Having a good supply of firewood is an important way to make it through a long, cold winter for a lot of people. Unfortunately, getting that firewood cut and split in sufficient quantities can be a daunting task – it’s often exhausting, dangerous work.

The folks who invented The Stickler figured out a way to get the job done with a lot less effort, but we can’t say it seems particularly safe. Their device is basically a Big Daddy drill bit that screws its way into the log, splitting the wood. To use it, you have to jack up your car and (please!) put it on sturdy jack stands, take off one wheel, and bolt The Stickler to the hub.

After making sure your life insurance policy is paid up and dialing 911 on your phone without hitting “SEND” yet, you let the car idle, put it in gear, and start jamming logs onto the pointy end. In the video above, a pair of guys demonstrate using a late-model Pontiac GTO as the power source for their wood-splitting endeavors. It seems to go OK, though we got a bit nervous as they raised the revs to get the job done quicker.

While we’re sure that the makers of The Stickler would have been sued out of existence already if it wasn’t as safe as they say it is, we’d still be worried about all the ways we could screw this up if we tried it ourselves.

Screw through the leg, whirling log to the temple, bumping the car off the jackstands and watching it tear through the yard like a gladiator chariot – We’ll just be glad we live somewhere that doesn’t get much cold weather.

Inspiration for The Stickler…