How small in diameter do you cut before you say not worth it!

[stanleyjohn]

I now have around 3 cords of seasoned wood ready for this season and looking to add some from my woods.Not ready to take anything big yet!so finding many limbs down and starting to cut some of it up.This is all mostly green with sizes from 1 to maybe 4" in diameter.Would this smaller stuff be best used for starting the fire to achieve a good coal bed!or just mix in with the big stuff.

 

[cmonSTART]

I usually stop cutting when I can start breaking them.

 

[BrotherBart]

For winding down in the evening I like to go out and whack up three inch or so stuff to have it around for the season. It is great for laying on top of spits with some kindling to start a top down fire.

 

[BJ64]

I usually stop when the stuff starts getting bushy. Most of what I cut is Pecan trees felled by storms. Pecan gets quite brushy. Since wood is in ample supply here, near the Grand Neosho River, I don't mess with anything smaller than a pop can (that is a soda can for you guys back east).

 

[burntime]

If its in the yard I take all of it, if its close I take most of it, if it a ways away I cherry pick. Usually I take anthing 4 inch diameter and better.

 

[BrotherBart]

Reminds me of a story about 22 years ago. We had lived in this house for a year and since we heated with wood before moving here we had installed a stove when we moved in. I would go out every few days and just break twigs off of downed limbs for starting fires when we needed to restart the stove since we both worked a long way from the house. I was out of town on a business trip for a week and when I came home there were three huge tree limbs in the breezeway between the house and garage. Filled the whole breezeway.

When I went in and asked the little brown haired girl what was going on she said "Damnit I got tired of coming home and going twig hunting. Now I just go out to the breezeway.

Great idea it was. I started a covered twig pile every summer after that until years ago when I just started splitting a season's worth of kindling ever summer.

These days it appears everybody just orders SuperCedars

 

[fossil]

Depends on the species and how cleanly it breaks...sometimes 13/16", sometimes 17/32". I always carry a nice digital caliper and a wood identification guide with me. Rick

 

[webbie]

That is really....honestly....the question of the ages. I would say, in general, that it depends how cheap (frugal) a person is. Somehow, when you are cutting those 1" rounds it looks like real fuel...but when it goes in the stove, it is not.

I think Bro Bart is gonna have to write a Haiku or whatever on this.

 

[Vic99]

Having 2 or 3 inch diameter sticks help with the over night burn. Jam them in the spaces remaining after the big splits are put in. The tigher that stove the longer the burn, in theory anyway, particularly if it is dense like sugar maple or apple.

Dry pine sticks make good fire starters.

 

[Backroads]

Where I'm cutting I have to pile the brush so either way I'm stuck moving them. So I probable cut down to 1-2" for the simple fact I have to handle it anyways. I got a fire pit outside that uses alot of the round stuff.

 

[Pine Knot]

When cutting up a tree that's on the ground I start at the top and cut the brush off to be piled by hand. So I start cutting rounds at about 1.5" so the brush will be light enough to pile easly. I work each limb back to the trunk, then down the trunk to the butt.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We'll cut limbs until they get down to about 2-3." I won't split any wood that isn't 5" across.

 

[rich81]

if its in my backyard i take almost everything i can get. i too like too jam the smaller stuff in with a packed stove. just to fill the extra space

 

[savageactor7]

With our old non EPA stove we use to pile up brush with 4"+ limbs as a nuisance only good for sheltering lower mammals ...since the newer stove is is more efficient with smaller splits I'm now C&S;-ing 3" rounds. As a consequence my wood piles have grown quite a bit.

 

[billb3]

I used to cut just bigger stuff, figuring it had to be worth bending over for. Now I take pretty much everything that is straight enough to stack. I'd just rather see it in my stove than rotting on the ground.
Same with pine. I have a pine dump that's been rotting for 25 years. Some of those trees were 2 and 3 feet across. A whole house lot had to be removed after a hurricane (Gloria) brke half of them and one landed on the house. I could have burned them if I had had the time to cut, split stack and store them. Who knew heating oil would be $5 ?

I have to cut quite a few lower pine branches off pines along and off the trail . We don't get lots of snow for long periods here, so I just go back in the woods and get some when I need them for starting fires. Once they've laid out there for a year I can just step on them to get managable pieces, no snapping over my kneee. Fill a couple baskets and then go for a walk again in a few weeks again. Nice Sunday morning thing to do. Sometimes I'll get ambitious and make a big pile closer to the house. Not too close any more because every one wants them when they're <<right there.

 

[RedRanger]

I will continue bucking down to about 2" and that is it. And also made a 1/2 cord split off on one of my sheds for that stuff. Just throw it in there. Anything smaller than two inches makes you think about how many times you have to bend down and up and try and fill a wheel barrow and take it to the shed. just too much work for so little burn.

 

[Wet1]

I go to 1"-1.5".

 

[Redox]

I burn it ALL! Anything over 3" gets split, sticks get cracked over the knee, bark, sawdust, leaves, chainsaw mung, you name it; it goes in the stove. Otherwise, I have to haul it to the landfill and that costs money! I just LUUUVE to burn stuff! No plastic or trash, but if it's wood based and not coated with paint or varnish or glue, it becomes BTU's.

Wiping up drool, now...

Chris

 

[precaud]

Like burntime, for me it's proximity-dependent. Gathered from the property, everything gets burned. Brought in the truck, about 3" is the smallest I mess with. But it really depends on how many fires you will start from scratch. In season, the X33 in the basement is a cold-start every workday morning, so lots of kindling is needed. The Quad upstairs stays lit once it gets cold enough out, roughly Nov thru Mar.

 

[gerry100]

I'm w Pine Knot.

If I'm butchering a tree and have the saw running it's just a throttle blip to cut the 1" stuff to lenght.

Good for kindling and quick heat also.