# How do you measure when cutting rounds?



## bogydave (Jan 16, 2010)

I have a hard time cutting everything the same length. I started using a stick with marks.
Some dumb a$$ cut my stick  so I taped & glued it. (OK I'm the DA)
 Anyway, it is nice to be close with all the rounds, 
What is the tip/trick to cutting all the rounds to the same length. +/- 1"   or so?
trying to stay close to 18" shorter works better than too long , I load back to front (north - south) .
Pic of my stick marked every 17-1/2", spliced once so far.


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## hareball (Jan 16, 2010)

I would use your stick method and just score each log.
I bet alot of the guys here don't measure, they just know!


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## LLigetfa (Jan 16, 2010)

bogydave said:
			
		

> What is the tip/trick to cutting all the rounds to the same length. +/- 1"   or so?


I thought I had OCD.  For logs on the ground, I use a stick with marks every 20 inches.  On my sawbuck the legs are spaced 20 inches.  From the handle of my saw to the tip of the bar is 20 inches.


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## Bigg_Redd (Jan 16, 2010)

bogydave said:
			
		

> How do you measure when cutting rounds?




I cut mostly long, straight logs like Douglas Fir (God's own firewood) and found it's easiest to just walk it with a tape measure and a can of orange marking paint.  Works like a charm and no guessing.


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## Bigg_Redd (Jan 16, 2010)

hareball said:
			
		

> I would use your stick method and just score each log.
> *I bet alot of the guys here don't measure, they just know*!



I've only started measuring recently.  I can eyeball just fine but it's much nicer when all rounds are identical.


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## Birdman1 (Jan 16, 2010)

My 025 is 16" from tip to dogs, just use one side or the other and eye ball a spot on the bark.
Gonna use a marker on the bar of the bigger saws and see how it works, can't be too tuff to
just rub some on as it wears off.


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## DBoon (Jan 16, 2010)

Tape measure and white chalk.  I cut my wood to 16" length, and every 16" is premarked on a carpenter's tape measure, making it easy.  But if it wasn't, I would just specially mark an old tape for this purpose.  

I thought I was anal to do this, but after having to recut 17.5" to 18" (purchased) pieces down to size with a chopsaw  to fit into my stove, it definitely makes sense.


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## tjsquirrel (Jan 16, 2010)

I use a stick made from Cedar with 16" marks along its length.  I make the marks with my chainsaw in order to account for its kerf.  Cedar is nice because the little "nubs" that were once branches keep it from rolling off my log.  I keep one big "nub" at the end of the stick to act as a stopper; I just slide the stick up the log until it stops and then begin cutting.  One thing I've learned is to wrap an end with flagging tape otherwise the stick will get lost amongst all the other branches.


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## jebatty (Jan 16, 2010)

Two approaches. If I'm not cutting a lot, I use a mark on the chainsaw bar. I scratcheded some paint off the bar at 16" and 18" cutting points. Tip of bar to mark is the measure, eyeball a spot on the bark at the measure point, and make your cut. You may be surprised to find how easy it is to find a distinguishing mark on the bark at the measured cut point.

If I have a lot of logs to cut, then I use a marker fixed to one of the bar nuts. Nothing more than a piece of #9 steel wire with a loop the diameter of the bar bolt to fix it under the bar nut; then the wire extends at a right angle away from the saw for a distance equal to what I want to repeatedly cut when measured from the chain; then bend the wire down at that point a couple of inches. To make repeated, accurate cuts, simply let the bent down portion of the wire fall over the end of the log and make your cut; repeat.


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## Backwoods Savage (Jan 16, 2010)

A simple 1" x 1" x 16." Some I just eyeball but I like to measure the butt log for sure especially if it is a big one as those are the easiest to misjudge. Marking them takes so little time anyway so I just do most. For making the mark, a simple score with the axe works nicely. Maybe that is a throwback from my old logging days. Back then we used a 4' marker that was also notched at the 2' mark so we could measure any length and then just a small notch with the axe where the log was to be cut.

