What I learned in my first season of wood burning...

[EatenByLimestone]

I found a local dude that had some kiln dried stuff, sent pics of the oven and everything. Freshly split an it's at 13% moisture reading. Nice. For some reason it's coaling a bit more tho? Idk what kind of wood it is tho.

Yeah, well, I live in the woods, with 1 acre. My neighbor has 30 acres, she doesn't care if I cut down dead stuff, so I've been poaching that. The biggest issue I have is once I cut up a log into rounds.... I can't split them! I have a splitting maul and give her everything, but most of the time the wood won't pop. They say you're supposed to split the rounds to help the wood dry out, but I typically can't split the rounds unless they GET more dried out. I don't have a splitter so I'm chopping everything manually since it's fun, but IDK how you people split all this stuff. I'm 180lbs... not a huge guy, but not small either. Does everyone have power splitters or what?

Hmm. Everybody has a different opinion on whats best when splitting by hand. Some like to swing heaver mauls and sledge, others like the speed of lighter ones. Regardless of which you find you like, pay attention to form. Many people pull up while swinging and cut their swing power. Too high of a chopping block will do this too. And look over the round for check marks to aim at. You can also split slabs off the sides of rounds that don't want to split in half.

 

[Tron]

Does everyone have power splitters or what?

I'm not a small guy, either, but after I brought down a huge dead pine that was knotted all over, I gave up on manual splitting (good Fiskas axe and sledge/wedge if that's not enough). That thing really took the fun out of splitting. So I got myself a splitter. Total game-changer, got the whole tree split up in an afternoon...

 

[begreen]

Never had more than one in the box. I have heard stories about this. NIELS recommendation is no more than two.

I guess I was living dangerously. They aren't sticks of dynamite.

Northern Idaho Energy Logs

Northern Idaho Energy Logs - BeGreen Manufacturer: North Idaho Energy Logs, Moyie Springs, ID Website: http://www.northidahoenergylogs.com/Phone: (208)267-5311. Reviewer: BeGreen Date of test: 2/03/06 Packaging: sold by the pallet of 240 logs or partial pallet...

www.hearth.com

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I had 3 in my stove last weekend. This is the tractor supply version. I find they burn better mixed with cord wood. Otherwise they may become bricks of blackened sawdust.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I found a local dude that had some kiln dried stuff, sent pics of the oven and everything. Freshly split an it's at 13% moisture reading. Nice. For some reason it's coaling a bit more tho? Idk what kind of wood it is tho.

Yeah, well, I live in the woods, with 1 acre. My neighbor has 30 acres, she doesn't care if I cut down dead stuff, so I've been poaching that. The biggest issue I have is once I cut up a log into rounds.... I can't split them! I have a splitting maul and give her everything, but most of the time the wood won't pop. They say you're supposed to split the rounds to help the wood dry out, but I typically can't split the rounds unless they GET more dried out. I don't have a splitter so I'm chopping everything manually since it's fun, but IDK how you people split all this stuff. I'm 180lbs... not a huge guy, but not small either. Does everyone have power splitters or what?

.Reading some of this I would say. Get a splitter, The whole wood thing can get time consuming and labor intensive if you let it. I split green and sometimes my wood sits and then I split. There are some decent splitters for under a K and you'll never regret having one. You can always hand split when you get the opportunity, but right now you need to concentrate on wood storage and getting ahead.
My first year I calculated my estimated wood usage by taking what my stove holds and multiplying by the following
A. dead of winter 2.25 loads per day
B late fall early spring 1.5 loads.pr day
C spring and fall 1 load per day
Total up the cut and divide by 128 and that will give you about how many cords you will need.. then add some for good measure... once you get past a full winters burning you will have roughly how much you can burn..
I burn no less than 3 no more then 4 cords per year. I am on the 3 year plan so I'm sitting on no less than 12 cords CSS

 

[bigealta]

This is The Most Important Thing! Pick the Right Wood. When u cut down the dead standing or any other tree/ logs, cut a round off the end and try to split it. If it’s a nightmare or even pretty difficult, skip it and move on to the next tree. If you do want to make use of it cut it into 8” or 9” rounds and you should be able to split them into chunks. But it’s so much easier to work with good easily splittable wood.
I split everything by hand 3-5 cords a year. Mostly oak but maple cherry locust apple ash in the past. I use a light 4lbs I think maul. I like to hit it hard and fast. The heavy maul is way to slow and heavy for me.

 

[bigealta]

And yes the light maul works great on big and even monster size wood

 

[Caw]

And yes the light maul works great on big and even monster size woodView attachment 274235

You need a bigger vehicle!

 

[bigealta]

Ha, yes. Maybe I could borrow that 911.

 

[ADDvanced]

So everyone here is going to focus right in on the firewood/hearth aspect of this thread and skip right over the mention off a 911 engine?? Even if someone here has ignored all advice and hung out on the hearth.com waiting patiently for years for someone to come along and help out with a 911 engine rebuild?? What kind of crazy world do we live in!!?

Haha. Well, yeah, a quote to rebuild it properly by a shop was $10k+, so I decided to tackle it myself. Actually pretty close to finishing up... here's the complete playlist, I documented everything: