How do you cut your wood?

[BrianN]

Well, obviously, I know how you cut it. My real question is in what length to bring it home? Do you cut to length? Or 8' or so and bring home and buck to length?
I ask because I never had to go out and get wood. I always just got it from our property. But, we recently moved, and don't have property now. So, we have to go to crown land and get our wood. We cut to 8' and load the truck up.
Now, I guess my real reason for this first question is, if you do the same, how do you buck it at home?
Right out of the truck? Load it onto the ground then buck from there (which is what I did this time) Or, do you have a "special" table or apparatus you use to put the logs on?

 

[StihlHead]

Where in Northern BC are you? I have been all over BC myself...

Unless you have an ATV, tractor or skidder, logs are usually too large to mess with. For that reason I have been cutting to firewood length and cutting rounds to a size that I can haul the wood out with. When I was at my ex's and burning in her OWB, firewood length meant 2-3 ft long and no splitting anything under a foot in diameter. Those things take large rounds and large noodled wood. Now I have a large wood stove, so its 16-18 inch lengths. When I am falling trees I buck them to length and noodle them into liftable sizes and into the truck they go. If I am cleaning up a tree service job I buck any longer logs and noodle the rounds to a manageable size. Once home, I split the noodled rounds with a maul into fireplace splits and stack them for drying. No special apparatus for me, but the rounds/sections that do not split (like burl or knot wood) I noodle smaller with a chainsaw. I use a flat block of wood on the ground for splitting with the maul or noodling with the chainsaw.

Noodle cutting: using a chainsaw to cut large bucked wood rounds with the grain into halves, quarters, 6-way, 9-way, or lately 12-way sections. The parallel wood chips look like noodles, or curly French fries. Its the easiest way to cut with standard chainsaw chain.

 

[StihlHead]

Here is a photo of the last of many 4-6 foot diameter Doug fir rounds being noodled into manageable blocks for splitting later. That's my 044 with a 25 inch bar buried in it.

 

[gmule]

I like to buck the logs on site. We don't have very many large trees but I prefer to keep the sawdust in the forest. I have enough trash from splitting it.

 

[bogydave]

I fell the tree. Trim the limbs.
Mark every 17" , then cut the logs to manageable sizes I can skid out to the PU & trailer.
Then cut them to stove size, 17" rounds & load.
Take home off load , split & stack.
Not sure I could handle an 8' log, would be heavy & hard on the back.
Saw mess is at the cutting area.

Some pictures : click Here

 

[Hills Hoard]

You know I never thought about doing the cutting onsite due to the mess it creates. I've just been using the leaf blower afterwards... But thats a bloody fair. point.

 

[BrianN]

StihlHead, I live just outside of Prince George.
We don't go after the large wood. We go after the smaller, processed beetle kill pine. Nice and dry, de-limbed and sitting near the side of the road.
It is easy to carry 8' lengths as they are only up to 10" in diameter.
We brought home 8' lengths last time, this weekend, I think we will go the buck to length route. It is a bit less mess in the yard.

 

[firefighterjake]

Buck to stove length, load in ATV cart and haul out to the truck and/or trailer.

There was one summer that I cut 4 foot lengths . . . but it was a special case . . . I was clearing a lot for a fire pond and was trying to get the wood out of the area as quickly as possible.

 

[maple1]

If you have a trailer, you could build a wood sawbuck frame in it with high bunks, load it up in long lengths, drive it to your splitting area, then cut it to wood length right on the sawbuck/trailer. That would cut down on the handling between where the logs lie, and the splitting - and cut down on the cutting-to-length time as a sawbuck really helps with that, as long as the stuff isn't too heavy to load into the sawbuck/trailer in long lengths. You might be able to do something like that right in the back of a truck, but it would be a bit of a riskier proposition - you'd want to make sure there is lots of space all around the wood, and maybe a wood wear surface/tall bunks, between it & the truck so you don't saw into your truck. That wouldn't be good.

