Donnarshmr
ArboristSite Member
The box of Leveraxes arrived at a very opportune time. The postman pulled into the driveway just as we were in the process of splitting a full cord of wood. There were three of us there that day to compare the two Leveraxes to the Fiskars X27. I have just started splitting this year and would by no means call myself good at it. My wife has only split wood as a kid for campfires using one of the big cheese-wedge mauls plus a very small amount of work with the X27. Our friend had never split anything before. So we went into it not having a lot of skill but standing around a lot of wood to practice on. Over the next 6 hours, we re-proved an important lesson: the kinematics of the user HAS to match the the way the tool needs to be used or it’ll end badly.
First up: me. I have a spinal injury that makes a lot of this stuff harder but I’ve found I can split with the X27 so long as I work slow and steady and don’t try to overdo or power through things. Trying the Gen1 Leveraxe, my first impression was how much harder I had to swing to get it to go into the wood rather than bouncing off while hardly leaving a crease in the round. I really had to swing with the intent to force it through the stroke rather than putting in a natural swing or else the Leveraxe just bounced. I had to move the strike closer to the edge of the rounds to slab off thin pieces of wood. When I made this adjustment, it was impressive how far the Leveraxe shot the slab. In fact, I’d actually say that was a bad thing as it meant that I had to chase splits a lot farther and I was a danger to other people working in the area. Interstingly, I never had a single strike that got stuck. If the Leveraxe didn’t bounce, it successfully completed the split, proving that the twisting action from the eccentric head really does work as advertised. On the plus side, the hook on the right side of the head was awesome at catching the axe and preventing it from blowing through the spit and ending up in the ground. Unfortunately, after just 2-3 rounds with the Leveraxe, I suddenly developed shooting nerve pain in my right side, which is a sign that my spinal injury is swelling from abuse. Out of curiosity, I switched to the X27 and was surprised to find I could swing it pain-free even after the aggrivation caused by the Leveraxe. Switching to the Gen2 Leveraxe was basically everything I had to say about the Gen1 only more emphatic. It bounced off more, hurt my back more, and really threw the splits on a successful strike. Finally, a week after splitting, I still have pretty severe tendonitis in the first joint where my thumb joins the heel of my hand from the vibration/recoil of the handle of the Leveraxe. I’ve never had that with a composite-handled axe. My suspicion is that the handle of the Leveraxe is very live and it’s snapping a lot of the impact into my left hand. So, for me, the Leveraxes are literally unusable.
My wife tried next and had similar, but not identical, results. First off, none of the axes hurt her to swing, so that’s clearly something to do with my back injury (though it is interesting that the Leveraxe bothers me but the X27 doesn’t). With the Leveraxe Gen1, she could split some, but had a GREAT deal of difficulty and had to strike very near the edge and just slab off very thin splits. She never successfully split a round anywhere in the middle half of the round. With the lighter Gen2, she never successfully split period. Switching to the X27, she was able, admittedly with difficulty, to split rounds she couldn’t even touch with the Leveraxes.
Our friend was basically an utter disaster and couldn’t split anything with anything and was so frightening to watch that we took the sharp objects away from her! She’s going to get one of the shorter Fiskars splitters and start practicing on smaller/shorter stuff.
So, my summary? For me, they’re a complete failure because of my back problems. There’s simply no way I could use either Leveraxe without causing serious health problems. For someone who is in good health, I would suggest trying the Leveraxes if you predominantly split shorter rounds of easier to split wood, as is very common for the smaller European stoves. Given that the relationship between a hand tool (especially and exotic one like this) and the body of the user is so critical, I feel that approaching these with a “try before you buy” attitude is mandatory.
First up: me. I have a spinal injury that makes a lot of this stuff harder but I’ve found I can split with the X27 so long as I work slow and steady and don’t try to overdo or power through things. Trying the Gen1 Leveraxe, my first impression was how much harder I had to swing to get it to go into the wood rather than bouncing off while hardly leaving a crease in the round. I really had to swing with the intent to force it through the stroke rather than putting in a natural swing or else the Leveraxe just bounced. I had to move the strike closer to the edge of the rounds to slab off thin pieces of wood. When I made this adjustment, it was impressive how far the Leveraxe shot the slab. In fact, I’d actually say that was a bad thing as it meant that I had to chase splits a lot farther and I was a danger to other people working in the area. Interstingly, I never had a single strike that got stuck. If the Leveraxe didn’t bounce, it successfully completed the split, proving that the twisting action from the eccentric head really does work as advertised. On the plus side, the hook on the right side of the head was awesome at catching the axe and preventing it from blowing through the spit and ending up in the ground. Unfortunately, after just 2-3 rounds with the Leveraxe, I suddenly developed shooting nerve pain in my right side, which is a sign that my spinal injury is swelling from abuse. Out of curiosity, I switched to the X27 and was surprised to find I could swing it pain-free even after the aggrivation caused by the Leveraxe. Switching to the Gen2 Leveraxe was basically everything I had to say about the Gen1 only more emphatic. It bounced off more, hurt my back more, and really threw the splits on a successful strike. Finally, a week after splitting, I still have pretty severe tendonitis in the first joint where my thumb joins the heel of my hand from the vibration/recoil of the handle of the Leveraxe. I’ve never had that with a composite-handled axe. My suspicion is that the handle of the Leveraxe is very live and it’s snapping a lot of the impact into my left hand. So, for me, the Leveraxes are literally unusable.
My wife tried next and had similar, but not identical, results. First off, none of the axes hurt her to swing, so that’s clearly something to do with my back injury (though it is interesting that the Leveraxe bothers me but the X27 doesn’t). With the Leveraxe Gen1, she could split some, but had a GREAT deal of difficulty and had to strike very near the edge and just slab off very thin splits. She never successfully split a round anywhere in the middle half of the round. With the lighter Gen2, she never successfully split period. Switching to the X27, she was able, admittedly with difficulty, to split rounds she couldn’t even touch with the Leveraxes.
Our friend was basically an utter disaster and couldn’t split anything with anything and was so frightening to watch that we took the sharp objects away from her! She’s going to get one of the shorter Fiskars splitters and start practicing on smaller/shorter stuff.
So, my summary? For me, they’re a complete failure because of my back problems. There’s simply no way I could use either Leveraxe without causing serious health problems. For someone who is in good health, I would suggest trying the Leveraxes if you predominantly split shorter rounds of easier to split wood, as is very common for the smaller European stoves. Given that the relationship between a hand tool (especially and exotic one like this) and the body of the user is so critical, I feel that approaching these with a “try before you buy” attitude is mandatory.
Call it a Birch Blaster/Breaker or something silly like that. 
