New guy, new addiction

[dlaurinaitis]

Hello, I have been lurking and reading back posts for a couple months. I recently had a Lopi Answer installed in my home and have become obsessed with getting my wood supply up there.

I bought a cord of 1 year seasoned cherry and have been getting rounds from my job as a municipal employee. So far, I have a seasoned cord and a face cord that I recently split., mostly ash, some elm and osage orange.

The elm and ash split very easily and the osage orange was a bear. I tried to split some spruce, but my 8lb maul sunk 2" and got stuck. I gave up on that.

I plan on burning at night and weekends and I have become obsessed with the fear of running out of wood, thanks to this forum. My wife thinks I have lost it. I can score some choice rounds at work, but hauling them in the trunk of my small car is limiting! Lol.

I am a big guy who does physical labor for a living and I can't imagine splitting several cords like some of you do. I am thinking about a fiskars ss, but I am 6'4" and am a little concerned about the handle length.

Anyway, I am loving this little stove and figured its about time I join in here.

I bought the stove with most of the pipe from a guy on craigs list. It was built in 1994 but never used. I wish the burn times were longer, but for 600 bucks, I am happy as can be.

 

[thewoodlands]

MrFood welcome to the forum, I never used a fiskars ss but if you go to the gear forum and start a new subject about fiskars you will get a ton of answers. I think they are coming out with a longer handle.

zap

 

[Bspring]

Welcome to the sight. There is a wealth of information here. My wood hobby has spilled over into me wanting to learn all the trees in my area so I am always picking leaves to look up when I get home. If you got some O. Orange you have the Holy Grail of wood from what I have seen on here. I am also 6'4" and passed on the fiskars for the same reason but I did send them an email letting them know. They told me that they had gotten several request for longer handles.

 

[dlaurinaitis]

Agreed, this site is great with all of the info.

Does anyone else split spruce? Do you find it difficult? I hate to pass on free wood, but I also don't want a hassle.

I could get more osage orange, but I don't take crotches or rounds with branch ends. Its a shame to pass up.

I am hoping that the EAB ash nightmare at least results in some great firewood, EAB is a sad specticle. It is starting to affect where I work and live.

I am good with tree knowledge, I have learned a lot on my job. I find trees very interesting and enjoy learning about them. I am looking forward to cool weather and learning to operate my stove.

 

[Wood Duck]

I have hauled about 12 cords of wood in the back of a saturn SL2 sedan over the past 2 1/2 years, so I think you'll do fine with your small car. Haul a few rounds every day, and in a year you'll have three years supply of wood. A job as a municipal employee seems like a scounger's dream since you will have access to lots of wood. You'll find scrounging when the pressure is on seems to be really slow, but once you get a few cords of wood stacked for next year, the pressure is off and you'll enjoy it more. You'll probably still be obsessed, but more in a fun way than in a frantic way.

Splitting wood is a skill that takes practice. I think after a little while you'll get the hang of it and find your maul will split nearly anything. A few tips are: aim for the edge, not the middle of a round; and try to take a slab off the side of a big, tough round instead of splitting it through the middle. There is also some technique involved in swinging hard and hitting the same spot twice, but that is harder to describe.

I don't think the short handle on the Fiskars is a problem, and I don't think your size changes that. It is a little different than a maul, but once you get used to it, it works about as well. I imagine the average Finn is fairly tall, and yet they make those short handles in Finland. However, you can probably handle a heavy maul pretty easily, so I am not sure I'd run out and buy a Fiskars or similar lighter-weight splitting ax. I'd stick with the maul for a while.

 

[amateur cutter]

Welcome, grab all that Osage you can get, if it doesn't split, "noodle" it with your saw & try again. Enjoy the site. A C

 

[Joe Matthews]

Welcome... Just a thought about the wood in the trunk, maybe you can keep your eye out for some sort of cheap truck that is (or could be with TLC) in good running condition to use for wood scrounging. I am sure you could come up with a deal on one before too long if you are not too picky about looks and all... Good luck!

 

[Jamess67]

Welcome Mr Food. The addiction is real and your not crazy, cause if you are so are we all. As far as the Fiskers goes, I love mine. Im 6'1" and have no problem at all. If you plan to use it as a full swinging splitting axe, well its not too great for that. However I chunk up my big (24"+) rounds and put them in a tire and use the Fiskers as a " half swinging" axe. Meaning I dont raise the axe over my head most times to split into stove size pieces. For the big stuff I use my splitter but well seasoned rounds can be busted up pretty easily with my 15lb maul. Have fun and be safe.

