Wee wallop wood splitting

Happened to see a short video of a woodworker splitting wood recently. He had an axe head or equivalent embedded, blade up, in a work bench. He held in place the piece of wood he wanted to split and gave the top of the wood a sharp whack with a hammer. It looked effective and simple so I though I'd have a go today while splitting some of the smaller eucalyptus logs.

Axe head wedged between rocks 

Log tapped into place and beginning to split

A wee sharp wallop and bob's yer uncle

                                                                           

Even worked for hard cherry wood – the licheny one.