RE: Just a dumb firefighter/woodburner's answers to frequently asked questions

[begreen]

That's it . . . I'm done . . . time to take a nap . . . well that and stock up on batteries, booze, bottled water and bleach before Earl hits.

BeGreen . . . Feel free to Wiki this . . . I'm not really sure how to do so.

Got coffee?

I'll copy/paste it into a wiki. We can add other questions later that way.

 

[quads]

Q. What is this vaunted Fiskars that I keep reading about here?

A. Well it depends. Here at hearth.com we have two vaunted and legendary Fiskars. The first is the Fiskars splitting ax which many members have said works as well, if not better than a splitting maul. The second Fiskars is our very own Archibald Fiskars (aka Quads) – a true legend who works as hard and as efficient as any Fiskars splitting ax. Best advice: If you’re interested in learning more about the Fiskars splitting ax just do a search . . . there are a lot of threads. If you’re interested in learning more about Archibald Fiskars you’ll have to fly around Wisconsin in an ultra-light until you spot a guy with a huge pile of wood near his farm.

HA!

 

[Later]

Should be a must read but.......TOOOO much time on your hands!

 

[Ratman]

I read the entire thread.
Very well constructed white paper with limited bias.
Thank you for your time Jake.

 

[DeePee]

It might be worth explicitly mentioning railway ties. Golden Chain trees. Species high in urushiol ( sumac, dogwood, elderberry ). Perhaps a caution regarding wood in contact with poison ivy.

FWIW: I am not a wood expert by any means. References to "poison" species of domestic trees typically mention urushiol content. I don't know the specifics of smoke composition when burned, but I imagine it would be similar to the poison ivy risk mentioned in threads last winter.

Urushiol

 

[soupy1957]

Q. Do I need an OAK?

"..........Then there is the Outside Air Kit (OAK) debate. An OAK hooks up to your stove and delivers outside air to your stove instead of relying on the air inside your home. I honestly don’t know if you need or want an OAK and as I said there are many, many threads on this topic. I will say this . . . if your stove manual says you need to have an OAK, my own take is that you should install one. If your house is super-insulated you may also want to consider an OAK . . . other than this . . . it’s really hard to say as to whether installing an OAK is crucially important, nice to have or doesn’t make much of a difference. Best advice: Search the threads and make your own decision."

I thought THIS article was a good one, concerning the topic of OAK's:

(broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.org/outdoorair/outdoorairmyth.htm)

-Soupy1957

 

[Backwoods Savage]

What is this . . . there are an awful lot of words here

Q. Why did you write this?

A. I’m a government employee and have lots of time at work . . . well that and it seems as though I keep seeing the same questions asked every year right about this time. I thought maybe I could combine some of the most frequently asked questions in one thread and some folks might not have to dig around as much to look for the answers to the most commonly asked questions . . . well that and you can only watch the Rollerblading Babies so many times before you need to do something productive.

Feel free to add to my answers . . . this isn't designed to be an end-all, be-all type of thread . . . I tried to account for different opinions (even when they're wrong -- yeah Dennis I'm talking about your insistence that splitting wood vertically is the way to go ) . . . and some of my answers weren't completely thorough . . . rather I wrote this up hoping that some folks might find it useful to have some of the most commonly asked questions here in one place.

Ha Jake, you got that in with the first post! lol


Lad, I must say you have put much thought into this and have done a fine job. I had considered doing something like this along with a series of frequent mistakes that new wood burners make, or should I say, common mistakes new wood burners make. Of course the number one mistake there is to buy the stove, install it and then buy some wood. That will work when burning fuel like oil or gas but just does not work well with wood.


I will be going back over your posts again so perhaps will comment more later. However, we are getting short for time for our trip out your way so it might have to wait until we return (maybe with a new stove).

In the meantime, I'll still be sitting down and splitting all our wood in the proper vertical manner.

 

[begreen]

OK Jake, you have been wikified and immortalized. The content now resides here:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Jakes_Woodburning_FAQ/

 

[begreen]

You sorta peed on my parade with the vertical splitter comment. :blank:

I would like to see anyone try to split some 36-48" rounds horizontally with their splitter. There are times when vertical splitting is the only safe and sane way to split.

 

[guy01]

Very well done I enjoyed reading this
Guy

 

[firefighterjake]

Should be a must read but.......TOOOO much time on your hands!

Well, if truth be told I have been working on this for some time . . . just doing one or two questions at a time . . . summer is my "slow season" . . . this month and next month is my "busy season."

 

[firefighterjake]

What is this . . . there are an awful lot of words here

Q. Why did you write this?

A. I’m a government employee and have lots of time at work . . . well that and it seems as though I keep seeing the same questions asked every year right about this time. I thought maybe I could combine some of the most frequently asked questions in one thread and some folks might not have to dig around as much to look for the answers to the most commonly asked questions . . . well that and you can only watch the Rollerblading Babies so many times before you need to do something productive.