Another benefit of using the marker and an axe is that I can do some of the trimming with the axe as I go along marking the logs.


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## savageactor7 (Jan 16, 2010)

We use the 20" bar, close enough is good enough for me...it's firewood not trim carpentry.


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## jeff_t (Jan 16, 2010)

If it fits on my splitter it fits in the firebox. One nice thing about a furnace.
I try for 24 inches, makes for a lot less cutting.


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## jeff_t (Jan 16, 2010)

If it fits on my splitter it fits in the firebox. One nice thing about a furnace.
I try for 24 inches, makes for a lot less cutting. If I get one a little long I trim off about six inches and make kindling.


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## EatenByLimestone (Jan 16, 2010)

I used to use a homemade bevel gauge I could set to any length up to 24", but now I just guess.  I'd mark my cuts with a piece of chalk.  Some folks use their bar as a gauge.  

Matt


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## drdoct (Jan 16, 2010)

For the stuff you've got on the ground I use a sawbuck with 4 X's spaced 17" apart.  For big stuff I've got a piece of remnant flooring cut 17" that I use for the first 1 or 2 cuts then I can pretty much judge it after that by eye.  The city cuts most of mine though so I'm a little out of practice.  I've also got a sawbuck that's 17" that I use for single pieces that the city cut too long but most of that ends up in my dad's fireplace where he can handle up to 24".


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## Eric Johnson (Jan 16, 2010)

I use the saw. Since I cut 24" chunks, from the tip of my bar to the middle of the handle is the desired length. My pieces range in length from 22 to 26 inches. I could probably eyeball it with similar "accuracy." I'm not all that fussy. It all goes up in smoke in the end, anyway.


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## Wood Duck (Jan 16, 2010)

I use the bar on my saw. I assumed that my 16 inch Homelite bar stuck out 16 inches from the saw. Unfortunately it is really only about 14.5 inches from saw to bar tip. I guess I am better off with rounds too short than rounds too long.


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## tcassavaugh (Jan 16, 2010)

me too, just use the bar and eyeball where the cut should be...works close enough for me.

cass


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## StackedLumber (Jan 16, 2010)

use my bar to dogs-fast convenient


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## joshlaugh (Jan 16, 2010)

I will eye ball it if I have been cutting all week and am "in practice" for it.  If it is just one tree I am bucking I will use my bar on the saw.


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## Bigg_Redd (Jan 16, 2010)

tjsquirrel said:
			
		

> I use a stick made from Cedar with 16" marks along its length.  *I make the marks with my chainsaw in order to account for its kerf. * Cedar is nice because the little "nubs" that were once branches keep it from rolling off my log.  I keep one big "nub" at the end of the stick to act as a stopper; I just slide the stick up the log until it stops and then begin cutting.  One thing I've learned is to wrap an end with flagging tape otherwise the stick will get lost amongst all the other branches.



THAT is anal.


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## Adios Pantalones (Jan 16, 2010)

I guess.  On big logs I use the bar, but otherwise, I cut cut cut and don't measure.  They all fit in the stove.  Eventually you get down to where they're +- an inch or 2.


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## Tony H (Jan 16, 2010)

I must say I am amazed that so many people measure the length of every log cut. I don't ever measure just eye ball and cut . With longer logs I go along and make a mark with the saw every 18 in or so and then go back and make the cuts. I do get a few every now and then that are a little long but not too many.


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## LLigetfa (Jan 16, 2010)

When I was in my former home, I made a stick that was 23 inches, whis is as long as the longest that would fit in my stove.  I then cut kerfs 1.5 inches in from each end and used it as a measuring guide.  I'd hold the stick to the log and walk it down the log marking it with a hatchet.  Initially I was using a yellow lumber crayon but that didn't mark well on some bark and I kept breaking the crayons.  When I sold the house I left the stick with the buyer.

