Log length, or cut /split in the woods?

[Philbert]

How many times do you want to move the wood? . . .The fewer moves the better.

Buck and split in the living room, right next to the wood stove?

Philbert

 

[muddstopper]

View attachment 341741 I have tried it several ways, but I like bucking in the woods. hauling the rounds home on my trailer, then off the trailer and onto the splitter. Off the splitter, I am now tossing, yes piling in the woodshed. No more stacking. With a ramp I can roll a 36" round onto the trailer by myself. When they are that big I will useally noodle as they go onto the splitter.

Nice bi

View attachment 341741 I have tried it several ways, but I like bucking in the woods. hauling the rounds home on my trailer, then off the trailer and onto the splitter. Off the splitter, I am now tossing, yes piling in the woodshed. No more stacking. With a ramp I can roll a 36" round onto the trailer by myself. When they are that big I will useally noodle as they go onto the splitter.

Handy way of doing it, with least handleing of logs. Plenty of shavings for the hen nest as well. Rounds that size i would prefer to leave in log length until I get home, and I split plenty that size and bigger. I will only handle that size wood if I am picking it up off a log landing and they use their knuckle boom to load it on the trailer. Once I get it home, I can use the tractor fel to unload and hold off the ground for bucking. My splitter has a cable boom so I dont need to noodle to load on splitter, and my splitter wedge is 24in tall with adjustable 6way wedge. Load on splitter, split 6 ways and then I am down to handleing just the much smaller wedges for the resplits. still lots of work with rounds that size, but each round makes a ton of firewood. From the look of your splitter in the background, it looks beefy enought to split those rounds, you might consider adding a boom to handle those splits instead of needing to noodle down to handleing size. guarantee the splitter will make two halves faster than the chainsaw

 

[VW Splitter]

Nice bi
From the look of your splitter in the background, it looks beefy enought to split those rounds, you might consider adding a boom to handle those splits instead of needing to noodle down to handleing size. guarantee the splitter will make two halves faster than the chainsaw

A boom might be handy. I useally split by myself. With just the single wedge, when you split a 600lb round you are left with a 300lb half. All I can do with that is lay there underneath it till 2 of my friend happen to come along and get me out from under it. That's why I noodle the biggens.

 

[chucker]

I like to block an split on site with out the splitter. usually in this case the load is going to a good home for winter heat an summer storage! fast loads on a hot day will be coming out in rounds to be split at home and cool evenings. the place that I am cutting on now will not allow tractors or skidders in there , but you can skid with a truck???? at times I do use a arctic cat 300 and a home made trail skidder.... other wise it's a allis chalmers d 15 with a hyd bucket an 3 point to the landing in pole length and tandem/3/4 ton truck.... still work but use what you have to make it as easy/er as possible......

 

[mainewoods]

There is no right or wrong way to harvest firewood, and obviously every situation is different. Cutting on someone else's land is usually very different than cutting on your own land. For many years I cut everything 4' in the woods, loaded it into a pickup, brought it out to a landing area, and cut and split it from the pile. As age crept up on me I re-evaluated my methods to make it easier on myself. Handling the wood as few times as possible became a priority. Hauling out full length trees or logs made it quite a bit easier. The only time I had to lift or carry wood was after it had been bucked. Big rounds were busted up into manageable sizes where they lay. Lifted to the splitter, lifted to a wheel barrow and lifted to be stacked. It isn't for everyone, but it works well for me. Mechanized equipment is a wonderful thing. With a little ingenuity it is surprising what will make a good "woods buggy" on a limited budget, if needed.

 

[muddstopper]

A boom might be handy. I useally split by myself. With just the single wedge, when you split a 600lb round you are left with a 300lb half. All I can do with that is lay there underneath it till 2 of my friend happen to come along and get me out from under it. That's why I noodle the biggens.

I hear that about the 300lb halves and the boom solved that problem for me to. I keep building and experimenting, one of these days I am going to come up with the perfect splitting machine. One that bucks, splits, stacks, and a conveyor to feed it to the stove. Bet there wluld be a good market for it.

