Cutting logs square?

[paredown]

I need to ask a newbie question before I get serious about cutting wood for next year.

When you have a pile of logs laying on the ground, are there any good tricks for cutting your rounds consistently?

I started marking my lengths on top with paint so I could get lengths in the ballpark, but I still seem to have trouble cutting square.

Practice, or do real woodburners mark the logs around the circumference?

 

[zzr7ky]

Hi -

I my humble opinion there it's much point in getting fancy. It'll work out with practice.

We see a good number of very neat, square, highly regular, straight, stacks of wood. They are all very nice. However I find that sice I'm scrounging I get all kinds of trees. Yard trees, fence row trees, tree service trees. They are often twisted, bent, etc. I just do the best I can. I'm able to burn a 17" log max; so I try to buck things to the hight of a 5 gallon bucket. That's what I use to carry wood into the house also. Since I have a temporary windfall due to the recent Ash bore situation I'm a bit picky right now and leave an occasional twisted or knarly crotch on the forest floor.

I do check my cuts every dozen or so. 2 spans from tip of thumb to tip of index finger is 16" for me. Also 16" from front of saw engine to sprocket pin on bar for my saw.

Good luck! Don't worry you can burn your mistakes in the privacy of your own home!!
Mike

 

[LLigetfa]

By square I assume you mean straight and perpendicular. Holding the saw perpendicular to the log should not require a guide line all the way around the log. I've never heard of anyone marking a log all the way around. Many don't mark the log at all.

I would have to guess that your chain is askew and/or your bar is worn resulting in the saw not cutting true. You might try rocking the saw back and forth a bit to create a line to follow.

 

[smokinj]

if your chain sharpen right and set your bump strip in the wood and work off the pivot..

 

[billb3]

Practice.
They just have to be square enough to split.

Helps if your saw is cutting straight, too.

 

[LLigetfa]

If you think you have OCD with straight cuts, go watch some tree service guys butcher up a tree. They seem to like cutting at 45 degree angles.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good advice. Also check the chain tension.

Another thing I've witnessed is when someone first starts using a chain saw they seem to really be afraid of it and that tends to make them want to stand way back and extend their arms as far as possible. This just adds to the tense body and causes all sorts of problems. Once they learn to relax a bit then things seem to go better. As far as square, just eyeball it. Then later when stacking, watch for consistencies. Are most cut at an angle? Which angle? Now try to visualize how that happened. You should have your answer then.

 

[webie]

I guess I been cutting to long to even think or worry about it . Like someone said you can burn the evidence next year . There are times it is impossible to have both ends straight . The more you cut and split the better you will get at cutting straight , Trust me on this . Like LLigetfa said watch a tree service once or a county or city crew cut trees up , I dont think they could cut a straight block if there life depended on it or 2 blocks the same length because if you gave them a 4 ft piece they would have a block at 16 inches and one at 12 and another at 20 but the 12 probably would be 16 because of the angle on the longest point if you catch my drift . I am always a little skidish of ever getting any wood cut by these guys , because its impossible to split either by hand or even in a splitter sometimes .
After a while you wont even think about cutting straight it will just be a natural thing .

 

[Adios Pantalones]

See if the cut has a curve to it. If it does, then the chain may not be properly sharpened- teeth on one side shorter or sharper, depth guide not filed properly, or a bar issue.

I had this problem years ago , and after adjusting depth guides- it was perfect.

 

[firefighterjake]

If you're talking cutting the log to bucked stove-length and getting the right length . . . some folks measure, some folks paint a strip, etc. . . . me, I just eye ball it . . . I can live with my wood if it's not all perfectly cut to the same exact length . . . I mean I'm not building with it . . . I'm burning it . . . so if it fits in the stove it's all good and I can live with a few pieces being 1-4 inches different in length.

If you're talking about cutting the log to bucked stove-length and you are finding your splits have a curve to them . . . as mentioned it could be your stance, the way the chain was sharpened or a bar issue.

 

[ChillyGator]

Good advice. Also check the chain tension.

Another thing I've witnessed is when someone first starts using a chain saw they seem to really be afraid of it and that tends to make them want to stand way back and extend their arms as far as possible. This just adds to the tense body and causes all sorts of problems. Once they learn to relax a bit then things seem to go better. As far as square, just eyeball it. Then later when stacking, watch for consistencies. Are most cut at an angle? Which angle? Now try to visualize how that happened. You should have your answer then.

+1 My dad used to tell me 'you're working too hard, let the saw do the work'.....took a while to understand and relax

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Your dad had good advice Chilly. Not only for chain saws but most tools are that way. Too many folks do not learn to let the tool do the work it was intended to do. If you aren't going to let the tool work, then why have it at all?

Good case in point: I watched a man use both a chain saw and a skill saw. I guess he heard that thing about rocking the saw....and took it all wrong. When he was sawing a log he had the saw constantly rocking up and down. Then I was amazed when he did the same thing with a skill saw. Wow. I tried to tell him to let the tool do the work but he just laughed.

 

[paredown]

Sounds like more practice and it will get better. The bigger saw was new when I started in, & is all tuned up again for this year, so it's cutting straight.

I did burn a lot of "mistakes" this year--and did have some really interesting pieces, especially the Sassafras that looked like corkscrews in places. Not to mention butt ends, pieces that exploded in the splitter, etc.

Dad coached on letting the tool do the work, too--great advice as the tool gets heavier.

