How late in the year do you cut/split?

[wkpoor]

Its a years around event unless its pouring down rain or 10below and blowing. Sometimes early spring I give it a rest due to the mud.

 

[Coldfront]

If you don't want to be sharpening your chain every tank of gas try and get it cut before the wood is frozen. Cutting frozen wood is hell on the chain. I know wood splits a lot easier when frozen, but if you can at least get it bucked up before it is frozen it will save a lot of chain sharpening. My 2 cents

 

[jerryw66]

I make it a point to cut a good sized pickup load at least once every month. During the summer it is hard to find a cool time to do it, but I always get it done. It takes me about 2 hrs. to cut, load and unload one. Split it whenever I get bored, usually within a week it's all split and stacked. It's also a challenge when the snow gets too deep, but usually I can find some I can get to.

 

[matt9923]

all year!

 

[logbutcher]

Like the smart ones, I harvest the wood only Nov - March: the ground is hard; snow ( up to +/- foot ) makes it easier to skid and get around; no bugs; fewer snakes and nosy bears; felling, bucking, and limbing is easier in the cold --no soggy armpits or crotch; and, the short summer goes for other things.umpkin2:
The butts are stacked and split and stacked off and on late spring, summer, early fall. When there was ( was ) a pulp market here in Maine, the softwood 4 footers were cut year-round.

A query: I don't find that frozen wood is any harder on chains. Good sharp chains seem to cut the same either soft or frozen. Could it be the Prozac ? :chainsawguy: Or...................

 

[MJR]

It is all good. I run when I can. Any day when you are on the right side of the ground is a good day.

 

[Circle B MN]

Like the smart ones, I harvest the wood only Nov - March: the ground is hard; snow ( up to +/- foot ) makes it easier to skid and get around; no bugs; fewer snakes and nosy bears; felling, bucking, and limbing is easier in the cold --no soggy armpits or crotch; and, the short summer goes for other things.umpkin2:
The butts are stacked and split and stacked off and on late spring, summer, early fall. When there was ( was ) a pulp market here in Maine, the softwood 4 footers were cut year-round.

A query: I don't find that frozen wood is any harder on chains. Good sharp chains seem to cut the same either soft or frozen. Could it be the Prozac ? :chainsawguy: Or...................

I cut and split year round. If it gets to hot or cold, I'll slow down a bit but never stop.

 

[cjcocn]

I will cut year round depending on source, but prefer to do the majority in the winter when the trails are frozen.

Give me -40 and some wood to cut and I am happy.

 

[crowbuster]

After crops are out in some places we go all winter, in the meantime there are spots we have to cut when it cools enough before we start bustin deer and coyotes. In the summer, only when we have to, storms and such, as far as cold, if the bar oil will flow I'm cuttin.:chainsawguy:

C.B.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Years prior, my wood season was the weekend after deer hunting (about Dec 1) until the ground started thawing (Usually late March-early April). The main reason for this is I like to block and split out in the field, and skid all the wood out in tree or log length (depending on size). Thawed ground will get you lots of dirt, which WILL cause lots of sharpening (I don't notice much more sharpening needed on frozen wood, but maybe that's just me).

Word of my wood ho-ness is spreading, however, and I've cut a bit here and there all summer. It just entails the block in place, and haul the blocks out technique, which is either about the same amount of work, or a ton more, depending on terrain. I still have about a cord of oak behind my buddy's parents house to get, but I've been waiting on a weekend with some helpers, lots of heavy 24" blocks to load on the ATV trailer, and reload onto the truck or big trailer, then unload and split...you get the picture.

Snow doesn't bother me, except to cover up a quite a bit of deadfall branches, etc. I'll be going after them as soon as this %$#) 80° weather lets up. September here has been the warmest month all year (If not, it sure seems like it.)

I realize a lot of you don't have the heavy machinery that makes winter cutting a lot easier, and I feel for you. Even a big 4x4 ATV will be stuck before a 10,000 lb tractor spins a wheel, and if it gets deep, the chains come out. It hasn't been bad the last few years, but I've got some stumps from the mid 90's out back that give a pretty good show and tell of how deep the snow was when they were cut.

Lemme see if I can drag up a good winter pic:

 

[Marc]

A query: I don't find that frozen wood is any harder on chains. Good sharp chains seem to cut the same either soft or frozen. Could it be the Prozac ? :chainsawguy: Or...................