 

[Whitespider]

I do it all right where the tree falls... but the "woods" is my back yard so I can leave it without any worries.

Normally I clear a little work area and drop the tree into it, buck it up, and move on to the next tree. Usually I don't even pile-up the bucked rounds, I just leave 'em where they lay. Once I have several trees done I put the saw away and bring in the splitter and trailer... my splitter is compact and light so I roll it to the rounds using one hand, I never move the rounds to the splitter. Splits are tossed into the trailer as they come of the wedge, and then hauled directly to the stacks, or house depending.
*

 

[Homelite410]

For me when we co op cut 3-5 of us will drop trim and skid to the landing on one weekend then go back to the landing the next weekend and buck and split that way we all get to take a cord or so home. Most of the time we are getting gtg logs too so its lots Mo fun with a group of guys than by my self.

 

[mainewoods]

I believe someone else mentioned this, but I bevel the end of each log with my saw. It only takes a few minutes and lets the log slide with much less resistance or digging in. Sort of a poor mans skidding cone. I bevel all the sides I can reach, then hook up the chain and give it a slight pull so it rolls the log over and exposes the side you can't reach. Bevel that one remaining side and go. Removing the blunt end makes a big difference. Doesn't need to be perfectly beveled, just enough to reduce the digging in edges.

 

[Jere39]

Mostly cutting dead Red Oak in the woods surrounding my home. I do most of my processing during the winter when the undergrowth is thin, or better yet, snow covered. I like to cut, buck, and split in the woods. But, sometimes, I just buck and haul the rounds to one of my stacks. Hard to explain the decision process. Sometimes it comes down to how dirty the wood is. If the bark is going to fall off, I'd just as soon leave it in the woods and have to rake up my splitting and stacking area.

When I cut at someone else's place, which is rare, I buck and haul rounds. Of course, I am often left halving rounds to make them into lift-able size.

 

[MrWhoopee]

Buck in the woods, load into the truck, split directly off the truck, then from splitter to wheelbarrow to stack. No intermediate piles and it never touches the ground once I have it in the truck.

 

[mainewoods]

The main reason I prefer log length skidding is that it eliminates halving, and lifting rounds, big or small. Once the log is on my landing, it is cut up, flipped over, and split. The only time I need to lift any wood is when it is splits or small rounds and I'm tossing them into a pile, or using a wheel barrow to stack rows. Eliminating lifting rounds in the woods into a trailer, and lifting them again emptying the trailer at the processing area, was my goal. Anytime I can eliminate a step, I'm all for it, as long as production doesn't suffer. I already lift the wood enough times as it is, why handle it in the woods too if I don't need to. The best reason is that I am 6 or 7 years ahead with my wood, and gaining. I'm in no hurry.

 

[c5rulz]

I've gotten to know some loggers who have been working in my area. I bribe them with Honeycrisp apples from my orchard, in return they load up my trailer with log cut offs. This takes 3-4 min. with the forwarder. I drive home, cut on trailer and roll off next to stacks where I split and place directly on the piles. I can do 2 loads in 2 hours. When I cut on the trailer all the sawdust stays on the trailer and flies off on the road.

Forwarder truck is in the background

 

[Poindexter]

I guess it sure does depend. When I cut in state forests I load rounds in my truck and do my best to not leave a full truckload behind in the woods at the end of the day.

If I had a tree down on my own land (fence? dog? privacy?) I would a whole lot rather split it where it falls, then come back and move it later after it loses some water weght.

I suppose if I had enough acreage it would make sense to get a skidder of some kind so I could keep all the splits together rather than higgeldy-piggeldy scattered.

 

[066blaster]

I stock pile rounds and split when I have time. I rarely drag logs through the woods. Unless I cut one and it falls across the lot line.

 

[mainewoods]

Most of the time, cutting on someone elses land, you more than likely have little choice as to how you get the wood out. Getting it cut up and removed quickly is certainly understandable, and probably more appreciated by the landowner. It also shows him/her that you are reliable, efficient and have respect for his land.