit with the bottom
half or quarter of the axe sticking out of the log so that can't
happen.
Daub wrote 22 hours 24 min ago:
My experience was a year spent working as a forester. One of our
duties was to keep the wood burning stoves supplied. I remember
learning that ash got its name from the fact that it burned so
well, and willow left perfect charcoal.
As for the axe handle⦠I was told off by my boss for mashing up
the handle by my constant missing. Even now, I am the same with
hammers and nails - not nearly as sure with my aim as I should
be. On the plus side That was also the time I learned how to
replace an axe handle. also the time that
oniony wrote 11 hours 32 min ago:
The suspense is killing me.
david422 wrote 1 day ago:
Depends on the wood. Perfectly dry, seasoned hardwood is going to
be easy. Wood with knots, soft wood etc. is going to take a while
to figure out.
JackFr wrote 1 day ago:
I spent a summer chopping a whole bunch of wood with a steel
handled 10 lb maul. Many was the evening where my hand was numb
until the morning, but by the end of the summer my shoulders were
ripped.
You quickly learn the differences between locust, pine, maple,
oak or, god forbid, cherry.
AngryData wrote 18 hours 32 min ago:
I see a lot of people that split infrequently use mauls. But
personally I think an axe works better once you get a bit of
practice. The trick with the axe a lot of people miss at first
is to focus on the swing speed, and not as much as delivering
force and mass behind the blow. Some species the maul can work
better, but 90% of the time I feel like an axe is just a bit
less effort and a bit quicker.
greenbit wrote 20 hours 37 min ago:
Could add beech, yellow birch, black locust to that god-forbid
list
Enginerrrd wrote 1 day ago:
Splitting Eucalyptus and big madrone by hand will test a man.
coderenegade wrote 18 hours 24 min ago:
I have a few black wattle rounds that have been sitting
around for years. I have a go at them whenever I feel like I
need to be humbled. There's also a fallen tree at the bottom
of our property that blunts chainsaws. It's been there for
years and nothing seems to eat it. I harvest what I can from
it, and a good sized chunk will burn through the night.
MatthiasWandel wrote 1 day ago:
I once took a sledgehammer to work so everyone could take a turn
taking a whack at some old prototypes outside. I came to the sad
realization that even hitting a particular spot with a
sledgehammer is not an inate skill. If you've never done it, you
miss!
lbreakjai wrote 23 hours 36 min ago:
I've seen people miss the tractor wheel with a hammer at my
gym. I didn't even know if was physically possible.
aqrit wrote 1 day ago:
>Is it really that difficult?
Fiberglass handles are now standard on splitting mauls (for this
reason).
Rotten hearts, or driving wedges. It is easy to miss a swing by
an inch or two when fatigued.
Edit: I also broke my first axe handle. The sibling comments here
are wild.
lstodd wrote 1 day ago:
Yeah, tell me about fiberglass. It slips out too. And that was
Fiskars, not some noname crap.
When it does, you put it back and hammer some big screws and
nails into it, this way it holds some more time.
roarcher wrote 1 day ago:
Same. I've only done it a couple times but it takes minutes to
learn and you just get into a rhythm and keep going. It's like
peeling potatoes.
I wonder if there's a name for the psychological phenomenon of
people doing some trivial blue-collar-ish task and then
dramatizing it to make themselves sound like a grizzled old hand.
notduncansmith wrote 1 day ago:
Have heard this called blue-washing (eg Mike Rowe) when done
publicly
mikestew wrote 1 day ago:
Is it really that difficult?
Itâs not, 12 year olds can do it. Ruining an axe handle is not
a requirement. Iâm not saying humans are born knowing how to
swing an axe, but câmon.
MatthiasWandel wrote 1 day ago:
A 12 year old can indeed acquire that skill, but that doesn't
mean any adult can do it.
roarcher wrote 1 day ago:
Some adults indeed can't do it, but that doesn't mean it's
difficult.
