In this video, Instructor Wolfmaan demonstrates how to split and prepare firewood using a sturdy knife.
The process is called Batoning.
To “Baton” wood you need a sturdy knife which you can drive through a piece of wood, splitting it and making it smaller. Smaller wood burns better.
Most knives were not designed for the process of batoning, and it is very easy to destroy an expensive knife through this process. 
Blade broken from the batoning process
If you feel your blade is tough enough, you can easily pound the blade through a piece of wood and make smaller pieces, and eventually shavings to create fire, even with slightly damp wood. The video below demonstrates the entire process.