I buy my wood in 8 foot lengths but they are seldom exactly 8 feet long so when I buck them to 20 inch lengths, invariably I end up with some odd length piece left over.  I've thought of using a 7 foot long bungee cord with four equally divided markers on it that I would stretch out to the length of the log.  That way it would split the difference equally among the 5 pieces instead of having one short piece left over.  When I use my measuring stick I will often steal an inch or so from each piece as I go to split the difference.


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## LLigetfa (Jan 16, 2010)

Tony H said:
			
		

> I must say I am amazed that so many people measure the length...


My father bough a farm from an old Finlander whose family had homesteaded the land.  One day my father was measuring a piece of wood on the barn when the old Finlander saw him and laughing said to him, "You use a measure tape on a barn?  I never used a measure tape when I built the house!"  It showed.  There was not a level or plumb element anywhere.  I never lost my marbles... I could always find my marbles in the same corner of the room.

One of my pet peeves when friends would help to buck up firewood was that they were every which length.  It would drive me nuts getting free wood from tree service guys.  For some reason they cannot be consistent in length and can't seem to even cut them perpendicular.  I could just see the look on their face if I asked them for the rounds to be cut to _exactly_ 20 inches, not 23 and not 17!


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## bogydave (Jan 16, 2010)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

> Tony H said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I have the same issue, my 18" is not anybody else's 18", when friends & family help cut I get a very mixed length. 
I can fit 24" in the BK but prefer 18" +/- 1". 
I've been called anal  by buddies when helping build my shop (36 X 52) but, I cut every stud exact. It went together square. 
That said, I'm only asking for 18"  +/- 1" or so.  It stacks better & always fits into the stove the same.
The stick helps but is slow.
I may come up with an attached 18 wire on the bar nuts.
 Anal, yeh, but I've witnessed worse people problems & behaviors going the other direction.
Now that I'm retired & can do it my way, I do it my way best I can.
I know if I was selling wood 18" +/- 1" it would be  that.

After a few weeks of steady cutting I'd probably get good enough to be in specs, but other projects keep getting in the way.

So I'll put a mark on the bar, have my stick handy & when cutting a bunch of logs, like now I'll hook a wire or something to the bar nuts like
jebatty "If I have a lot of logs to cut, then I use a marker fixed to one of the bar nuts. Nothing more than a piece of #9 steel wire with a loop the diameter of the bar bolt to fix it under the bar nuts"
Good one Jim

Thanks, 
I learned allot

Good bunch of folks here, lots of knowledge too.


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## DBoon (Jan 16, 2010)

One of the main reasons I'm doing my own cutting now is that the cordwood cutters I could buy from just don't understand the limitations of a small stove.  I ask for 16", and I get anywhere from 16-18".  Then, I have to chopsaw 20% of the splits to smaller sizes to fit them into my stove.  It's a major pita.


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## LLigetfa (Jan 16, 2010)

Hey, if you wanna talk anal, I was thinking of mounting two laser pointers, one on each side of my saw and have them converge on a spot that is 20 inches away from the nose of the bar when the bar is perpendicular to the log.


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## Hurricane (Jan 16, 2010)

I use the bar to the dogs. I just touch the dogs to the end then touch the tip to the log with the chain spinning. I then cut on the mark, after a few of these my eye is trained well enough.


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## ISeeDeadBTUs (Jan 17, 2010)

Seriously?!? You guys have time to measure every piece??

At 8 cord a year, I eyeball it. True, true, I suck at the eyeball method. But I set the long ones aside and load them N/S on top of an E/W load. The too-long-end ends up as nice coals at the end of the burn, which then becomes the base for the next burn.

Jimbo


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## WOODBUTCHER (Jan 17, 2010)

On Grapple loads ......it's easy to mark 4-5 trunks at a time and have at it.

WoodButcher


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## JoeyD (Jan 17, 2010)

My stove takes 18" pieces and I have an 18" bar so I use that as a guide. 18 1/4" won't fit. For some reason it seems easier to eyeball 24" then 18".


