Buck now or store dry till spring?

[Brogan007]

I'm kinda new to this. Are limbs/trees any more difficult to buck if they are stored for a few months....compared to slicing them up asap.
I seem to remember a chainsaw post talking about how dried out wood is harder to saw.

 

[bogydave]

Some wood cuts harder when dry.
The firewood will start drying faster if cut & stacked.
Even better is cut, split & stacked (CSS), this time of year in your area is cooler to work in.

 

[ansehnlich1]

I buck up everything and split it all as soon as I get it. Then I stack it and cover the tops and forget about for a couple years

 

[LLigetfa]

I buck my wood up as soon as I get it and stack it in the round until Spring. I don't like running the log splitter in the cold weather. I also don't like stacking on frozen ground. Invariably the frost topples some of my stacks of rounds.

 

[mywaynow]

I wouldn't want to try and move big limbs/stalks around myself. Cut now- no spiders, no bees, no sweating your arse off. Some woods split best when below freezing too. My overall take is firewood processing is a cold weather sport.

 

[seeyal8r]

+1

CSS and forget about it.

 

[woodmiser]

I don't like running the log splitter in the cold weather.

Just curious... why not?

 

[basswidow]

I also agree that now is the time to cut split and stack. Certainly not in warmer weather - unless you prefer it.

That being said, I don't think it will become too difficult to cut. It may depend on the species. Here's my reasoning. Most everything that I cut is dead fall, trees brought down by storms, or trees that were pushed over on a construction site and have been sitting for a year. Some have sat for more than a year before I get to them. They cut up just fine. Some green hardwoods like oak, locust, hickory, and maple can dull chains - so I wouldn't let this dictate whether you cut now or later. File sharpen your chain and roll with it.

If you have the time to cut and split it now - do so. If you are stock piling scrounges you want to CSS later - grab what you can and cut it later. When I am scrounging, I will gather and stock pile and leave the CSS for later - because you can't let a scrounge sit or it gets legs. Get all you can get when you can get it!

 

[LLigetfa]

I don't like running the log splitter in the cold weather.

Just curious... why not?

The oil is too thick. I don't like running splash lube engines with thick oil and I won't change the oil to a Winter grade. I put away the tractor and splitter for the Winter. It's easy to pull the chainsaw though.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I'm with LLigetfa when it comes to splitting. I stack it after cutting but wait until snow melt to split. Then it gets stacked right away onto unfrozen ground.