 

[golfandwoodnut]

Welcome Mrfood. I got the addiction last year and collected, cut, split by hand and stacked over 20 cords. I an 6'2" and have both a Monster Maul I have had for years and a fiskars. I had the same fears about the fiskars, but really no problem once you get used to it. I understand they are coming out with a longer handled one soon, if not already. I find it is mainly wrist action for speed. I do take many a full swing, and after as much wood as I have split you can get pretty accurate hitting the same line several times if needed. Have fun.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Welcome MrFood
Heating your home with wood can be a very fulfilling hobby. Sure beats stamp collecting anyway.
You mentioned spruce being tough to split, I have to agree with you on that. Mind you a lot of these things depend on exactly what variety of a certain species you are dealing with. Many types of pine are hard to split, but the type I usually get (lodgepole pine) is very easy to split, especially when its dry. The type of spruce that I have readily available is very tough to split, so tough that I simply avoid it. I think it's Engelmann spruce. It's not that great of firewood anyway.
Now for the Fiskars, I recently bought the splitting axe model Fiskars to compliment my quiver of splitting mauls after reading so many people raving about it on this forum. I think it is a well designed axe, but I think that it functions more as an axe than a proper splitting maul, and besides it's short handle, which doesn't bother me much, it is very sharp, so sharp than I repeatedly warned my boys to be very careful with it. Despite the warnings my youngest son already did a number on his hand while trying to make kindling with it. His little mistake required about 9 stitches to patch him up, a mistake he won't soon forget.
Here is a picture of the repair work :bug:

 

[CountryBoy19]

I could get more osage orange, but I don't take crotches or rounds with branch ends. Its a shame to pass up.

IMHO, get all you can if you have a place to store it, even if you can't split it now. Osage Orange is rot resistant so you will be able to keep it until you buy a hydraulic splitter (you know the addiction will eventually cause you to buy one).

Also, I've found that Osage splits easily with the Fiskars; I think it's a combination of the design of the head and the very, very strong grain of the Osage that makes it split more easily. At least I haven't had much problem splitting my Osage. I have about 3-4 cord that I scored not long ago and I've been working on splitting it. I can normally split a 1/3 cord in a couple hours after work while my wife stacks it, and I am not fatigued at all afterward.

ETA, oh, and if you really don't ever plan on buying a splitter, I would still recommend saving the crotches etc. If you've already cut the wood you're passing up on good wood for nothing. You can always wait until you have a big pile of crotches and knotty pieces then rent a splitter to take care of them all in one day.

 

[dlaurinaitis]

Thanks for all the replies. You guys are making me feel bad about passing on some imperfect wood. I think I'm going to revisit our wood pile at work and get some more. Storage is somewhat of an issue at home, but hey.

The town I work for insists on leaving the wood on the parkways so residents get an equal shot at it. I asked this am, about scoring some more logs, we will see. My supply is limited, but I do have a advantage!

 

[Wood Duck]

i scrounge all my wood, and as a result get lots of Ys crotches, etc. I split it all by hand. Once you have split a bunch of Ys you get the hang of it and i enjoy the challenge. Some Ys I split through both branches, so each branch is split in half, others I simply hit the middle of the crotch hard enough to bust the two sides apart (works only with a heavy maul). Either way, crotches are often nice dense wood that seems heavier than a straight round, and so should be great for long burns. Combine the normal density of Osage Orange with the extra density of a crotch, and it'll be like burning coal. That is, after you season it for three years!

 

[Slow1]

Welcome! Yes it is an addiction and it is quite fun.

As to hand splitting - I'm 6'1 and I don't get to do much physical work for my job (sit in front of the computer all day) so I imagine you have the edge on me there. However, I have found that hand splitting is not an issue for me. I'm sure that there are many here who could well outdo me in terms of #cords split in a single day but I have never had a full day to just split rounds. Rather, I spend 30min to 2 hours at a time working the wood pile as I get time. I have found for me that it has helped me to build strength and improve flexibility so I'm better now than when I started a couple years ago.

I first was using a maul (8lb I believe) that I picked up at a big-box store. Then I read about the Fiskars and tried it. Once I got used to the shorter handle (yes it was an adjustment) I fell in love with the way I could swing it much more accurately and really split pieces faster. I recently tried the maul again and found that with my improved strength and skills I now can do a much better job with it than I did at first and I am now using both as it seems to me at least that each of the tools has it's place - different pieces of wood respond differently. Some seem easier to split with the Fss and some are easier with the maul.

