The wedges driven into life
As a teenager I split a great deal of firewood. You upend a log of the right length, setting it on the ground or, better, on a tree stump. You take a steel wedge and, with the sledgehammer held in one hand, you tap it carefully into the end grain of the log. Then you step back, and take a full swing. And if you have planned it right, if you have aimed well enough and set the wedge in the end of the log properly, if your eye is good, you hit the wedge with a deep clang of metal on metal, and the two halves of the log go flying apart.
