New to the wood game

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smoker62

smoker62

Member
Jan 29, 2012
94
Kenosha, WI.
Since I decided to move my pellet stove to the basement I have been in the market for woods stoves. I was looking at the Jotul 400 today and the new one was the f-50 or something. I also like the Hearthstone Homestead . Anyways , I figured I better start scrounging wood for the next year or two. I inquired with my local DNR and bought a plot permit for 10 bucks. They assigned me a plot to go on and cut down any marked trees. They are all black locust and there must be 15 - 20 pickup loads. Plus a half dozen downed cotton woods. Should I bother with the Cotton woods or just load up on the locust ? Figure it will need a couple years to season . I will need to buy some seasoned stuff for next year unless I can find some over the summer. Thanks.
 
If you get that locust cut up, it might be good to go by fall.
Split & stack in a single row, in the sun & wind, off the ground.
it is one of the woods that dries reasonably fast.
Locust is one of the best wood for BTU, Cottonwood is one of the least BTU content wood.
Locust about twice the BTU per cord than cottonwood. ;)
one, of many btu wood charts:
http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/home/heating_cooling/firewood.html
 
Yup, go and get all the black locust you can, ASAP. Just watch out for the splinters. Handle the splits as much as possible with hooks or good leather gloves. (Tetanus current?) Kidding a bit, but the splinters may surprise you.

You don't want to burn ALL black locust- it burns kinda slowly. Helps to mix in some more volatile wood, like sugar maple.
 
Thanks guys , I will be stacking along a 6' cedar fence. Should I keep it a certain distance away from the fence for air flow ? I have about 100' of fence along the West side of my property and would like to stack a single row down that fence line. I have some 12' long by 25" deep pallets that I can set on the ground. Its all grass now, should I put some landscape fabric down , plastic etc to keep weeds from coming up or just set the pallet on the grass ?

I ordered picked up a Husqvarna 455 today so I can go get some loads Saturday.
 
Off the fence about a foot is good, You can tie a rope to the fence in a few places & then stack on it to help with stability if you stack over 4' high.
I use landscape cloth under pallets, & use the big lawn staples to hold it down 4" from the pallet so I can mow over it, & not have to weed whack.

Great to get the fire wood CSS (cut,split & stacked) & seasoning before you have a stove. Can start burning dry wood, Dry wood makes a huge difference

455 a good saw, what kind of chain is on it?
United states ?? What part?

Have fun, pictures of this Saturdays cutting would be great ;) :)
 
Good ideas. I will use them. I am in Wisconsin. . As far as the chain, whatever comes with it ,lol. As I said , I am a new wood cutter. I have cut a lot of wood with my dad but never to the extent I will start now. Can I stack a double row tight or best to leave space again ? Thanks for the help. I will try and get pics. There are 3 of us going out and we are going to haul 3 pickup loads and my 5'x 14' trailer. Ill probably be a bit sore on Sunday , good thing I got the hot tub on the deck.
 
smoker62 said:
Good ideas. I will use them. I am in Wisconsin. . As far as the chain, whatever comes with it ,lol. As I said , I am a new wood cutter. I have cut a lot of wood with my dad but never to the extent I will start now. Can I stack a double row tight or best to leave space again ? Thanks for the help. I will try and get pics. There are 3 of us going out and we are going to haul 3 pickup loads and my 5'x 14' trailer. Ill probably be a bit sore on Sunday , good thing I got the hot tub on the deck.
Click to expand...

I do double rows with space between but don't have a fence blocking one side, but for faster seasoning a single row is best.
If you have limited space, you do what yo got to do. Will be a great looking fence.

Here is a post & pictures of the best on this site "How to season wood"
PapaDave has "gold standard" for seasoning wood ;)
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/83440/#1002644
 
Sounds good there smoker,
Get all that locust you can. You can never go wrong with locust (it is my favorite) but as also mentioned you will want some other wood to mix in with that. I would get a little of that cottonwood and give it a try but don't go crazy if there are other species you can get your hands on.
 
smoker62 said:
Good ideas. I will use them. I am in Wisconsin. . As far as the chain, whatever comes with it ,lol. As I said , I am a new wood cutter. I have cut a lot of wood with my dad but never to the extent I will start now. Can I stack a double row tight or best to leave space again ? Thanks for the help. I will try and get pics. There are 3 of us going out and we are going to haul 3 pickup loads and my 5'x 14' trailer. Ill probably be a bit sore on Sunday , good thing I got the hot tub on the deck.
Click to expand...

As for stacking single, double, triple or whatever rows, definitely a single row will dry the fastest. We have many years for our wood to dry and I like stacking in triple rows. One thing I have noticed is that the 3 rows tend to shrink (as the moisture leaves) at the same rate. The big thing is air circulation and getting the wood off the ground.

Staking along the fence, I'd give it a foot or more between wood and fence.

I do nothing special when I stack wood in grassy areas. The wood will not allow the sun under the stacks so the grass won't grow except on the edges. However, if I had clay ground and lived in a high moisture area, then I'd probably take more pains in preparing the site for stacking wood.
 
First load out , 6 in the truck, 80 more trees to go. My cousin and his buddy were the help.
 

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To big for one post. Not sure how to resize but will work on it.
 

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One more. It was 3 degrees this a.m. so we only got one load.
 

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Very nice, about 8* here & windy=no cutting today, but, the good news is the "new" woodhauler is ready to go except for the plate. A C
 
Very nice load. Pretty wood.
At that temp the ground will be frozen nice & driving up to the wood allot easier.
Better to work around 20 to 30° though.
You ironed the bugs with the first trip done, next trips get faster & better now.
Looks like you all had fun.
Hope your nice weather holds .

40° here, chipping ice off the driveway :)
What a change
 
Thanks guys. My rookie outing and I was sweating in 3*. I sure need to start slow. My 455 didnt get here yet so I used a Stihl 034 borrowed. Not in the best shape but it did ok, kinda like me , we made a good pair.. At least 15 loads like that in this plot. Not sure how much it will split and stack too. Any idea ? 1/2 face ? I have no idea.
 
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