 

[ckarotka]

Welcome MrFood
Heating your home with wood can be a very fulfilling hobby. Sure beats stamp collecting anyway.
You mentioned spruce being tough to split, I have to agree with you on that. Mind you a lot of these things depend on exactly what variety of a certain species you are dealing with. Many types of pine are hard to split, but the type I usually get (lodgepole pine) is very easy to split, especially when its dry. The type of spruce that I have readily available is very tough to split, so tough that I simply avoid it. I think it's Engelmann spruce. It's not that great of firewood anyway.
Now for the Fiskars, I recently bought the splitting axe model Fiskars to compliment my quiver of splitting mauls after reading so many people raving about it on this forum. I think it is a well designed axe, but I think that it functions more as an axe than a proper splitting maul, and besides it's short handle, which doesn't bother me much, it is very sharp, so sharp than I repeatedly warned my boys to be very careful with it. Despite the warnings my youngest son already did a number on his hand while trying to make kindling with it. His little mistake required about 9 stitches to patch him up, a mistake he won't soon forget.
Here is a picture of the repair work :bug:

Here's my stitches compliments of a Fiskars First reply.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/56531/

 

[Wood Duck]

I didn't see anyone comment on spruce. I recently split some old spruce rounds and found the first couple of hitsmy maul sink in without seeming to do any other damage. After two or three hits in relatively the same spot, the round split. Once it had split the first time, subsequent splits were easier. Years ago I heated with wood in Alaska and split a ton of spruce, but most of it was frozen. i don't remember if the maul would sink into thawed rounds or not.

 

[Slow1]

I didn't see anyone comment on spruce. I recently split some old spruce rounds and found the first couple of hitsmy maul sink in without seeming to do any other damage. After two or three hits in relatively the same spot, the round split. Once it had split the first time, subsequent splits were easier. Years ago I heated with wood in Alaska and split a ton of spruce, but most of it was frozen. i don't remember if the maul would sink into thawed rounds or not.

I've set aside a few softwood rounds to split once frozen. I remember from last year how much easier they were solid than thawed. It may be in my head, but the difference (the frozen advantage) seems greater to me with softwoods than hardwoods as I haven't noticed much of a difference with the oak I split last winter and in the spring.

 

[fespo]

Mr. Food, what burbs are you in? Im in the south west burbs.

 

[dlaurinaitis]

I live in mokena just moved here from naperville a year ago. I lived there for 7 years or so.

I filled my trunk with some osage orange crotches and stuff. Only 2 big gnarley rounds left in the pile. Maybe ill take those tommarrow. So big ash too. I need to split what I have, I'm running out of room. Room to store it in a sightly fashion. Also, excuse the typos. Big fingers on a blackberry don't mix

 

[dlaurinaitis]

I didn't see anyone comment on spruce. I recently split some old spruce rounds and found the first couple of hitsmy maul sink in without seeming to do any other damage. After two or three hits in relatively the same spot, the round split. Once it had split the first time, subsequent splits were easier. Years ago I heated with wood in Alaska and split a ton of spruce, but most of it was frozen. i don't remember if the maul would sink into thawed rounds or not.

I've set aside a few softwood rounds to split once frozen. I remember from last year how much easier they were solid than thawed. It may be in my head, but the difference (the frozen advantage) seems greater to me with softwoods than hardwoods as I haven't noticed much of a difference with the oak I split last winter and in the spring.

Maybe ill revisit the spruce rounds when its colder.

 

[fespo]

We are not to far apart, Im in Homer Glen

 

[pants on fire]

Welcome MrFood, I'm a bit of a newb and lurker here myself. Did my first bit of scrounging this fall. I'm a bit more central Illinois...glad you won't be scrounging in my area .

 

[Jamess67]

Welcome MrFood, I'm a bit of a newb and lurker here myself. Did my first bit of scrounging this fall. I'm a bit more central Illinois...glad you won't be scrounging in my area .

Hey Pants.. .Didnt I see you just down the street beating me to a scrounge?? lol

 

[WoodPorn]

Welcome MrFood,
I am 6'3" and have no issues with the FSS, just be very carefull with it. As you have seen in the few pics posted, it is a hair splitting razor! I do the majority of my wood(5ish cord) with a Hyd. splitter but I reserve a cord or so each year to do by hand and the FSS works like no other!

Good luck, and welcome to Scroungers Anonymous!

 

[ChrisNJ]

Welcome! Yes it is an addiction and it is quite fun.

As to hand splitting - I'm 6'1 and I don't get to do much physical work for my job (sit in front of the computer all day) so I imagine you have the edge on me there. However, I have found that hand splitting is not an issue for me. I'm sure that there are many here who could well outdo me in terms of #cords split in a single day but I have never had a full day to just split rounds. Rather, I spend 30min to 2 hours at a time working the wood pile as I get time. I have found for me that it has helped me to build strength and improve flexibility so I'm better now than when I started a couple years ago.

.

+1 although I have yet to try a Fiskar's as I have been happy with my splitting ax.

MrFood get yourself a good splitting wedge and Sledge hammer and those spruce rounds will turn out to be silly easy to split. Get them from sears as the warranty is needed.