And it is certainly not "wear out a whole axe handle just to
learn to swing" difficult.
jonners00 wrote 12 hours 55 min ago:
There's a huge difference between say, weilding a hatchet
on a camping trip, and trying to get the hang of a
splitting axe, with a 3ft or longer handle, when you're a
kid. Getting a long, sweeping arc that comes down in the
right spot isn't easy and if the axe head's centrifugal
force pulls it away from you, you clunk the handle down on
the wood. I definitely recall my hands ringing and numb
from those kinds of impact. I don't remember ruining a
handle, but if it had been my chore, I think I could've
come close.
roarcher wrote 5 hours 0 min ago:
> There's a huge difference between say, weilding a
hatchet on a camping trip, and trying to get the hang of
a splitting axe, with a 3ft or longer handle, when you're
a kid.
So not difficult for an adult, like I said.
mauvehaus wrote 1 day ago:
You don't wear it out. You land the head long of your aim
point, and splinter the handle on whatever you were trying
to hit. It's certainly not hard to ruin a handle if you're
learning to swing a sledge by driving steel splitting
wedges.
sgarrity wrote 1 day ago:
I might print out this quote and put it on my wall! :-)
"Looks like its coded by someone who has never split firewood. "
mikestew wrote 1 day ago:
Man, donât ever play Goat Simulator, then. Youâll be all day
typing a wall of text about that.
raincole wrote 1 day ago:
FYI Tree Simulator is coded by someone who has never been a tree too.
bot403 wrote 1 day ago:
Oh you guys are all gonna hate Sim Ant.
the_af wrote 1 day ago:
I had a lot of fun with Sim Ant... but mostly playing as the
spider :D
(I'm talking about the classic, not sure if there's a remake).
JKCalhoun wrote 1 day ago:
"So the simulation handles none of the challenges of splitting wood."
Ha ha, that's why we like it.
idiotsecant wrote 1 day ago:
I don't know if you know this or not, but this is a game.
PufPufPuf wrote 1 day ago:
The "beer drinking simulator" we all had on our phones in 2010 wasn't
a very accurate representation of drinking beer either
andix wrote 1 day ago:
It's obviously not an accurate simulation. I'm sure the creator knows
it isn't. Probably the best they could come up with in limited time.
nik282000 wrote 1 day ago:
I am shocked that tapping a touchscreen is nothing like splitting
wood with an axe.
adamredwoods wrote 17 hours 40 min ago:
I'm exhausted by all this tapping! Who knew cutting firewood was
such hard work!
/s
bsiverly wrote 1 day ago:
I swear this forum needs to embrace their inner child more some days.
My four year old loved this.
Well executed fun.
derbOac wrote 23 hours 13 min ago:
I love it also, but I think the comments are pointing to an unmet
need for firewood splitting simulators.
The comments are suggesting that someone could go to town adding
different kinds of hatchets, mauls, axes, woods, and different
swings, and people would eat it up.
micromacrofoot wrote 23 hours 19 min ago:
to be fair this wasn't being shared to a site filled with four year
olds
stavros wrote 23 hours 12 min ago:
My inner four year old loved this.
goosejuice wrote 1 day ago:
Both can be true. It's cool and fun but simulation is a well
defined term.
Jgrubb wrote 1 day ago:
Yes, but obviously this toy faces a challenge when folks who take
this stuff seriously walk by. I immediately want a bungee to put
around it so the wood doesn't go everywhere. I also want to split
it finer than in quarters. Had to nope out.
furyofantares wrote 1 day ago:
I think it might be more that folks who take this stuff seriously
face a challenge when someone makes a toy about it.
