Big wood or little wood?

[sb47]

Big wood or little wood?

I know any wood is better then no wood, but!
How many prefer working small wood, say, 12/20” in diameter, or big wood, 20” and bigger?
For me its faster and easier too cut and split the smaller stuff then it is the big wood.
The down side is for cooking wood, heartwood is the best over wood with bark and sap wood on it.
The big wood takes more cutting to quarter it up too a size I can lift up on the splitter.
In my experience splitting (oak) green and stacking it, makes much better wood for cooking then large noodled chunks left to dry before splitting.
If left in big chunks to dry it seems like it can punk out faster and have spallting in it.
The wood I work with is mostly duel purpose wood used for heat and cooking, so I try to stick with just wood that you can cook with. That way it can be used for both.
I would like to hear your thoughts on witch way you like to do things.

Dennis

 

[Mac88]

I prefer the smaller stuff. It's easier on me if I'm working alone, and it's easier on the equipment.

 

[Nosmo]

Big or Little Rounds ?

If I had a choice it would be rounds anywhere from 6" to 14 inches (or there abouts). I can handle the larger stuff with my crane and splitter but it is just a lot more work splitting a bigger round than splitting a few smaller ones.

Nosmo

 

[imagineero]

It's kinda species dependant, but given my druthers I'd go for smaller and older. Ring count does have an effect on energy content, and I find that the smaller stuff is easier to work with. That means trees that have grown slow, on the back side of a slope, or in sheltered conditions over a long time.... but probably really ought to have a whole lotta life ahead of them.

Shaun

 

[Uncle John]

I prefer the smaller. But usually have to take a whole tree. .........

 

[greendohn]

I cut it all big and small,,hey! I'm a poet!
I'm a scrounger with some pretty good places to cut. Blow downs and dead falls, rarely cut any live standing unless it's fence rows for farmers and I'm selective about the "terms" of cutting fence rows.

12" to 20" seem easier on me. The small stuff sometimes seems to be full of brush and the bigger stuff plays hell on my elbows. I fight tendinitis in me elbows. I'm fortunate in having a couple of good saws that will handle anything I run into, so sometimes I work up some monster ash trees and sech. My cousin, who works road construction brought me a red oak one time on a low boy trailer that I couldn't cut thru from both sides with a 20" bar. It was too much! wasn't worth the work involved. I can now run up to a 28" bar with my current saw, but wouldn't care to process fire wood from a tree that big. I hired a tree company to drop a couple old hard maples in my yard, I made fire wood outta one of 'em and burnt most of the other one where it fell, it wasn't worth the work.( I hit some wire in it, trashed a chain, I was done with it)

 

[Jules083]

I have an oak I've been slowly cutting on for 3 years, I'm up to the 25" mark and really don't feel like messing with it any more. I'm sure ill get sick of it soon and give up for the year, go back to the smaller stuff.

Big stuff is a hassle. When its 16 and down I buck it, then the girlfriend splits, hauls, and stacks. If she can't pick it up I'm on my own. I do have to make a nice path for her in the woods, but its worth it.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[gtsawyer]

Anything I can lift easily is a good size for me. The stuff under 6" is too much work for the amount of wood you get and the big stuff (that requires noodlin') is a lot of fooling around just to get it small enough to move around. 14" diameter seems like a good target range for me.

That being said, I'll pretty much scrounge anything, as long as it isn't punky or basswood, willow, etc.

 

[D&B Mack]

12" is perfect. Split four ways and GTG.

 

[bentring]

I think I'll pass on the next big tree that I have an opportunity to get. I've gotten five 8 ft bed truckloads so far on this one tree trunk I've been getting and still have at least 4 more trip to finish it up. I think it will probably have made 6 to 8 cords by the time it's all said and done. No telling what it would have made if all of the branches hadn't been removed.

Here's the last trip waiting to busted up into splitting size.

That cookie on the right started out as about 3 ft by 4 and a half, 10 inches thick for a frame of reference with size.

 

[slowp]

It's more like what is easy to get, and that would be smaller stuff. I've got a good supply of tops that are decked from a logging operation, and then there is my thinning project. I can back the pickup up to it, so that's what I cut.

View attachment 263024

 

[VTWoodchuck]

I def try to stay with 20" +/-. Much bigger is just too hard to do by hand. I love the 14" and below range as I don't even need to split it.

 

[Ductape]

Given the choice, I suppose I'd prefer to work up wood that is 20" and under. Perhaps its dumb luck, and perhaps its that no one else wants the big stuff, I seem to end up with a fair amount of it. I think I'm reasonably equipped to deal with it, between the tractor, splitter, larger saws, F350 / dump trailer, etc. One good thing about the big stuff ....... it sure makes alot of firewood fast.

 

[Constrictor]

I love the big wood. I can get a load bucked and home a lot quicker. 36" is the size id love to get all day long but the bigger ones are just plain fun to do. Cut a cookie, roll up on the trailer you get a ton of splits out of each one.

 

[gtsawyer]

That's some big wood. Well beyond what I could handle without better tools.

Still, it makes me salivate.

 

[Typhke]

The bigger the better for me Like it when you can keep splitting on a piece. But that's when a logging firm brings me the wood at home.

If I go into the woods myself, don't need it too big unless you have something nice to load it with.

 

[autoimage]

when you scrounge you have to take big stuff people dont want to pay extra to have it removed

 

[Mac88]

when you scrounge you have to take big stuff people dont want to pay extra to have it removed

Like this? The Mrs and I can get those on the splitter, by myself it ain't happening.

 

[woodbooga]

Big wood or little wood?

I know any wood is better then no wood, but!
How many prefer working small wood, say, 12/20” in diameter, or big wood, 20” and bigger?
For me its faster and easier too cut and split the smaller stuff then it is the big wood.
The down side is for cooking wood, heartwood is the best over wood with bark and sap wood on it.
The big wood takes more cutting to quarter it up too a size I can lift up on the splitter.
In my experience splitting (oak) green and stacking it, makes much better wood for cooking then large noodled chunks left to dry before splitting.
If left in big chunks to dry it seems like it can punk out faster and have spallting in it.
The wood I work with is mostly duel purpose wood used for heat and cooking, so I try to stick with just wood that you can cook with. That way it can be used for both.
I would like to hear your thoughts on witch way you like to do things.

Dennis

I heat and cook with wood, too. My old cookstove eats most whatever I feed her, but there are definitely situational burning matters to consider. If I'm baking and need a quick oven or sauteing/frying, I reach for the biscuit wood - stuff that burns real quick. I tend to use the larger splits for more sustained burning situations (roasting with a steady temp, just plain heating).

Last good firewood gathering I took a drive through the woods and just backed up to a couple piles of blowdown pekka poles and other small stuff. I'll cut to 4-6' lengths and zing the stuff that's 2-4" through the table saw that I wheel out to the tailgate. Keep the wheelbarrow next to the saw and the wood drops right in. The stuff is already dry and stove sized, so I save several steps, e.g., splitting, outdoor stacking to season, and transport to and from the stack area to get the supply indoors. Quickest route from forest to firebox I've come up with.

View attachment 263050

 

[srb08]

16"-24" is about perfect for me. Occasionally a logger friend of mine will drop off some
30"+ stuff. I have a tractor with a FEL so its never much of a problem. If I didn't have the tractor, 12"-16" would be large enough.
I do like running saws in large wood though, it' a lot more fun.
It's easy to be a he-man if you have equipment to do the heavy lifting.