My second year for splitting wood and have accumulated quite a few "ugly" hunks. (Not enough to justify renting a splitter). At first I tried to split them to a reasonable size - but because of knots or type of wood or whatever, they got the best of me. So now, I have a pretty good size pile and am wondering how well they will burn. Some/most pieces will fill my entire stove and it's a mixture of various wood. Do I use them like any other split or are there some things I should know? Stove is a Hearthstone Homestead. Maybe there is a way to use chainsaw to reduce their size - but it's also only my second year for cutting wood and I haven't come across that yet - so maybe you have some help there also.
My "Ugly" Pile
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n6crv
Feeling the Heat
Take a old saw chain and resharpen it to 10deg. Then just rip the logs. The chain will hold up better at 10 then 35deg for ripping.
Don
Don
elkimmeg said:
that's what i do. or they make great long burners for the fire pit. with friends and a cold one
disk size sounds good. What's a good way to do that with 16" logs? I'm trying to picture that as I've cut a lot of stuff on the ground - but it's longer pieces. Do u just step on one end and start cutting (on the opposite end of course : :bug: : ) I usually don't mind learning by trial and error - but am trying to avoid that approach with the chainsaw!
Gooserider
Mod Emeritus
What I will sometimes do is either rip them if they are really hopeless, or if the problem is that they have forks or something like that, sometimes just ripping of the knobby bits.
If I need to cut disks, depending on the size of the round I might just leave it on the ground (big rounds) or put a couple of other logs close on the ground and put the patient on top as a sort of mini-sawbuck. You might even try building a regular sawbuck with two close spaced sets of uprights as a cutting slot and board sides to hold short logs. The problem with a sawbuck is getting big rounds onto it.
Gooserider
If I need to cut disks, depending on the size of the round I might just leave it on the ground (big rounds) or put a couple of other logs close on the ground and put the patient on top as a sort of mini-sawbuck. You might even try building a regular sawbuck with two close spaced sets of uprights as a cutting slot and board sides to hold short logs. The problem with a sawbuck is getting big rounds onto it.
Gooserider
bcnu said:
FWIW, I wait until I've got a good hot coal bed and throw the large piece in...I get a bit of satisfaction knowing that I got the last laugh...that is of course assuming it fits in my stove...I know it's been brought up before, but I actually recognize particularly `challenging' splits my maul and I suffered through when pulling them off the pile in the burning season...see earlier comment about satisfaction ;-)
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