I believe the toy is indifferent to your inability to enjoy it.
bsiverly wrote 1 day ago:
Seems like you know what you want to go build. Canât wait to
see your version on HN soon :)
Jgrubb wrote 1 day ago:
I have too much actual wood to split but I like where you're
head is at.
kubasienki wrote 1 day ago:
Very infuriating, why does it rotate when i want to split it thinner
traceroute66 wrote 1 day ago:
Fun but hugely unrealistic simulation, so many "bugs":
- Able to split log into unrealistically thin slices and they
remain perfectly upright
- Split a log into two, rotate 90 degrees, and by some miracle you
can split the half further away from you whilst the piece nearest to
you doesn't get hit or move an inch
etc.
blueaquilae wrote 1 day ago:
You don't understand don't you?
Icons8 wrote 1 day ago:
That was a satisfying part of my day. Thank you.
ETH_start wrote 1 day ago:
Quite realistic. Could be more realistic still if you could chop two
blocks at once.
mehtablr wrote 1 day ago:
Its same as dbdiagram, what's new in this?
relevant_stats wrote 1 day ago:
You've confused the threads:
HTML [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48523992
yardshop wrote 1 day ago:
The pieces look like they retain the shapes I cut them in when stacked.
I started cutting them as pie slices, but then tried a few as parallel
chops, and they get stacked in those shapes.
Also interesting is the shadows of leaves that stay consistent on the
scene as the pile grows, but they don't appear on the splitting area
itself.
Lots of engine noise too, I guess that's the ambience in this person's
back yard! Probably true for lots of us.
greenbit wrote 20 hours 23 min ago:
After the first cord or two, the ground around the block should be
covered in chips and splinters. That might be easy to add to the sim.
Otoh, it's a fun little sim as is.
MBCook wrote 1 day ago:
This works amazingly well on my iPhone with obvious touch controls.
Very impressive.
comrade1234 wrote 1 day ago:
Half the battle is having the right stance so that you don't
accidentally embed the axe in your shin.
coderenegade wrote 18 hours 13 min ago:
I'm honestly having a hard time visualizing the technique some of you
guys seem to be using.
oh_my_goodness wrote 1 day ago:
I'm ok that they left that part out.
hagbard_c wrote 1 day ago:
Nice sim, there's one thing missing though: splitting two sections at
the same time. It do this all the time as it can almost double
splitting speed when dealing with mid-size logs. Split the log in two
halves, making sure to keep the halves close together. Rotate around
the splitting block by about 60°, split again hitting both halves at
the same time. Do this once more and you've split the log into 6 60°
sections, a good size for stacking in the fireplace and also a good
section size to be able to light a fire. I split between 5 m³ and 7
m³ of firewood per year which is enough to heat our house and cook our
food, have been doing this for about 20 years now so I have some
experience. The double-split is a good time saver.
wartywhoa23 wrote 1 day ago:
I'd upvote you twice for your nickname alone, if I could! All hail
Eris! :)
cody_ellingham wrote 1 day ago:
Chop wood, carry water.
sklargh wrote 1 day ago:
If this triggers your interest in IRL firewood splitting itâs a very
meditative and satisfying yard job. Also great mild to moderate workout
between the splitting and stacking, especially on a crisp Fall
afternoon.
1dontnkow_ wrote 1 day ago:
This reminded me when we I was a kid we had to split the wood for the
whole winter and that was actually a huge job all day or few days and
way harder than just a moderate workout.
I hated it then but actually now I miss the time I spend with my
father and brother.
AngryData wrote 18 hours 30 min ago:
I absolutely hated it as a kid, but once I got into my late 20s I
started loving it. A great workout and you can go at your own pace
as long as you don't wait until the last minute to get it done.
Loughla wrote 1 day ago:
I hated cutting wood, stacking wood, splitting wood, all of it. We
ran a potbelly stove in the living room when I was a kid for heat.
I hated the stove too.
The only thing I don't miss is rolling a piece of piss elm over to
my city living "tough" cousins after two or three pieces of oak and
watching the maul just bounce off. Always funny.
nickstinemates wrote 1 day ago:
Taking a few minutes out of the day to to split some logs to hear
your house for your family feels incredibly rewarding and satisfying.
astura wrote 1 day ago:
Don't listen to this noise; it fucking sucks, it's kinda dangerous,
and it's not at all meditative. It's the exact opposite of
meditative. My parents made me do it because they certainly didn't
want to, because it sucks. I'm so glad I don't have to split firewood
ever again.
