Same here. Endless aspen. I could probably scrounge up enough hardwood to last a full burning season if I really need to now thanks to the bronze birch borer.
What I like about cutting Willow
- Thread starter turnkey4099
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how does willow split? Curious.....If it splits better than boxelder and not as wet, I would take it too. Got spoiled with a few loads of ash from buddy a tree guy just down the road. Not done much scrounging this year....
Splits like a dream. Splits easy with an x27 green and even better dry. Knots are difficult so I noodle those. I also is a very easy species to work up if one ignores the amount of bru sh
Dropped a big one again today. Don't need the wood, don't have a customer for this one but I'll add it to the piles. I'm clearing a grove for a farmer and am too much of a Scotsman to just add it to a burn pile.
Harry K
There's a guy around the corner and down the road that have 4-6 willow trees down, been down for a year. Only thing left is the trunks, about 25-35' long around 24-34" at the butt. I've considered asking if he wants them gone. I could use it for shoulder season. Might even consider selling a cord of it. Being in the NE, people won't usually gut the time or money into that low BTU wood so it might not be worth listing for sale. It would be wise to keep it separated from the hard woods I suppose.
Glad to hear that it splits well, Harry. Some more showed up this past week, all green. I guess I can't kick it out of bed for eating crackers. This batch has thicker bark and looks like the typical willow I'm used to seeing. Here's the leaf:Splits like a dream. Splits easy with an x27 green and even better dry. Knots are difficult so I noodle those. I also is a very easy species to work up if one ignores the amount of bru sh
Dropped a big one again today. Don't need the wood, don't have a customer for this one but I'll add it to the piles. I'm clearing a grove for a farmer and am too much of a Scotsman to just add it to a burn pile.
Harry K
Yep, that's the type we have around here. Grows fast, grows BIG but dies young. The ones I am removing for the farmer were planted around 1908 per him. DBH on them ranges from 30" up.Glad to hear that it splits well, Harry. Some more showed up this past week, all green. I guess I can't kick it out of bed for eating crackers. This batch has thicker bark and looks like the typical willow I'm used to seeing. Here's the leaf:
Harry K
They should still be good. Usually anything down over a year or two isn't worth cutting.
Time to hang up the saws? Have a big one down with the top in the field. Cleaned up all the top and proceeded to do a bit of bucking before quitting for the day. Tree was a two stemmer with a high (about 7') crotch. Cut down the join to about 6' and did the normal falling cuts. All went well but the butt hung on the stump. As a last little bit of work today I saw a stub sticking out clear of the ground about halfway down the log. Decided to at least take those two rounds. Just as I finished the second cut I realized that I was cutting on the only prop holding that log from rolling right on top of me. Fortunately the remains held. Another reminder to obey the rule I set long ago. Don't cut when I'm tired.
Harry K
Harry K
I'll try to post some Pics of the splits from that hybrid willow. Believe me, the bark is thin and the tree was way too tall compared to most willows that I have worked with in the past. Some say that it was crossed with basswood (linden). The tree was at least 60 years old. The huge stump forked out three ways.
Harry, never cut anything when you are tired. Shut the saw down and relax.
Harry, never cut anything when you are tired. Shut the saw down and relax.
Slow progress today and a disappointment.
2 hours and I had it brushed out to this: Still a wad of brush back there on the right but it won't take long to cut that..
Cut that bad end off the log to discover the log was good past that. I was hoping it would be bad and I could leave it.
Retrieved the bridge undamaged which was a surprise. That stub was a good sized branch right on the bridge under considerable compression force. I was expecting at least a bend rail.
1 more hour and I had it cut back to the edge of the ditch. 8 rounds noodled in half and ready to load in the morning - probably will have to quarter them though, might do that with wedge/sledge - faster than noodling.
Last cut is right on the near edge of the ditch. I'll have to chain an put it under tension then cut a three round section. Hope I can pull that over the ditch. I do NOT want it in the ditch. That would plut it up and cause major problems. Unfortunately I haven't come up with a 'what if' plan to get it out of there if it happens.
About 20' of log left but it should go bad somewhere down there.
Harry K
Brother has a giant river willow that has been on the farm for probably 100+ years also. It is huge, around 6' DBH, maybe bigger. Has been hollow and broke off so many times but still is "alive". Grandparents said it was huge when they moved in about 70 years ago.
It's wood, it burns, it produces heat. Lacking better wood (no hardwoods out here)...
I find I load willow into the stove about a 1/4 more often than locust.
In fact it is a pretty good wood if you can get it cheap, i.e., for free and don't have to travel far for it. I heated this house for over 30 years with it. Still am using a lot to mix in with locust.