Mostly I've got firewood envy--my neighbor who has been burning since the year dot has beautiful stacks of perfect, uniform splits & I felt like a hillbilly last year by comparison.

 

[webie]

Sounds like more practice and it will get better. The bigger saw was new when I started in, & is all tuned up again for this year, so it's cutting straight.

I did burn a lot of "mistakes" this year--and did have some really interesting pieces, especially the Sassafras that looked like corkscrews in places. Not to mention butt ends, pieces that exploded in the splitter, etc.

Dad coached on letting the tool do the work, too--great advice as the tool gets heavier.

Mostly I've got firewood envy--my neighbor who has been burning since the year dot has beautiful stacks of perfect, uniform splits & I felt like a hillbilly last year by comparison.

Dont worry about haveing perfect firewood . If you looked at my brothers wood pile verses mine you would laugh . My brothers is perfect nice half and 1/4 splits all almost exactly the same length . mine is thrown on a pile cause you cant pile alot of it with out it falling over anyways .
The difference I can heat my house on the good wood he will skip over , he cuts nothing less than 3-4 inches the rest stays on the ground left for the rabbits , he will not cut anything bigger than 16 inches , If you watched him he is so spoiled by haveing some 70 acres of woods it almost makes you sick . he splits by hand and takes almost 100%straight trees , no branches and cuts the tops off and lets it lay .
My sister burns maybe a cord a year in there fireplace and will get that just takeing stuff he doesnt want and cuts off and lets lay .
I usually scrounge the dead stuff and windfall . He had some 8 willow trees the smallest was maybe about 28 on the stump and 40 tall to nearly 4ft on the stump , he wanted to get rid of them to expand some farm land , I asked him if he wanted me to take them , No he wanted money for them he wanted to sell them to me , I broke out laughing . A year later he had a bulldozer come in and push them on a pile .
The biggest thing here is it really makes no difference what your wood looks like or mine either it all ends up looking the same at the end , ASHES

 

[Jags]

Perfectly cut wood does not burn as well as various lengths. Thats why I don't cut perfect. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

paredown, you will do fine. It gets better after you've done a few years. But you will still get those odd pieces and that is what you burn during daytime and during spring and fall when you don't need to load up the stove full. We get odd ones every year and think nothing of it.

Don't envy your neighbor's. Let him envy yours.

 

[Shari]

Perfectly cut wood does not burn as well as various lengths. Thats why I don't cut perfect. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

Jags,

Good one!

Shari

 

[Shari]

if your chain sharpen right and set your bump strip in the wood and work off the pivot..

+1

Yeah, snug the body of your chainsaw up to the wood to be cut. Start your cut and just pivot the body of the saw up as your chain cuts down. When I get to about 45 degrees down angle I roll the round and then continue the cut.

Shari

 

[olafsenpn]

I have a surveyor's wooden stake with 16" of it painted bright orange. My wife uses chalk or a carpenter's crayon to mark the logs to length. I come behind... quite a way behind... to saw the rounds. I agree with the earlier guys who say let the saw do the work. I have seen lots of guys put way too much pressure on the saw, and the down force is frequently out of square or plumb with the log. That forces the saw to cut at an unwanted angle. Square the saw up to the work and let it go.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

I cut quite a bit if firewood and I eyeball all of it. The most I will do is put the bar up against it and get a start from that. My cuts tend to get a little crooked when I have one log laying on top of another one and its at a big angle from the ground.

But as the others have said the more you cut the better you will get.

Billy

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Billy, where have you been? I haven't seen anything from you for a while.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

Hi Dennis

I have been up in the UP for 2.5 weeks. We had a pole barn put up and I was working on the driveway. And before that I was chasing priced and paperwork. As usual I am either doing nothing or going full bore. I did manage with help from a friend to cut 3.5 dumptruck loads of birch and maple firewood.

Billy

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sounds like all has been well. Good to hear.

 

[Tony H]

I noticed my cuts curving to the right as the chain wore and I sharpened it and realized I was better at sharpening the teeth going away from the saw than ones going back toward the saw and after a bunch of touch ups the saw would tend to head toward the right side.
Correcting it took a little bit of work and now I take more care to make it even by taking an extra pass or two on my weaker sharpening side.

If this sounds like it could be your problem flip the bar and put on a fresh chain and see how it cuts :
straight = uneven sharpening, chain wear
curves the same = saw operation, saw damaged
curves the other way = bar bent

There are of course other reasons it could cut these ways but it's a start.

 

[firefighterjake]

Sounds like more practice and it will get better. The bigger saw was new when I started in, & is all tuned up again for this year, so it's cutting straight.

I did burn a lot of "mistakes" this year--and did have some really interesting pieces, especially the Sassafras that looked like corkscrews in places. Not to mention butt ends, pieces that exploded in the splitter, etc.

Dad coached on letting the tool do the work, too--great advice as the tool gets heavier.

Mostly I've got firewood envy--my neighbor who has been burning since the year dot has beautiful stacks of perfect, uniform splits & I felt like a hillbilly last year by comparison.

I have yet to meet anyone that has a warmer house simply because they have prettier stacks of wood than me . . .

All wood is good . . . it's not a beauty contest . . . I like 'em all . . . crooked ones, Y-pieces, chunks, mangled splits that look as though theyv'e been through a shredder and even the perfectly straight ones . . . I find that once seasoned they all burn . . . and they all keep me nice and warm . . . and that's what truly matters . . . not that the stack is a thing of beauty . . . because let's face it . . . just like beauty doesn't last forever . . . neither does a nice stack of wood.