If you're looking for a meditative exercise try yoga.
AaronAPU wrote 1 day ago:
You sound like my father when someone mentions green beans
klibertp wrote 1 day ago:
Well, it's the kind of "meditative" you get when training martial
arts forms. It gets good after a few years of preparation; before
that, it's not as fun as spars and way less useful than general
conditioning.
Coming from a kendo background, when I had to chop firewood for a
few years while living in the countryside, I generally focused on
accuracy. The swing is completely different than with a sword, and
getting the chop to land at the exact spot (I drew lines with a
marker) tens of times in a row was very satisfying, but required a
lot of conscious effort to get there. It's not trivial to land a
chop at the exact spot you want, and it's also quite hard to ensure
the axe travels at its fastest exactly at the moment of impact.
It can be fun, but you need to be into things like that in the
first place; plus, having to do it no matter the weather and all
the other things you need to do can kill all the joy instantly.
bee_rider wrote 1 day ago:
Itâs also astonishing how much wood needs to be split, to heat
even a moderately sized house. Depends on the climate though, I
guess.
dredmorbius wrote 1 day ago:
And the fireplace / stove.
Most open-hearth fireplaces are tremendously inefficient, not
only sending most of the heat up the chimney, but drawing in
additional cold air in doing so.
A masonry stove with an external air draw should be far more
efficient, and burn much more cleanly to boot. The pollution
factor from woodstoves is another major consideration, and means
wood-burning is limited in many areas.
dylan604 wrote 1 day ago:
My dad and his father built the house my family grew up in. The
fireplace had two vents on either side of the fire box that
drew air from the floor and vented near the ceiling. The
ceiling fans in the room would circulate the air in the room.
It was the only place I've spent time that a fireplace actually
was useful.
bluGill wrote 23 hours 44 min ago:
When those work well they're fine but be very careful. It's
not uncommon of for smoke to go out what you think is the in
intake and often those aren't correctly built as a chimney
and so you can burn your house down.
dylan604 wrote 20 hours 20 min ago:
Knowing how ours were built, I don't even know what you
describe could happen. The intake vents are on the floor
with a standard height raised hearth (12"???) while the
exit vents are about 6' off the floor. Not really sure how
smoke is any where near the intake. The smoke is contained
within the chimney. I'm at a loss at how to design
something so poorly that the smoke is near any vents. Then
again, I've grown up around construction, so maybe that
knowledge is preventing me from thinking dumb???
bluGill wrote 8 hours 18 min ago:
Maybe I misunderstand your description. I'm referring to
the fresh air inlet for the fire, not additional HVAC
pipes. It is common for attempts to put a fresh air
inlet in a fireplace to instead have smoke go out that
fresh air inlet.
dredmorbius wrote 2 hours 54 min ago:
My understanding is that the venting dylan604 is
describing relate to airflow around the firebox /
chimney, rather than in or out of the firebox.
An incorrectly-placed firebox intake, or even a
poorly-drafting open-hearth fireplace, can indeed dump
smoke (and carbon monoxide) into the living / heated
space.
PyWoody wrote 1 day ago:
If you're chopping wood in the Fall, I sure hope it's for next year's
winter.
codemonkey-zeta wrote 1 day ago:
Nope, splitting green wood is much more difficult than splitting
dried logs, so I often cut a tree in the spring, stack the rounds,
then split those rounds in the fall.
People overestimate how dry wood needs to be to burn correctly.
Just have some ultra-dry kindling (seasoned for 2+ years) and you
won't have any problems.
On the contrary, I know some folks who let all their wood dry too
far, and it burned way too hot and ruined their stove (and almost
burned their house down).
