The Camping Authority Announces Annual Gear Award for the Kindling Cracker.
We all know that it’s easier to start a fire with split wood than it is with whole logs. The challenge often comes with the “splitting” part of the equation. The majority of the 50 Campfires office has had at least one close encounter with an axe. While most of us have been fortunate to escape with all of our digits intact, we recognize the value of a product that makes splitting wood safer.
We were originally introduced to the Kindling Cracker from the folks at Northern Tool, and to be honest – we haven’t stopped using it since. The design is simple, yet the axe itself is built from rugged materials. The ingenious design is centered around an inverted axe-like wedge that splits the wood into perfect kindling proportions when a piece of firewood is pounded against it.
The Kindling Cracker was developed in New Zealand by a 13-year-old girl named Ayla Hutchinson as a school science project – which is a pretty neat story on its own. The bottom line is that we’ve found an easier and safer way to build our woodpile – which is alright by us.
