Having cut firewood all my life

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Natster

ArboristSite Guru
Joined
Nov 20, 2018
Messages
655
Reaction score
1,003
Location
Arkansas
Beginning with a 21" bow saw, then a 32" bow saw, we used to cut all the firewood for dad, plus, 12 cords a year, for extra money. When I turned 15, I bought a stihl 031, AV.
Chainsaws today are one of the absolutely best deals in life. Typically, a good saw can be had for 3-500$, and a bit more, for a pro saw. The family time, the btu's produced, and the collection of family, around the wood stove, in winter, is hard to beat.
And, I don't have to cut with a bow saw!
It's one of the best deals in life.
And, thanks for the forum. Fellowship, advice, saw council, how to fix these little wonders, of modern life.
I'm thankful for chainsaws.

Nate
 
My story,is about like yours-i am 81 and was born into wood cutting..
But went thru my lazy stage and heated with oil,that lasted about 6 years,then back to wood...My first Stihl saw also was a 031 and was junk...
Now i have two splitters and process wood for 4 family s,wish i was younger ...
 
Watched dad as a boy cut he died when I was young so never got in to saws till mid twentys bought a China 52cc and managed to keep warm with it and not hurt it or me for 5 years. Now 31 have 6 Macs and another 6 other old saws and cut as much as possible for a handful of family's. I get it guys I see why your all hooked on it.

It's funny how when ever there's a fire at home or elsewhere the people always come and be with the fire like a magnet and the dog and the cat all jostling for a good spot.
 
84 here, grew up on a farm in Idaho, family heated and cooked with wood. Fell trees with a 10' crosscut riding the outboard end with Dad yelling at me "quit riding the saw". Short one man crosscut for bucking at the house, bucking logs in the woods with a one-man drag-saw. Slow but one had time to bust a round down to loadable size while the next round was being cut. We graduated to a well used Mcullough (sp?) gear drive in 1952. Thedragway was so worn out by then it wouldn't pull the saw blade unless one held up pressure on it. Went into AF 1954 for 21 years. Retired and right back to wood heat using my dad's XL12. Gradually built up the stable to a MS 210, 310 (retired now), 193T, 362, 441 magnum. Still cutting/processing 12+ cord/yr even though I have enough in the stash to last the rest of my time.
 
84 here, grew up on a farm in Idaho, family heated and cooked with wood. Fell trees with a 10' crosscut riding the outboard end with Dad yelling at me "quit riding the saw". Short one man crosscut for bucking at the house, bucking logs in the woods with a one-man drag-saw. Slow but one had time to bust a round down to loadable size while the next round was being cut. We graduated to a well used Mcullough (sp?) gear drive in 1952. Thedragway was so worn out by then it wouldn't pull the saw blade unless one held up pressure on it. Went into AF 1954 for 21 years. Retired and right back to wood heat using my dad's XL12. Gradually built up the stable to a MS 210, 310 (retired now), 193T, 362, 441 magnum. Still cutting/processing 12+ cord/yr even though I have enough in the stash to last the rest of my time.

84 wow keep it up mate good job
 
What sorta wood y'all cutting mostly?

Back when it was a lot of black locust. I still have around 60 cord of that left. Then mostly soft woods, primarily willow. The willow I mix with the locust 50/50. I sell 7+ cord of the willow a year. One customer "love that lovely wood!" takes 6 cord a year at $120/cord. Still surprises me that people are willing to pay for willow :surprised3:. Lucked into a huge Oak last year. Got 3 cord out of just the top but left the base log (4' dbh by 25') as I didn't need it and someone wanted it for slabbing. I've promised that same guy to remove two more of about the same size this fall after harvest. same deal, I'll take the tops and leave the logs.
 
I am a youngster at 72, I also grew up on a farm and we used wood to heat the house and cook the food we ate.
We also used wood heat to heat the water for the laundry, wash dishes and scald the hogs we butchered.

We also used a cross cut saw and single, plus double bit axes to fell our trees. Cut them to a handable size, load them on a wagon running gear to take to our stationary buzz rig. That would change to a mounted portable buzz saw in the early 1960's.
Big logs dad and a uncle would use splitting wedges to split in half and quarters so they could lift them onto the running gear and buzz rig.

We used flat bed hay wagons and the farm pick up to haul the wood to the attched wood shed. It had 2 window sized doors to pitch the wood in till full up.

Looking back it was a good life, the heat was always welcome in the winter and the filling the wood bin for moms pastal green wood burning cook stove seemed never ending.

Seems funny today hateing the summer heat so bad I have every thing for sale so I can move to the Hudson Bay region of Canada to get away from it. Yet moms wood burner cook stove never made the kitchen hot as I remember it.

My dad some time around 1963 bought a wright saw, saying those chain saws my uncles used were dangers to use.
We got our first chain saw my brother and I bought for dad, a Sthil o31 AV in 1976. I was a working man by then but helped dad get up the winter wood. Learned to hate that slow cutting 031 AV really disgusted with it after one trip to the woods, unloaded the wood and drove to the chain saw store sold Sthils and Husky both.

I bought my self a Husky 162 SE, now that thing could cut two blocks of wood in the time the 031 AV cut one.
But the 031 dad still liked a lot and a new roller nose bar helped it a good bit.