PyWoody wrote 1 day ago:
Yikes. I hope you got your chimney swept annually.
Seasoned firewood will burn cleaner, longer, and more
efficiently.
cluckindan wrote 1 day ago:
Itâs an equation. If you have dry firewood, you need less of it
at once. Some folks donât understand that.
More water in the wood means less efficient combustion, more
smoke and harsher smoke, which may irritate your neighbors
downwind, or everyone around on still days.
greenbit wrote 20 hours 30 min ago:
Not to mention a cooler stack temperature and the increased
creosote condensation that brings.
Or that it's just pain heavier to lug into the house.
dylan604 wrote 1 day ago:
Something every pit master learns along the way. People can
tell you, you can read about it, but until you actually try
using wood of different dryness, they are just words.
delichon wrote 1 day ago:
I have a lot of splitting to do right now, and you're welcome to it.
I'll only charge a low nominal fee. But let me know before September,
because that's when I usually go rent a hydraulic splitter from the
local hardware store. Then I spend a very long day splitting so that
I can return it the next day.
I've spent a lot of time splitting with a big maul, but for me it's
harder that it looks. I've broken two mauls by striking to far. And
even with "soft" wood, I have stacks of green rounds that I couldn't
split at all, the maul just bounces off. But I'm glad that you enjoy
the process, I'd probably enjoy watching you work.
adm4 wrote 1 day ago:
as camping is to "glamping," splitting wood is to "sprinkle wood?"
bee_rider wrote 1 day ago:
If the hydraulic splitter could be electric, so it would not be so
loud, I could see that task being meditative. Preferably if the
rounds could on a raised platform, so they could just be rolled
onto the thing.
Next request, the wood could stack itself somehow.
mauvehaus wrote 1 day ago:
Vertical splitters are better since the splitter comes down to
ground level where your rounds already are. Much less lifting.
I'm not super quick with a maul, but I can pretty easily keep up
with the hydraulic splitter I've used. The hydraulic splitter is
nice for the ones that have really gnarly, interlocked grain.
bluGill wrote 1 day ago:
Until you get a log so tough, it just stalls up when you draw a
splitter. Happened more than once. Usually the log is stuck so
far in the wedge you can't get it off either.
mauvehaus wrote 7 hours 58 min ago:
Yikes. That sounds like the kind of lesson one tries to learn
secondhand, or at most once. Like the time I stalled out a
tow-behind wood chipper (the kind tree services use).
It was a smaller one, and the process for getting the log out
involved taking the jack off the trailer tongue and hooking
it up to the feed roller springs assembly to spread the
rollers far enough to pull the log out.
bluGill wrote 7 hours 23 min ago:
When I was a kid Dutch Elm disease was killing all the elm
trees around me so that is what everyone was heating with.
An elm log that is just large enough you need to split it
can stall out a wood splitter (not every time, but you will
get several in a day of splitting). When splitting by hand
it is common to have the handle of the maul sticking out of
the log and you can't see it from the top where it went in,
you just keep beating it hoping it eventually goes.
Then we got a large oak tree once, logs you couldn't even
life split clean when you barely did more than blow on
them.
crimsonnoodle58 wrote 1 day ago:
Good workout and satisfying, I totally agree. I actually really enjoy
it.
But the long term effects on your joints, even if you think you have
perfect technique, its better to just get a wood splitter. We can do
a whole winters wood in less than a day now, with minimal effort.
MatthiasWandel wrote 1 day ago:
Gotta agree with you there, log splitters rule. We got a little 4
ton electric one for my mom, and on some pieces it would stall. I
thought, what a wimpy thing, but then hitting those pieces it
wouldn't split with an axe, I realized, those were really hard to
split pieces.
Just growing up in the 80s we didn't have one cause my dad didn't
believe in them.
nZac wrote 1 day ago:
This simulates a person far more skilled than me.
