One of the first things I did after joining this forum was to take a look at the Holz hausen idea. We had cut a fair amount of wood around my house when I bought it last October. I cut up the logs in July and split them in August and September. Kinda late I realize but I am not a full-time burner and had some dry wood already set up from a friend.
The wood is ash with some maple, birch and hornbeam and some black locust. The maples and half the ash were dead on the stump and mostly dry to begin with. The maples averaged only about 3-5 inches but there were too many to just put them in a brush pile for burning. Probably too small to bother with but a BTU is a BTU and I cut these in bundles so it went fast.
I piled these Holz Hausen just after Labor Day and it's been rainy a few times here in NH but they shed water pretty well. One of the piles fell over but that was because I hit it with my riding mower. Otherwise I am pretty impressed. The piles go up a lot faster than I thought they would. I went with smaller ones because it seemed easier at the time. The trick is to angle the splits down into the center of the pile on the lower layers. This helps with drainage and the pile is sort of internally falling in on itself to begin with so as the wood dries there is less destabilization. I level the splits toward the middle and then start angling up near the top for water shedding. Most of these piles are 3.5-5 feet across and were originally ~6.5 to 7 feet tall. I figure I have just over 2.5 cords here, a piker by most of the standards set here.
This was all bucked with a Craftsman electric saw, although I aspire to the Makita. I was pretty surprised and pleased with the Craftsman. Yes the sawbuck in the lower left of the picture is made from angle iron but I make sure the chain is well away from it when cutting and wear PPE. I plan to put this up during Thanksgiving weekend but this will be part of this year's supply.
The wood is ash with some maple, birch and hornbeam and some black locust. The maples and half the ash were dead on the stump and mostly dry to begin with. The maples averaged only about 3-5 inches but there were too many to just put them in a brush pile for burning. Probably too small to bother with but a BTU is a BTU and I cut these in bundles so it went fast.
I piled these Holz Hausen just after Labor Day and it's been rainy a few times here in NH but they shed water pretty well. One of the piles fell over but that was because I hit it with my riding mower. Otherwise I am pretty impressed. The piles go up a lot faster than I thought they would. I went with smaller ones because it seemed easier at the time. The trick is to angle the splits down into the center of the pile on the lower layers. This helps with drainage and the pile is sort of internally falling in on itself to begin with so as the wood dries there is less destabilization. I level the splits toward the middle and then start angling up near the top for water shedding. Most of these piles are 3.5-5 feet across and were originally ~6.5 to 7 feet tall. I figure I have just over 2.5 cords here, a piker by most of the standards set here.
This was all bucked with a Craftsman electric saw, although I aspire to the Makita. I was pretty surprised and pleased with the Craftsman. Yes the sawbuck in the lower left of the picture is made from angle iron but I make sure the chain is well away from it when cutting and wear PPE. I plan to put this up during Thanksgiving weekend but this will be part of this year's supply.
