When Nicole Coenen started posting wood chopping videos online, it was a bit of a joke.
She was parodying social media star Thoren Bradley who posts videos of himself cutting wood and offering fitness advice.
But Coenen soon became incredibly popular herself.
“I sort of became the cliché woodchopper that I was parodying,” Coenen told CBC’s The Early Edition host Stephen Quinn.
“[Thoren] is a great guy.”
Now, the 31-year-old “axe-pert” has millions of followers across half a dozen platforms — all pining for her next wood splitting video.
“It’s funny how life turns out sometimes,” she said.
After three years of logging her passion for chopping wood online, she’s just released a book full of advice and history about the world of wood chopping, titled Axe in Hand: A Woodchopper’s Guide to Blades, Wood and Fire.
Coenen, who now lives in B.C.’s Gulf Islands area, grew up in Ontario, and said she never really chopped wood as a kid.
“Maybe once at Girl Guides.”
But she had to learn the tricks of the trade in 2020 when she was working on a farm in B.C.’s Kootenay region.
“I was really bad at it, my aim was horrible, and I just couldn’t get the wood to split,” she said.
Coenen joined a community group of woodchoppers who taught her everything she needed to know, and then, she was hooked. She had to learn everything there was about the best techniques for splitting logs.
Using her skills as a videographer, Coenen spruces up her videos with quick, fun editing.
While she takes the odd landscaping or labourer gig, she’s carved out a full-time job creating social media content for the last two years.
Not all her content focuses on wood; sometimes she gets personal, shares fitness tips for getting those toned woodchopper arms and even answers viewer questions.
Coenen said some people bark sexist comments on her videos, but she’s built up such a loyal following that she never has to respond — her fans are quick to defend her.
“A lot of people almost, like, kind of have my back now or they are women that wood chop or they are women arborists,” she said.
“You really find your people on social media.”
Not one to sit on her laurels, she wrote a book.
Axe in Hand, published by Cool Springs press in Massachusetts, aims to do something similar for those learning to sharpen an axe and cut a piece of wood. It includes the history of axes, tips on choosing the right kind of wood, and advice on restoring axes, how to stack wood and how to build a fire.
“I wanted to sort of spark a lot of curiosity,” Coenen said. “It’s kind of like a choose your own adventure.”