Yeah, I cut last summer into the winter last year to get my supply up and I didn't notice having to sharpen more often in frozen wood than not. Only time I notice have to sharpen a lot is in dirty wood, like from the side of the road that has road sand in the bark.

 

[jerryw66]

I know some guys that go cutting in the fall, they cut for about 3 or 4 days straight. Get all the wood they need and don't cut any more till the next year. It heats a pretty good shop and there home too. I know they keep at least a years supply ahead, and it's mostly cottonwood so it's a big pile.

 

[breymeyerfam]

I cut any time its below 70°! cant stand hot weather. give me 10° and snow anyday.

 

[trouba]

I cut year round but prefer it a little colder as Im kinda a large guy and it doesn't take me long to work up a sweat, and sometimes the woods in the morning are just beautiful.

 

[matt9923]

I cut any time its below 70°! cant stand hot weather. give me 10° and snow anyday.

i here you. i hate feeling like i jumped in the pool with my clothes on. And when its hot i sweat like crazy, heck when its cold ill sweat.

 

[RCR 3 EVER]

Cold is fine, snow is the stopper

If I could get a hold of local logs from tree co. and cut at the house no problem,but splitter is at the cabin 250 miles away and rental of splitter is costly and defeats the purpose of cost savings. So wood gathering is from Spring to early Dec.

At the property we simply can not get into the cabin & property woods most of the time with the amount of snow on the ground and I can not hobble through the deep stuff anyway. Last year there was 37" on the ground in Dec.:jawdrop: and reports from neighbors say there was close to 12 ft through the winter.:jawdrop::jawdrop:


I would rather cut and split in the cold versus buggy summer any day,though.

 

[AKKAMAAN]

I like to have everything cut and split before the low humidity in the spring kicks in. (here in NW by the coast, about end of feb).
IMO the best season for drying wood is before leaves spring out on the birch. (I am born-raised in Sweden)....Thats how the old people back in the day, made it, when they milled their lumber......

Note: A large swedish birch can evapurate 50+ USG of water every day in summer time, that have a huge impact on humidity, when all forests are full of birch. To that adds all other plants doing the same thing (vegetating).....

 

[Coldfront]

Yeah, I cut last summer into the winter last year to get my supply up and I didn't notice having to sharpen more often in frozen wood than not. Only time I notice have to sharpen a lot is in dirty wood, like from the side of the road that has road sand in the bark.

I say you are crazy if you don't think cutting frozen wood is harder on chains. I didn't say that I don't still do it I like to cut in the cold but I know from experience that I have to sharpen much more often when the wood is frozen solid, and I'm talking below zero frozen wood. Take a frozen piece of meat and try and cut it with a sharp knife and see what happens? Ice crystals are now needed to cut through plus the wood and you also get the effect of sawdust gluing (frozen sawdust attached to the cutting edges on the chain) making it take longer to cut though the same piece of wood when not frozen.

 

[AKKAMAAN]

I say you are crazy if you don't think cutting frozen wood is harder on chains. I didn't say that I don't still do it I like to cut in the cold but I know from experience that I have to sharpen much more often when the wood is frozen solid, and I'm talking below zero frozen wood. Take a frozen piece of meat and try and cut it with a sharp knife and see what happens? Ice crystals are now needed to cut through plus the wood and you also get the effect of sawdust gluing (frozen sawdust attached to the cutting edges on the chain) making it take longer to cut though the same piece of wood when not frozen.

If I have to choose between sharpening and have to let wood season for another "season", I choose sharpen an extra time per day.....
BTW I have logged thru winters of subzero....november thru februari...and never noticed that I have to sharpen any more often.....but you might have to adjust filing angle a little bit when cutting harder (frozen) wood....adjust dept gauge to make the chain take little thinner chips....

 

[Coldfront]

Well I don't cut wood for a living, but as long as I have a years worth of cut split and seasoned wood, I no longer need to go out in zero temps to cut wood. I figure by the time the wood freezes this year I will have 2 years worth of wood cut and split for my personal heating needs. That doesn't mean if I am bored or score some nice free wood in mid winter that I won't go out and cut. I usually can cut and split up my 10 cord logger load of 8 footers starting about the end of Sept. and be done by Thanksgiving, then my thoughts turn to deer hunting, ice fishing, and snowmobiling. I no longer live under the gun of having to go out and cut wood when its -20 below.