After New Zealand teen Ayla Hutchinson saw her mother cut her finger while splitting kindling with a hatchet, she realized that there had to be a better way to get this critical job done. As a science fair project, she decided to invent a device that made it easier and safer to cut kindling. The result is the Kindling Cracker, a cast-iron device that uses a built-in axe blade in a safety cage: the cage holds the wood while you hit it with a hammer, easily splitting the log in pieces. She received such a positive response to her prototype that she developed the idea further, and her father helped her found a company to manufacture it; two years later, she estimates that there are tens of thousands of Kindling Crackers in use across New Zealand. Equally exciting was a 2015 distribution agreement with a major US tool company, which has already received and sold 22 tons of Kindling Crackers in North America. For Ayla, though, the best part is knowing she's helping people: "It also gives people with disabilities or physical impairments the freedom to cut their own kindling again.... It makes it easier and safer for everyone to cut kindling."