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## Vande (Jan 17, 2010)

Wow, I cannot believe that no one has posted using the Mingo.  I have used this tool since I saw it on Bailey's and had to have it.  My stacks have been very even and much easier to deal with since I started using it.  Plus, my one week supply that I load on Sat or Sun's depending on the past week weather has to fit in the antique wood bin in my breezway, and it will only fit 18" or less.  So it is important that I have a accurate cutting plan.  Hopefully here is the link http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=265&catID;=  different diameters are available and I have found a time savings versus using the stick method.  You have to be careful rolling over obstacles, like limbs, but the time savings is worth it in my experience.


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## Tony H (Jan 17, 2010)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

> Tony H said:
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I have seen some construction like that but not mine , when accuracy is called for that's what I do. After all I am not building anything with my firewood much less a house. For some reason I have a good eye for lengths and levels and can get pretty close on length and almost perfect on level on the other hand I may have lost my marbles. ;-P 
As for the tree guys I never asked , one guy cuts almost perfect 18" by eye because his guys haul by hand and another guy uses a triple axle grapple loader so he is any size up to 800lbs I don't complain.


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## bogydave (Jan 17, 2010)

When I was cutting 10+ cords a year, working & didn't wear "bifocals" (another benefit that comes with age) 
I was with an inch or so.
 Now the glasses make things right in front of you knee high or lower, looks bowed or looks like it has a hump & bigger so I cut shorter. Make sense?
Maybe I should leave the bifocals in my pocket & just use safety glasses when cutting wood. 

I seem to cut the smaller ends of the log longer " & the big ends  shorter" & don't know why. 
Must be an optical illusion between my glasses, eyes & brain. 
I believe that as I get back into the swing of things & am cutting more, I'll be able to stay within a usable margin of error with out measuring.
Maybe.

Sounds like I'm not the only one who's a little finicky about the length. sure stacks better also if the lengths are the same.


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## Birdman1 (Jan 17, 2010)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

> Hey, if you wanna talk anal, I was thinking of mounting two laser pointers, one on each side of my saw and have them converge on a spot that is 20 inches away from the nose of the bar when the bar is perpendicular to the log.



Dude a chainsaw with a laser?
Thats awesome


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## Lumber-Jack (Jan 17, 2010)

bogydave said:
			
		

> When I was cutting 10+ cords a year, working & didn't wear "bifocals" (another benefit that comes with age)
> I was with an inch or so.
> Now the glasses make things right in front of you knee high or lower, looks bowed or looks like it has a hump & bigger so I cut shorter. Make sense?
> Maybe I should leave the bifocals in my pocket & just use safety glasses when cutting wood.
> ...


Well that's funny, I use a measuring stick and while I was reading this thread was thinking about how I started using a stick and why I still use one, and came to the exact opposite conclusion, I tend to cut the skinny logs short and the bigger diameter logs longer.

I carry a couple 17" measuring sticks that are sprayed painted florescent orange so they don't get lost That habit started when I use to cut cedar shake blocks for a shake mill. They had two sizes they wanted them cut at, 24 " and I think the other size was 16",,,, anyway, if you sent them many blocks that were much bigger or smaller they didn't like it and we would hear about it, so we always used marker sticks and made notches in the logs before we cut. In fact we use to make two or three notches for each cut because the logs we were cutting were so big. Some were 8+ ft in diameter.
Old habits don't die easy and although I can eye them up pretty good, I can't do it 100% of the time and now I'm the one who gets upset if I get a round and has to be cut down so the splits will fit in the stove.


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## Wood Duck (Jan 17, 2010)

I was splitting wood yesterday and took a look at the lengths of my rounds. I see, to 'eyeball' 16 inches plus up to two inches and minus about 6 inches. The fact that I scrounge all my wood and it comes in variable lengths with lots of angled cuts from the tree service guys makes it tough to be consistent, but I am also not very careful and it doesn't really matter that much to me. As long as the splits aren't too long for the stove, i don't mind if they are a little short. I stack all of it in round holz hausens, so you can't tell if they are long or short- all you see is one end of some of the splits. I do like the holz hausens to look nice and uniform, but fortunately I don't need consistent length splits to achieve that.


