What Do You Do With The Short Pieces?

[velvetfoot]

I just finished stacking the grapple load yesterday.
I put the short pieces on top.
A little ugly and "pokey", but I'm not covering it anyway.

 

[Danno77]

Shoulder season, or fire pit, or the wood stove in the shed...unless it's hickory, then I might smoke some pheasant or something.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We burn them, mostly in the fall. Usually I throw them on top of the regular wood piles until they get burned.

 

[3fordasho]

Shortys-

siberian elm, box elder, willow, cottonwood: leave it lay where I cut it.

Green ash, black walnut, black cherry, softer maples: fire pit

oaks, locusts, mulberry, hard maple, white ash: go into plastic tote, then in the storage shed that gets to 130F in the summer. Stove chow after seasoned.

 

[quercus_kelloggii]

When out in the woods, work hard at now having shorties, and if I do I leave them out there. While stacking if I have them, they go into a separate mini pile, then they'll go on top of the stacks and burned up first haha.

 

[DanCorcoran]

If they are short enough, I place two side by side north-south in the stove (a few inches apart), then put the long ones east-west on top of them. This allows a draft underneath and is great for getting a hot fire started quickly.

 

[Capt]

Cherry, oak and maple go into a bin I keep in the shed to fuel my stick-burning smokers. Others such as elm, ash go into a wooden bin that is 4x4x4 and I burn that in the shoulder seasons.

 

[billb3]

On top

real short ones can go in end to end as one split

if I have a real lot (I've gotten better at not cutting too long to fit in the stove) I'll make a cube of pallets and fill that. Haven't had to do that for a while.
(plus I'll give some of the ones that are too long to my brother who has a bigger stove).

 

[yooperdave]

If they are short enough, I place two side by side north-south in the stove (a few inches apart), then put the long ones east-west on top of them. This allows a draft underneath and is great for getting a hot fire started quickly.

esactly! they are also good for starting the fires.
one more thing- if you use a charcoal grill....nuff said? (all hardwood)

 

[Cluttermagnet]

I throw them in my 'shorties and uglies' bins. After seasoning, they burn beautifully. Some of them even burn hotter or longer due to knot wood which can be more dense and resinous. Same for crotches- that sort of wood sometimes has a bit of a BTU bonus in it. Not much wood goes to waste here.

 

[Thistle]

One use - Oaks,Hickory or Black Cherry I save some for either the smoker or Weber kettle.All other I have in a big pile outside,if not too big,they will go in covered trash can outside or in a couple sturdy cardboard boxes along one wall of the shop/garage. I dont waste very much,anything over 1 inch if its sound is brought in from the woods.

Bur Oak chunks from a small stump cut-off,Sirloin Kabobs earlier tonight :coolsmile:

 

[golfandwoodnut]

One use - Oaks,Hickory or Black Cherry I save some for either the smoker or Weber kettle.All other I have in a big pile outside,if not too big,they will go in covered trash can outside or in a couple sturdy cardboard boxes along one wall of the shop/garage. I dont waste very much,anything over 1 inch if its sound is brought in from the woods.

Bur Oak chunks from a small stump cut-off,Sirloin Kabobs earlier tonight :coolsmile:

I still have a good old weber under my deck. I used to love that thing, makes be want to break it back out. If I am building a Holtz Hauzen I like to throw them in the middle. Otherwise I find a place in the stacks. I find on my end cross stacks I have room and sometimes drop them through the holes in the cross stacks or in between the open spaces. I stack double on the pallets sometimes I just lay a few across until they fill the space.

 

[Wood Duck]

The shorties end up in the center of my holz hausens, when their time comes they are great for north/south loading in the stove. I scrounge all my wood so I get many odd lengths leading to lots of shorties.

 

[Wingman]

My tree man dropped of a small load of white oak and virtually all of it was about 10" or less deep not to mention ugly. I split and stacked it. I like going the north south route and the with the 13 it works well.

 

[Kenster]

I throw shorties and small uglies and real skinny splits in between my stack rows. Makes good starter or fill-in wood.

 

[ikessky]

I throw them in my 'shorties and uglies' bins. After seasoning, they burn beautifully. Some of them even burn hotter or longer due to knot wood which can be more dense and resinous. Same for crotches- that sort of wood sometimes has a bit of a BTU bonus in it. Not much wood goes to waste here.

+1

I use the stuff out of that bin when I'm home and don't want to load the furnace fully.

 

[begreen]

I burn it all.

 

[Todd]

I burn most of them in the shoulder seasons or split them up smaller for kindling.

 

[velvetfoot]

I like the bin concept, but it's potenially just one more heavy piece of crap that has to be moved.

 

[shawneyboy]

Got a shorty bin. I burn it in shoulder season. Not a big deal either take a few pallets and build one, One pallet on bottom, then one on each of three sides, or do what I did, I had left over mesh fencing like material and attached that to a plastic pallet using wire ties. Holds in the neighborhood of 1/4 cord at 3 foot high. Now I have to make another one since the first is full.

Shawn

 

[firefighterjake]

I used to leave the chunks and punks in the wood to rot . . . until I realized that all wood is good wood.

Now I put my chunks, punks and uglies on top of the stack or in the middle if I'm building a holz miete.

I generally burn up a good percentage of my chunks, punks and uglies in the Fall or Spring when I don't need to stuff my firebox full of wood and just need to take the chill out of the house . . . it's also my "go to" stack for camp fire wood.

 

[Bspring]

I throw shorties and small uglies and real skinny splits in between my stack rows. Makes good starter or fill-in wood.

Same here. My wood will get at least 3 years so I am not worried about a little reduction in air flow and it just looks better not seeing that stuff.

 

[3fordasho]

Scrounging results in lots of shorties/uglies because other people did the cutting and don't care about length. Few years back I bought 4-5 loads of red/white oak tops already bucked up- about 25% were a tad too long so I had to trim. Now that I'm cutting my own from standing trees I have almost no shorties and when I do end up with them I'll leave them lay. I did have a couple 4x4x4' pallet bins screwed together for them, but have been able to take them down. Wood stacks look much cleaner with out them.

 

[Todd]

Tim,
Those shorties burn good loading N/S in the Fireview. If it's good hardwood I keep the shorties.

 

[3fordasho]

Tim,
Those shorties burn good loading N/S in the Fireview. If it's good hardwood I keep the shorties.

Oh yea. if it's oak, locust, apple or the like.... nothing gets left behind. I use a little in the big green egg too.

I'm clearing an entire lot that has a fair amount of box elder and siberian elm... now that stuff can lay there if it's not the right length!