A guy on Craigslist had a huge pile of old lath for free – excellent kindling! But the stuff was full of sharp little nails. I could try pulling them – stupid time consuming. Or just hammer them flat – sloppy and I’d wind up with ashes full of bent nails. I needed to break the 4 foot lengths of lath into shorter pieces anyway – I figured there must be a smarter way.
Here’s the challenge – those nails are real hand biters:
At Tom’s excellent antiques, tools & stuff store in Multnomah Village, I spent a whopping 50 cents on an old horseshoe to make my Amazing Kindling Machine (patent pending). I nailed the shoe to the side of my cutting block leaving about an inch of shoe above the surface. A flat spot on the side of the block where an old limb had been made a nice flat nailing surface. Then I used a big file to sharpen the top edge of the shoe. The silver area in the picture is the sharpened cutting edge.
I placed a piece of lath across the block and over the shoe with the nail just inside the cutting edge, gave it two light whacks with a mallet. An easy push down broke off a nice 14″ piece. The nail would be exposed right at the break and I could just pick it out of the split. I kept a can on the block to collect the nails.
For sticks with a nail at the end, I turned the stick on end and a tap of the mallet split the nail out.
I was able to fly through the stack of wood in no time. Adjusting the height of the cutting block made it possible to work without stooping over. This is also a lot safer than using a hatchet.
flatpik