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## Battenkiller (Jan 17, 2010)

I don't saw too much wood these days, but when I do I always just eyeball it and I get it real close after a couple cuts.  It comes out a lot more consistent than the guys who deliver my wood ever get it.  I can't stand running out of room and ending up with a bunch of shorts, so I keep eyeballing the log until I get to the point where I can mentally divide what's left into stackable pieces. As long as it goes in the door, though, the stove doesn't seem to mind much.  I do realize, however, that a goodly proportion of folks here put their wood into the stove in a N/S orientation, so for that I guess I'd like to measure.

I have spent much more time in my life cutting camp wood than stove wood, all with a big Sandvik bow saw.  Many thousands of cuts over the years. You get pretty good eyeballing wood that way, too.

I'm a bit compulsive by nature, so if my wood was all really close to the same length, I'll bet I'd spend too much time making the stacks look perfect. More important to me is to not angle the cut.  Just hate trying to stand up pieces that keep tipping over.  But then, I haven't tried the tire method yet.


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## LLigetfa (Jan 17, 2010)

Battenkiller said:
			
		

> I have spent much more time in my life cutting camp wood than stove wood, all with a big Sandvik bow saw.  Many thousands of cuts over the years. You get pretty good eyeballing wood that way, too.


With a swede saw, you have the saw itself as a constant frame of reference.  Lay it on the log sideway and the distance from blade to bow tells you where to cut.


			
				Battenkiller said:
			
		

> More important to me is to not angle the cut.  Just hate trying to stand up pieces that keep tipping over.


The trick is to have your splitting block on a bit of an angle.  That way you can turn the angled piece and cancel out the error.  See, two wrongs do make a right!


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## Bigg_Redd (Jan 17, 2010)

Dear non-measurers - We don't _have_ to measure.  I eyeballed all my life up to two years ago.  Every stage of processing to burning is much easier with uniform length wood, and THAT is the point.


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## GatorDL55 (Jan 17, 2010)

[/quote]The trick is to have your splitting block on a bit of an angle.  That way you can turn the angled piece and cancel out the error.  See, two wrongs do make a right![/quote]

Yeah, but with that method, a right will make a wrong and fall off.


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## Battenkiller (Jan 17, 2010)

Ya, I know that trick with the saw, but no real need to do that in the woods.  A little variety in length is better for campfires anyway. Know the splitting block trick too... still some that are a PITA.  A little chunk of wood as a shim solves the problem, but a level block and a square end are best.  All of the energy goes straight down into the wood.  I'm a woodworker, so when I cut 'em, they're square.  Those firewood guys, however.....

A close friend of mine used to live in UP Michigan.  His entire family cut pulp wood for a living (Ray's now an organic chemist), and I always love to listen to his stories of his summers spent in the forest.  They used those big Husky saws they had back then, bone-nimbing things that weighed a ton.  One guy, Big Pete LaBarge, used a bow saw (they called them "Finn saws", a little ethnic variation) to do everything.  Ray said Pete could cut pulp wood with the very best guys using chain saws.  He said they'd get through the tree a lot faster, but Pete would blow them away in trimming the fallen trees, and he'd have more energy at the end of the day because he wasn't carrying and fighting that saw all day long.  They'd get .15 a stick (between 8' and 8' 4" and at least 4" across at the smallest end), but they'd work so hard they made over $300/wk. Back in the early 70s, that was a serious hunk of change.

Favorite Ray story is about Ray's dad stopping by where Big Pete was cutting.  It was the height of black fly season, and there was Pete sweating like a demon, shirtless and covered with black flies.  Ray's dad says, "Pete, you're getting eaten alive." Without slowing down a single stroke, Pete responded, "I've got plenty of meat, let them eat." 

Tough men up there.  I'm sure you've met your share, LL, sounds like you were one of them yourself.


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## skyline (Jan 17, 2010)

Enjoyed reading all of these ideas. 

