Vipukirves Leveraxe 2

Henry Ford was a smart man. Fordism and Model-Ts notwithstanding, he also inferred that “you chop your own wood and it will warm you twice”. Getting warm through tackling chores is all well and good, but there’s an inherent lack of safety in swinging a wedge on a stick: miss top-dead-center by just a hair, and that glancing blow could give you a continuous lean. Thankfully, after eight millennia (give or take) of neglect, a reinvention has occurred: the Vipukirves Leveraxe 2.

Conceived of and refined by Heikki Kärnä, Leveraxe 2 is a continued evolution of his original invention. Where success with the age-old axe remains directly proportional to the force exerted by its lumberjack, Leveraxe takes advantage of the principles of leverage and rotation to give you firewood with less grunt. Equally powerful, yet lighter and safer, Leveraxe 2 has a redesigned cutting head with an even farther offset, which amplifies the efficiency of the rotational principles at play. When users strike the top of a log, the cutting edge of Leveraxe 2 penetrates only slightly before its widening blade slows things down. That kinetic energy created in the swing is then immediately translated into rotational power, thanks to the shifted center of gravity, wherein the handle twists in your hand. This causes the cutting edge to rotate quickly, turning large logs into kindling. This is also what makes it safer.

With those rotational forces at work, the cutting head will always stop on the top of the surface. That means it’s impossible for even Paul Bunyan types to power through an entire log in a single strike and cause potential injury. The same rear balancing wing of the cutting head that brings things to a halt also comes into play by snagging the log top and arresting dangerous bounces on any less-than-perfect executions. Even if you were to miss your target entirely, the Leveraxe 2’s longer handle forces the cutting head to bury itself in the dirt before it gets close to your gams. Short of slugging back three fingers of whiskey, surrendering your man card and buying bagged wood, Leveraxe 2 is the safest way to warm yourself twice.

$244