Mom and Dad are both gone now but I still heat my home with fire wood. I still have a mounted buzz rig I will use on occation but working alone I find the chain saw the best tool.
Have several now the husky 162SE, Husky 55 epa, Jonsered 2159, and my favorite is a Echo CS 400 a little Polan 2150 I got when my father in law passed.


:D Al
 
I didn't start cutting firewood until I bought my first farm in the late 70's. I grew up selling heating oil so no wood cutting in our family. Today I run around 15 cord threw my Garn a year. I run it year around for domestic water. Had it down this summer for 3 months fixing a leak and rehab it. Had to buy propane to heat water for the first time in 10 years.
 
like turnkey, I am from the Pacific NW. timber, forests, lumbering, cutting, firewood, fireplaces, stacks... woodshed, etc. all prevalent up in that neck of the woods. I remember hunting in WA and OR with my dad in mid-50's... and cabins with wood stoves, cutting firewood with bow saw, I have a 26" one... and woodsheds and woodpiles. things from early life leave impressions... guess that's one reason I have never seen a wood pile I don't like... unless from time to time... lol, its the one I have to go and stack! ;) we never had a chainsaw, even though my dad was a trained A&P... my first chainsaw motor was on a minibike. mac 6. then twins on gokarts. 60's. it was all macs and westbends then...

I guess all that has influenced me. I have 7 fireplaces down here in the south... all woodburners! I burn wood all year long. warm months outside. even when its 103f out... :D

P1270002.JPG P1270010.JPG

its mostly oak for me. it rains oak where I live. I often cook over hot oak coals...
 
At 62, I feel like the kid in the room. I can remember helping dad cut pulp wood back when I was 6 or 7 years old. Dad would wrap his arms around me and help me hold a chainsaw. We cut 5ft pulp and dad would put my brother and I on the back of the truck to stack the wood up. He would throw 5 ft sticks on the flatbed and we would pick up each end and stack as high as we could reach. even after getting married, I would help dad cut wood most every weekend. I built a house in 1991 that was totally electric and suffered thru several winter storms without any heat except for kerosene. I sold the house in 1999 and bought my dads home from my brother and sister. There was a old rusty wood stove in the basement, but it wasn't safe to use. I went another winter with just electricity and kerosene. I came home one week to a "Guess what I bought?" My wife said she wasn't paying another high power bill and had bought a wood stove. It was Oct and I didn't have a stick of firewood anywhere. It took a couple years before I managed to get a season ahead, but I plan on burning as long as I am able to go out and cut it. I sold my current home and have about 2 years worth of wood split and stacked in the dry. At my new house site, I have another couple of years worth cut into logs and waiting on me to find time to process. I guess if I am going to continue burning wood until I am 80, I still need to get a few more cords stacked in the dry.
 
Thought I might be the "kid" in the thread at 63, but muddstopper got me by a year. I've only been burning wood for about 30 some years, and of course have not experienced having to produce firewood without modern chainsaws. I do have 21 and 30 inch bow saws that I use on the property for trim and cleanup work, cutting up branches and limbs for outdoor fires. Gives one a feel for what they do, but only a hint of what it might have been like to have to produce a significant amount of firewood without chain saws. So, these pre-chainsaw firewood stories are fascinating to read and I really thank you guys for sharing. Hope we get plenty of them here. That transition to modern chainsaws really took place all in our lifetimes, so you guys who cut and burned wood on both sides of that have an insite the rest of us don't.

Early chainsaws were both expensive and probably as much hard work as the hand and farm tools they were trying to replace. The Game changer for firewood guys IMO was the first XL12 that came out about 1963/1964. Made a gazillion of them and many are still out there working. They are one of the few non- Husky/Jonsered saws that we'll take in to the shop for service. We call it a historical obligation. LOL An SXL was my first saw before we opened our store in the mid 90's. Doubt there's anyone in this thread that hasn't run one. I have 4-5 in my collection and I do mix in running the old saws with the new stuff during the year.

@alleyyooper , Nice that you still have your 162SE. There are still huge amounts of saws from that family/chassis in both Orange and Red out there cutting wood. One of Husky's all time best. Lot of shops don't like to work on the older saws. They have younger techs that aren't familiar with them and they don't have parts in stock. But every time someone walks in the door with one of these saws it puts a smile on my face. :)
 
Yes I still have my 162SE and it still runs fine but I do need to order up a set of starter pawls. dawgs or what every those things are called.
https://www.jackssmallengines.com/jacks-parts-lookup/part/husqvarna/501673201

I also still have my dads Sthil 031AV, really a hunk of junk at this point. It was taken to a shop for some work by dad I was told. He was told it was not worth working on so brought it home and placed under the work bench. I was told my nephew was going to take it to be fixed and allowed it to set outside the garage. that is where I found it after dad had passed and found it siezed solid.

I have it soaking with a mix of acitone and diesel and tap on the piston ever so often to free it up. If it doesn't come free soon I will make up a plug grease zerk and start pumping grease into the cylinder to break the piston loose.

I found you can buy new cylinder and pistons for that saw. It was my dads after all.

:D Al
 

Latest posts

Back
Top