Bucking to length..

Captain Hornet said:

I don't worry too much about my bucking to size. Just chop it up and stack it to dry. My stove well take a split 26 in long so I just throw them into the stove. I split everything by hand so where it splits is where it is. If I can get the stove door shut, I'm good to go. David

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I'm flying with the Captain on this one. Being a hand splitter, the only thing I'm thinking about while bucking a tree (aside from keeping all my body parts) is how it's going to split. I know by eye what's too long, but shorter doesn't matter to me. I'll buck full-length for everything looking good, but any time the trunk looks ugly or has big limbs, I'll cut a "round" down to as small as 4" wide, knowing it will split ok. I've done up to 3 of these slices back-to-back, on especially nasty gnarly sections. These thinner rounds get split into 1-2" slices. I stack in a cross hatch, so the slices and small pieces find a home with no problem.
Now, how do these stacks look? - frankly my dear :lol: Relax, Onion - it all burns ;-P

Boy am I ashamed. I take one of my two sons with me when cutting. After I fell and limb the tree he knows exactly what to do and before I know it, I have a 35 foot tape running along the length of the tree. Depending on the diameter of the tree I'll just walk along and put a little "nick" at either the 32 or 48 inch mark. I'll then turn to my son, give him the nod, and the tape measure retracts and I start cutting.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong? ;-P

Whotheguy - how you cut wood sounds fine to me. But having your sons be a part of it is as good as it gets.

willworkforwood said:

Whotheguy - how you cut wood sounds fine to me. But having your sons be a part of it is as good as it gets.

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You are right on the money! My boys are 8 and 11 and I would like to take both of them with me, but I don't as I only have two eyes...one to watch what I'm doing and the other on him. I couldn't imagine trying to cut with both of them there, the saw would never get fired up. :roll:

whotheguy, those boys at that age should be fine in the woods as long as Dad has a good talk or two with them. Our sons did just fine and continued working in the woods with their mother and I until they left home and started their own families. I really feel it is good for young boys to be out there with Dad and I feel very strong that it is important for Dad to teach them. Teaching begins with discipline as without that their lives could become a living Hell. Discipline in the woods is extremely important just because of the tools we use and the possibility of falling branches. Teach them when young and it will stay with them the rest of their lives.

Cluttermagnet said:

...they all look good from a distance.

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Ja, looks good from far, far from good!

My stacks look better on the face than they do on the back side. I just pound in the ones that stick out. That said, I do tend to sort the wood as I'm stacking. I put the longer splits on the bottom and progressively shorter ones as I work my way up.