Feel free to add to my answers . . . this isn't designed to be an end-all, be-all type of thread . . . I tried to account for different opinions (even when they're wrong -- yeah Dennis I'm talking about your insistence that splitting wood vertically is the way to go ) . . . and some of my answers weren't completely thorough . . . rather I wrote this up hoping that some folks might find it useful to have some of the most commonly asked questions here in one place.

Ha Jake, you got that in with the first post! lol


Lad, I must say you have put much thought into this and have done a fine job. I had considered doing something like this along with a series of frequent mistakes that new wood burners make, or should I say, common mistakes new wood burners make. Of course the number one mistake there is to buy the stove, install it and then buy some wood. That will work when burning fuel like oil or gas but just does not work well with wood.


I will be going back over your posts again so perhaps will comment more later. However, we are getting short for time for our trip out your way so it might have to wait until we return (maybe with a new stove).

In the meantime, I'll still be sitting down and splitting all our wood in the proper vertical manner.

There you go Dennis . . . you too can be immortalized by BeGreen by coming up with your own Wiki article on Mistakes Newbies Make . . . I'm thinking it would be a good read for newbies. Go for it!

 

[firefighterjake]

Thanks for the comments folks.

 

[Jags]

I would like to see anyone try to split some 36-48" rounds horizontally with their splitter.

Never even grunted to get it up there. :coolsmile:

 

[sullystull]

What is this . . . there are an awful lot of words here

Q. Why did you write this?

A. I’m a government employee and have lots of time at work . . .

I want my tax dollars back

 

[IndianaTech]

What is this . . . there are an awful lot of words here

Q. Why did you write this?

A. I’m a government employee and have lots of time at work . . .

I want my tax dollars back

LOL, lots of great information here..... Thanks !!

 

[firefighterjake]

What is this . . . there are an awful lot of words here

Q. Why did you write this?

A. I’m a government employee and have lots of time at work . . .

I want my tax dollars back

HehHeh . . . we're with the government . . . and we're here to help.

 

[begreen]

I would like to see anyone try to split some 36-48" rounds horizontally with their splitter.

Never even grunted to get it up there. :coolsmile:

That's a nice medium-size round. Now how about the big ones? :coolgrin:

Power equipment is nice, but our splitter would never do that. No staging deck, and we lack the grappler to drop it on the deck. The only way our big splits move is by manual labor. It takes 2 men and a boy just to get them rolling to the splitter.

 

[Jags]

I would like to see anyone try to split some 36-48" rounds horizontally with their splitter.

Never even grunted to get it up there. :coolsmile:

That's a nice medium-size round. Now how about the big ones? :coolgrin:

The log lifter did the work. No grapple here.
And that was about a 40" round so it met your criteria. :coolgrin:

 

[Nate Finch]

Awesome thread. Really great information for this newbie. It's great to have all this in one place. Thanks!

 

[ROBERT F]

Q. What should I do if my wood gets wet from the rain or covered in snow?

A. Don’t worry. Be happy. Now that you’ve got that Bobby Brown song in your head, not to nit pik, but I think it was Bobby McFarin. :smirk:

 

[begreen]

I would like to see anyone try to split some 36-48" rounds horizontally with their splitter.

Never even grunted to get it up there. :coolsmile:

That's a nice medium-size round. Now how about the big ones? :coolgrin:

The log lifter did the work. No grapple here.
And that was about a 40" round so it met your criteria. :coolgrin:

Is that homebrewed?

 

[Jags]

Awesome thread. Really great information for this newbie. It's great to have all this in one place. Thanks!

Welcome Nate - as a newbie, remember that there is tons of info out in the hearth wiki. Our resident Fireman has a way with words - lots of 'em ;-P . Stick around, this is a great forum that has many folks with tons of collective knowledge and a good helping of humor thrown in to boot.

 

[Jags]

I would like to see anyone try to split some 36-48" rounds horizontally with their splitter.

Never even grunted to get it up there. :coolsmile:

That's a nice medium-size round. Now how about the big ones? :coolgrin:

The log lifter did the work. No grapple here.
And that was about a 40" round so it met your criteria. :coolgrin:

Is that homebrewed?

Yep, thats a Jags custom right there. The sucker will lift anything you can roll to it (including the back end of a small car as a stress test :gulp: )

 

[firefighterjake]

Q. What should I do if my wood gets wet from the rain or covered in snow?

A. Don’t worry. Be happy. Now that you’ve got that Bobby Brown song in your head, not to nit pik, but I think it was Bobby McFarin. :smirk:

I think you're right . . . I did say I am just a big, dumb firefighter right?