Firepit wood for many years to come

[svk]

Last night I headed out to a friend's property to cut some wood for the firepit at my house. He had a big maple about 36" DBH that had fallen in his field earlier this summer.

Cutting went pretty quickly with this basically being a giantic pipe. We cut from the break up to the first crotch.

Splitting was another story. This was the most twisted tree that I have ever worked on. You would whack the maul through a chunk and the bottom would end up splitting 6" over from where you started. Fiskars was no better than the maul in this tree. Noodled it into quarters then started splitting. Still needed to noodle a few of the smaller pieces but that's what tools are for. None the less, we had a nice level pickup load in an hour with two guys trading off splitting duties.

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Hope to get two more loads out of here this fall.

He also has a GIANT maple, 60-65" DBH that had broken off in a similar fashion about 12' up. They already burned the top of that but it would be cool if I had a big enough saw/bar to stump it.

 

[svk]

And finally, enjoying a Leine's after unloading and stacking.

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[Steve NW WI]

Too bad you split em already. Hollow logs on top of a nice bed of coals with some smaller stuff tossed in the middle are great campfire fun.

When you can't find hollow stuff, you can make your own. Google "Swedish Candle" - plus you get some bore cutting practice making 'em.

 

[svk]

Thats what my buddy said too. Unfortunately my burning area is too small for this.

Although there are several more hollow rounds in that stump.