 

[Wood Duck]

It depends on the situation. If I have lots of time in the forest, and I can pull the trailer right next to the wood, I may cut to stove length right there in the forest. more commonly I am trying to get the wood moved quickly. For example, a neighbor had a tree felled and the tree company is coming to remove the wood tomorrow, or a construction site where they will burn everything in a week are two situations where the main goal is to move a lot of wood fast. In that case I'll cut the largest pieces I can comfortably move and finish the cutting at home. I have all the space I need at home, and nobody complains about piles of logs in the process of becoming firewood.

The other factor that I think about is carrying the wood from the place it fell to my trailer. If I am cutting smaller diameter trees and if I have to carry them more than a few feet (or a couple of meters, for you foreigners) I'll cut them into the longest pieces I can carry. It is far easier to carry a six footer on my shoulder than it is to carry four stove length pieces.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

I'm of the buck in the woods camp and do all the chainsawing out in the bush, I live on a smaller lot and the only place I have to do my splitting is on my paved driveway,,,, that makes enough of a mess, no way do I want all that sawdust blowing around my yard.

 

[Hickorynut]

It depends on the situation. If I have lots of time in the forest, and I can pull the trailer right next to the wood, I may cut to stove length right there in the forest. more commonly I am trying to get the wood moved quickly. For example, a neighbor had a tree felled and the tree company is coming to remove the wood tomorrow, or a construction site where they will burn everything in a week are two situations where the main goal is to move a lot of wood fast. In that case I'll cut the largest pieces I can comfortably move and finish the cutting at home. I have all the space I need at home, and nobody complains about piles of logs in the process of becoming firewood.

The other factor that I think about is carrying the wood from the place it fell to my trailer. If I am cutting smaller diameter trees and if I have to carry them more than a few feet (or a couple of meters, for you foreigners) I'll cut them into the longest pieces I can carry. It is far easier to carry a six footer on my shoulder than it is to carry four stove length pieces.

Wood Duck says it exactly as is my usual situation. Cutting on somebody it is generally a big hurry, if for no other reason than get it before some else. If able though, as in my own woods, it is always take my time and if splittable with a maul, do it all but the stacking in the field/woods.

 

[Flatbedford]

I cut all but the smallest stuff to length and usually have to half or quarter to get it on the truck. Being a suburban scrounger, most of the wood I get is large, storm damaged Oak or Black Locust. The rounds are often way to big to manage and an 8 footer would require a crane!

 

[blades]

Lenght about right for stove, then chunks that I can pick up, but that depends on access or if can be rolled to truck/trailer.

 

[StihlHead]

StihlHead, I live just outside of Prince George.
We don't go after the large wood. We go after the smaller, processed beetle kill pine. Nice and dry, de-limbed and sitting near the side of the road.
It is easy to carry 8' lengths as they are only up to 10" in diameter.
We brought home 8' lengths last time, this weekend, I think we will go the buck to length route. It is a bit less mess in the yard.

I see. Your situation is like a lot of the west US with massive stands of beetle kill pines. Different world there with small dry pine logs than here with large wet firs and hardwoods. In your case maybe just make up a flat trailer to haul the logs home on. As for the 'messy' sawdust, I just mound it up around my huge 6' blueberries as mulch. They love it and I never can have too much of it.

I spent many summers up in Jasper/Banff, 70 and 100 Mile House, Kamloops, and Vancouver Is. Also took the AlCan up to the Yukon one summer, until we hit a landslide that had closed the road. The next year we took the ferry to Alaska instead. Price George is up there on what, the 54th parallel? I remember massive clouds of starving mosquittoes there, and in a lot of BC towns they had trucks rolling around spraying DDT. Must look different with all the dead pine stands.

 

[jdp1152]

Cut to length and quarter, then split if needed at home.

 

[red oak]

I cut to stove length in the woods, I won't split in the woods unless the rounds are 18 inches in diameter or greater. I like to cut in the woods, then do most of the splitting at home, at my leisure.

 

[HDRock]

I fell the tree. Trim the limbs.
Mark every 17" , then cut the logs to manageable sizes I can skid out to the PU & trailer.
Then cut them to stove size, 17" rounds & load.
Take home off load , split & stack.
Not sure I could handle an 8' log, would be heavy & hard on the back.
Saw mess is at the cutting area.

Some pictures : click Here

Exactly what he said,even 17"
A great tip I picked up on here,Saw mess is at the site