William Bronson : I think I understand your plan but I can't visualize the material you are attempting to crush,
splitting wood we are 'going with the grain', a not quite
correct term that simply acknowledges that there are natural lines that we cleave along, all our force is delivered along a knife edge line that 'finds' these natural lines
of cleavage !
Small branches, no bigger than a roll of quarters would effectively resist crushing, any failure of wood fibers at the ends of a similar stick will just allow the more even
spread of our crushing energy through the branch. Wood is very strong against compressive forces, thats why we place our wall studs inline vertically !
For the good of the craft ! be safe, keep warm ! As always, comments, questions are solicited, and Welcome ! Pyro logical Big al !