Spring Time Firewood Festival

[Simonkenton]

I decided to whack this ash tree today. Killed by the Emerald Ash Borer.

I used the little Swedish saw. Love to hear the sound of the Husqvarna roar.

I cut it up into 16 inch long drums.

One Nissan truck load. This winter we burned about 8 Nissan truck loads so this is a pretty good charge of wood for us.
This is beautiful wood, no rot at all the bark is still well-adhered to the wood. This tree died over the last 2 years, about 2/3 of the leaves were gone last summer.
Wood was still quite wet. I found it a little hard to bust the drums in two. I almost had to resort to the 9 pound hammer and the splitting wedge, but in the end the Fiskars maul split it all.

 

[CatfishHunter]

That looks like a fun day's work!

 

[BigJ273]

It’s beautiful

 

[kennyp2339]

Just as a general PSA, as more and more ash tree succumb to disease be careful felling, these tree's when dead have a tendency to have the heart wood internally separate from the outside holding wood which can lead to barber chairs, if your going after a fully dead tree its best to notch then plunge cut the middle first leaving a little bit of holding wood on the notch side then go opposite of the notch and knick the outside wood to fell. Makes a much safer job.

 

[TreePointer]

I've concluded that there's no one on this site who doesn't enjoy showing his ash.

 

[kennyp2339]

I've concluded that there's no one on this site who doesn't enjoy showing his ash.

You bet your ash that’s right

 

[jetsam]

Just as a general PSA, as more and more ash tree succumb to disease be careful felling, these tree's when dead have a tendency to have the heart wood internally separate from the outside holding wood which can lead to barber chairs, if your going after a fully dead tree its best to notch then plunge cut the middle first leaving a little bit of holding wood on the notch side then go opposite of the notch and knick the outside wood to fell. Makes a much safer job.

I've taken to doing a plunge cut for the back cut first, before the notch. This gives me the chance to see if there is any hinge wood before I take a big chunk out of the tree.

I don't do the actual back cut first, just plunge in the middle, near where the end of the back cut will be.

If it turns out that the tree has no middle, I will back off and consider my options. Pulling it over is a favorite in this case because I can be further away than the tree is tall.

I've seen guys chain up those trees, but 1) Even someone who has done it a lot does not know which way that tree will fall, and 2) On a bad day, there's a lot of shrapnel in a chain.

 

[clancey]

Thought this was interesting for the wood people...and others... clancey

(broken link removed)

 

[MoDoug]

Ran across this article, sure would be great news if this could some day help toward controlling the emerald ash borer.

Scientists discover attacking fungi that show promise against emerald ash borer

New research shows a possible path forward in controlling the emerald ash borer - which since its introduction has become the most devastating invasive forest insect in the United States, killing hundreds of millions of ash trees at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

www.sciencedaily.com

 

[clancey]

That is some interesting research would not that be great if they found a solution to all of these insects eating up the trees and causing diseases in them---they would be just wonderful because it is becoming a very big problem like the article read...thanks clancey

 

[Simonkenton]

My brother and I just cut down another ash tree on his property two days ago. He got two Nissan truck loads from it and I got one.
My wood shed is now just about full.
I have been burning ash, for the first time, this past week. The more I work with ash the more I like it.

 

[Simonkenton]

I went out today and cut up the rest of the tree in the OP with the Stihl.

And I got another truck load of ash. This will fill up the woodshed so I need no more firewood.

 

[walhondingnashua]

I was in a hurry cutting a dead ash down a few months ago and did not pay attention to what was above me. As I cut and the tree started to fall, several substantial limbs (about baseball site size) fell a few feet from me. Rookie move and one would have easily seriously hurt me or worse. Don't forget to assess what's above you in these dead trees. I know this is something we all know, but I don't think a reminder hurts anyone. I am currently shopping for a hard hat.

On the topic of finding a way to save the ash, I keep finding that some of them are not completely dead, just from the point where the borer destroyed the xylem and phloem. After I cut one, I am getting a good bit of new growth out of the stumps. I think this summer I will go around them and thin the new starts down in hopes of maybe getting a new tree. If we can help keep them around, even in small numbers, maybe the scientists can get a solution in the near future.