I also sell it for $120/cord. Have one steady customer and just picked up a couple orders when having coffee at Taco Time this morning.
It is also one of the preferred woods out here for smoking sausage and back in the day was used to make charcoal.
Harry K
Except for one thing--the campfire wood market has been growing steadily. I am now selling almost as much campfire wood (both in bulk and in bundles) as I am fireplace and stove wood for heating. Campers and homeowners like the faster burning wood species that don't produce long-lasting fires and are easier to light.
So, what used to be junk has now become a treasure. Willow splits when green, dries fast, and is thus easier to process than cottonwood. Both willow and basswood might provide a faster turnaround than waiting for cottonwood to drop its bark so that it can be split cleanly.
I've often thought about putting up a stand in my driveway. I'm right on the major N/S highway leading to WSU (Washington State University in Pullman, wa) Game days there is a constant stream of traffic going by. Tail Gating wood should sell well.
Harry K
Harry K
ropensaddle
Feel Lucky
Wow and here I consider my hickory trash 
id take all your hickory wood for free if you deliver itWow and here I consider my hickory trash
Yes, it very well could. Just put a dry pile out there and sell 8 split logs for $5. You don't even half to bundle it up. Just let them fill the trunk with 8 good logs. Throw in an extra log if the gal is wearing a nice outfit and wink.
Knock off a buck for 16 logs and another for 24 if they have a truck to carry them. Tail gating wood might require shorter lengths and smaller split hardwoods for cookers. It all depends on what they are using the wood for. Give it a go!
woodbooga
cords of mystic memory
I've only dealt with one p/u load of willow. Cut 1+ years into rounds and a pain to split. Axe just buried if I hit the inward grain. Hitting the outer diameter was easier, but it was a meadow tree that turned with the sun. So not a nice straight grained specimen, kept chunking off in imperfect spits.
Some fun this morning. I fell this tree 4 days ago, took 2 days work about 3 hours per day to clean up the brush from the field and buck the rounds down to that crotch.
Tree was a 2-stemmer, I had to cut this stem at about 6' and even then had to rip down the crotch some to fall it.
It is propped on the stump about 6' above ground, the outer end is about 4' off the ground, held by that one prop you see and another one about half way down on the right. Figured I would chain to the prop and pull sideways to try to get the butt off the stump. It worked with a couple hard jerks.
Then came "how to cut that prop without jamming the saw.
It worked except... I cut about 1/2 the prop by inserting wedge and cutting about 3/4 way through, pulled that out with the truck, back in to cut the remaining part of the prop and cut too far, jammed saw tighter than a tick. It would have been smashed flat if I jerked that chunk out of there. Thanks to Stihl for coming up with the 'inboard clutch' idea I was able to drop the power head then yank the stub. Had it been a saw with outboard clutch there was no way the pwer head could have been removed.
The last round off it was right at 24", My 32" bar on the 441 just barely reached through the first cut past the crotch.
Of course I had the usual helpers. Mud dauber wasps. They were going crazy over the fresh willow cuts. They pay no attention at all to what is going on. I can pick up a block with a dozen on it, toss in truck. Smash one with a maul, saw right through a bunch, anything but smash one with a hand. Got stung once yesterday doing that and once today the same.
Those things on the sap wood rings are mud daubers. Rather intimidating stacking rounds with 30 or so of them buzzing around.
Harry K
Tree was a 2-stemmer, I had to cut this stem at about 6' and even then had to rip down the crotch some to fall it.
It is propped on the stump about 6' above ground, the outer end is about 4' off the ground, held by that one prop you see and another one about half way down on the right. Figured I would chain to the prop and pull sideways to try to get the butt off the stump. It worked with a couple hard jerks.
Then came "how to cut that prop without jamming the saw.
It worked except... I cut about 1/2 the prop by inserting wedge and cutting about 3/4 way through, pulled that out with the truck, back in to cut the remaining part of the prop and cut too far, jammed saw tighter than a tick. It would have been smashed flat if I jerked that chunk out of there. Thanks to Stihl for coming up with the 'inboard clutch' idea I was able to drop the power head then yank the stub. Had it been a saw with outboard clutch there was no way the pwer head could have been removed.
The last round off it was right at 24", My 32" bar on the 441 just barely reached through the first cut past the crotch.
Of course I had the usual helpers. Mud dauber wasps. They were going crazy over the fresh willow cuts. They pay no attention at all to what is going on. I can pick up a block with a dozen on it, toss in truck. Smash one with a maul, saw right through a bunch, anything but smash one with a hand. Got stung once yesterday doing that and once today the same.
Those things on the sap wood rings are mud daubers. Rather intimidating stacking rounds with 30 or so of them buzzing around.
Harry K