I never had to adjust the chunk to get it to sit right, the maul hit
exactly where I told it to, and it even stacked itself!
bluGill wrote 1 day ago:
Never had the maul get stuck in the wood. Never had the wood fly off
the splitting stump.
oh_my_goodness wrote 1 day ago:
It does fly off sometimes in the game.
bluGill wrote 1 day ago:
I didn't see that but I only did a couple before deciding this
reminds me too much of work.
Waterluvian wrote 1 day ago:
I need a fireplace or bonfire simulator that I can throw these into.
bot403 wrote 1 day ago:
There's a ton of non-interactive fireplace simulators on Netflix and
YouTube. Especially around Christmas.
olalonde wrote 1 day ago:
Honestly I'm more fascinated by the grass around, but I haven't played
games in a long time.
ab_goat wrote 1 day ago:
What about when youâre splitting a log with a branch and the maul
bounces straight back up? Lol
neogodless wrote 1 day ago:
Yeah this needs pieces with knots, and having to swing at least 3
times before the initial split works. Very unrealistic, 3/10. Need
some wedge + sledgehammer modes.
Also how do I simulate my shoulder and lower back hurting?
bot403 wrote 1 day ago:
I think if you sit and play it for 10 hours your lower back will
hurt too. It just takes longer.
bee_rider wrote 1 day ago:
With your additions, it probably could be a really neat mini game
to have in a survival-crafting game... Game, so, it doesnât have
to be perfect.
But the axe could wobble a bit, depending on some combination of
chopping skill and how tired your guy is (simulating shoulder pain
and lower back pain). Number of hits required depends on character
strength and how straight on the hits are.
Iâm not sure how the game would track the pieces of various
sizes, though. I guess this would just be for firewood (building
wood might have to be handled separately) so maybe it would be fine
to just calculate the volume of each slice and have it provide fuel
based on thatâ¦
jojobas wrote 1 day ago:
You'll like Spintires.
KronisLV wrote 1 day ago:
And MudRunner and SnowRunner as well! Great games (in a sometimes
frustrating way).
ab_goat wrote 1 day ago:
Beautiful sim. Looks like red oak. As someone who has split a lot of
wood, wish it could incorporate more of the struggles of splitting
logs.
- missing your spot by 6â or more and creating a tiny shard that
goes flying
- the log youâre aiming at falling as you are in your backswing
- getting your maul stuck halfway down the split
andwur wrote 1 day ago:
Could do with a difficulty setting that includes when you inherit
someone else's log pile, someone who really enjoyed making every
cut on a new and more inventive angle than the last.
Normally a wedge is used to split the wood, but it also doubles as
a wedge to be wedged underneath just so you can get the log to
stand up.
Also, Y sections (ycombinator mode?). 40 hits later and you might
have a nice pile of woodchips, very rarely will it actually split
in any clean way.
blackdogie wrote 1 day ago:
That was a fun work out. I was wondering what happened when you
"filled" the circle of firewood.
ralfd wrote 1 day ago:
What happens?
kevmo314 wrote 1 day ago:
It starts stacking a second circle
oytis wrote 1 day ago:
Does it ever end though?
dehugger wrote 1 hour 33 min ago:
Not that I've found, and I am up to my fifth row of wood now.
cluckindan wrote 1 day ago:
No, and thatâs what makes it a proper simulator.
alansaber wrote 1 day ago:
The momentum on the camera spin is very annoying. Really cool though
tharkun__ wrote 1 day ago:
That and the fact that you can rotate w/ left click as well. Turns
out I naturally drag the mouse a little. So having rotate on right
click only would be way less annoying, especially when combined with
the momentum.
albumen wrote 1 day ago:
But then it wouldnât work on a touchscreen, and it wouldnât go
viral.
daakni wrote 1 day ago:
Feels very satisfying
horticulturist wrote 1 day ago:
Oddly fun, though could use a little more variety, maybe with knots,
etc.
stevenalowe wrote 5 days ago:
Very cool sim!
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