un seasoned

[zogger]

Your buddy can bust your chops all he wants, but you having a cord+ of that small wood proves the point we are making: The little stuff DOES add up and it's worth saving. :cool2:

I learned that first winter heating with wood and cutting with a bowsaw. Much easier getting up quantity X wood by hand if it is small. Cant tell ya how many times I have cut with other guys later on and they would leave as much wood as they took home. Leave smaller branches, call it trash or brush, then turn around and split the larger ones into the same size splits as the small rounds they wouldnt bother stooping over to pick up! I am like WTH, why bust your back and have additional processing steps? Cut small, goes right in the stack, done!!

And splitting *kindling*! Are people serious??? BWAHAHAHAHAH, kindling is laying all over. I bust kindling with my hands from branches too small to bother cutting, no need to split it.

One of my nebulous long range goals here, if I can get set up better with equipment, is not split hardly anything, cut (or noodle crotches for night logs) to stove size, say 1 to 6 inches diameter, anything bigger that needs splitting is staying in long log form and getting sold at the sawmill. And for what they do with it, I dont care, pulp, boards, tie logs, verneer, dont care, is the check worth going to get, that would be the only criteria then. I would rather, just talking about selling in general, just have one steady customer to deal with. Really not interested in trying to develop a firewood sales deal here. Maybe sell twisty branches for other guys to process into firewood, if they want a deal and dont mind a little work

Yes, I really enjoy fiskarizing perfect red oak logs, I mean it is serious fun for me, but....theres other fun exercise stuff to do, and I would rather sell the big logs and just cut to size the branches, stack em in the round, and be done with it. Same with the big hickories, rather the main log go to the axe handle mill, and cut the branches short enough so they dry fast.

 

[spike60]

Zogger, I still do some bow saw work on the stuff that's smaller than 3". Usually I'll go out early before I head into the store just to play in the woods a little. We're talking 7:00 AM time frame. so I'm not looking to be winding up a chainsaw at that hour anyway. :rolleyes2: I like to do a wheelbarrow's worth or maybe even just a 5 gal bucket for that nights fire. I have 21" and 30" Fiskars bow saws. They cut good and are cheap; I sell them in my store for $10. You're right about hand saw production being way better if you stick to smaller wood. Back when people had to rely on hand tools, they would use the same logic. The difference between cutting a 3" vs a 6" piece of wood with a bow saw is more than most people would imagine. You can blow through 2" and 3" stuff with just a few strokes. Kindling for me is mostly from cutting up the tractor crates. I have an unlimited supply of them, and I'll turn the clean stuff into kindling and burn the stuff with all of the metal in the outdoor firepit.

Like I said before, every day or week you get from the small wood extends your supply of larger wood by the same amount of time. I've got to admit that I've had such good access to wood the last couple of years, that the smaller wood hasn't been as important as in years past for me. But I still like to play the game of concentrating on that small stuff, usually early in the season, and try to avoid hitting the main supply as long as possible.

 

[zogger]

Zogger, I still do some bow saw work on the stuff that's smaller than 3". Usually I'll go out early before I head into the store just to play in the woods a little. We're talking 7:00 AM time frame. so I'm not looking to be winding up a chainsaw at that hour anyway. :rolleyes2: I like to do a wheelbarrow's worth or maybe even just a 5 gal bucket for that nights fire. I have 21" and 30" Fiskars bow saws. They cut good and are cheap; I sell them in my store for $10. You're right about hand saw production being way better if you stick to smaller wood. Back when people had to rely on hand tools, they would use the same logic. The difference between cutting a 3" vs a 6" piece of wood with a bow saw is more than most people would imagine. You can blow through 2" and 3" stuff with just a few strokes. Kindling for me is mostly from cutting up the tractor crates. I have an unlimited supply of them, and I'll turn the clean stuff into kindling and burn the stuff with all of the metal in the outdoor firepit.

Like I said before, every day or week you get from the small wood extends your supply of larger wood by the same amount of time. I've got to admit that I've had such good access to wood the last couple of years, that the smaller wood hasn't been as important as in years past for me. But I still like to play the game of concentrating on that small stuff, usually early in the season, and try to avoid hitting the main supply as long as possible.

Good price on that bowsaw! Lucky customers! I only have a 16 inch fiskars saw, thats my biodrive truck saw...havent seen a 30 around here, just a chinese one I got for 5 bucks, but I wouldnt expect it to last very long. I used to cut with a sandvik for years, that was good quality.. I have seen the bahacos online but never tried one, they look good, too.

Burning right now, oak bark pieces, thin slabs with bark on (splitter trash), and busted up branches that fell from a sweetgum. Got a wheelbarrow load the other day into the house and still burning that. Havent put in a real split in three days now, nor run an overnight fire. Spring transition heating now. Its not cold here, just T storms and windy/cool. Looks to me and the weather guessers, another two weeks or so of frost at night, then thats it. Garden Goddess has all the veggies started up in the greenhouse now.

 

[luneburg]

Don't want to say its a good thing to see others share my pain with running out of wood . This is the first time ever I have actually bought wood ugh ! still cant believe it .
Been scraping around for some bone wood but to little to no avail. Will be loosing a large section of lawn to a large wood pile that is for certain . Im burning anything I can find that will burn .

Now next week we start erecting Steel and you know what that brings 3"x3"X8' seasoned OAK dunnage and we have two buildings to erect ! Bring it on

 

[SAW]

Im burning green also, selling wood put a hurting on my stockpile. Some good advise on here about how to deal with it.

I try to use as much kindling as I can and get a good bed of coals going, and split my green wood into smaller sizes if possible. I keep the damper and the vents wide open to allow as much air in as I can to keep it burning hotter.

I made the mistake of not mixing my seasoned with the green wood like I should, to help save on the seasoned pile.

Hopefully cold weather won't be around to much longer