Like most of you, I tried several of these techniques... the tape, a stick, the bar, Bailey's mingo (borrowed the neighbors), played with a laser pointer but eventually come back to my basic finger spread. 
From end to end, I know the distance from thumb to my index, middle, ring finger so I can easily do 16", 18" or 20" depending whether I'm cutting for myself or someone's smaller stove. I find it a lot less hassle than the other methods mentioned.
I have to make a slight adjustment if using big gloves on as they can mess with it a bit. 

The best thing is so far, I've never forgotten to have them with me at the wood pile;-)


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## chrisfallis (Jan 17, 2010)

Birdman1 said:
			
		

> LLigetfa said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I dabble in wood working and some of my work looks as though I meassured with a micrometer and then cut with a chain saw.


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## ken999 (Jan 18, 2010)

You want 16" wood??...cut a pencil sized measuring stick 16" long and hold it on top of your grip with your left hand while cutting. Lay it on the wood quick to find your next mark, then cut again. I rest the tip of the bar on the log while measuring with my left hand, then grab the handle and cut another round. Simple, accurate and after a few cuts you don't feel the stick in your left hand against the handle. I work from left to right down the log while cutting.

24" wood?...24" stick...

I hate stacking wood, and I hate stacking uneven length wood even more....irritates the crap outta me.


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## ROBERT F (Jan 18, 2010)

Thats the girls job, run the tape out, and use a hatchet to notch the log, then I use a hatchet to quick limb the small branches while she starts on the big end with limbing and marking the notches with the little pull-on.  By the time we meet in the middle, Im off to the big end to start cuttin the rounds.  But then again we usually working on 90 foot + straight pines.


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## maplewood (Jan 18, 2010)

When dad is helping me cut, he often holds a stick with a couple of measured marks just above where I'm cutting.
But mostly I get 18" from the end of my saw to the bolts that hold the bar in place. I'm used to swinging it sideways
after a cut, to measure the next piece.
Dad thinks it's crazy - too much motion. "Just eye-ball it, son." (Yeah, right, dad.... That's why when you cut my wood,
I'd have to stack stuff from 14" - 22"!) (But I'm glad the 72 year-old fella is still out there with me!)
Happy burning.


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## gerry100 (Jan 18, 2010)

Take a Sharpie and measure your log length from the nose of the bar and mark the saw.

With practice you'll be able to quickly and accurately 'eyeball"  with this guide.

You'll get the occasional long piece that you can load on the diagonal during the day.

You really only need right lenght for packing the overnite load.


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## bogydave (Jan 19, 2010)

Gonna go try this


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## firefighterjake (Jan 19, 2010)

HehHeh . . . I don't have the patience to be that exact when it comes to bucking wood. I generally eye-ball it or may use the saw's bar as a rough guide and then mark the tree with the saw's chain like Tony to give me an idea of where I will cut. 

My figuring is that as long as the wood fits in the stovebox it's good . . . I'm not trying to win any firewood beauty contests . . . generally the wood ends up around the same size. Occasionally some wood is longer and needs to be zinged down to size (typically before I load it in the woodshed) . . . and occasionally when I'm working with my buddy Joe the wood is a bit smaller than I like (because my buddy has a smaller sized woodstove and tends to cut smaller even when we're working on a load for me -- but who am I to complain when I'm getting free labor?)


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## mayhem (Jan 19, 2010)

I eyeball it and I'm usually about an inch plus or minus from what I want.  I'm building a sawbuck out of pallets, borrowing an idea I saw posted here...planning on marking out a spacer at about 18-20" so its quick and easy to make what I need.  If I use a 2x4 chunk as my spacer I'll get both since its just a bit less than 2" thick.


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## JBinKC (Jan 19, 2010)

When cutting most limbs for firewood typically I am more concerned about what cut will make a straighter piece that will make it easier to stack in a pile than being set upon a consistent set length.


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## Eric A (Jan 20, 2010)

The mingo marker is pretty fast and ok on accuracy depending on how you use it.


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## snowtime (Jan 20, 2010)

Like many I marked my bar years ago. I got so use to the length that I found myself not using the bar. That worked fine for the last 40 years but now I cut a short 17 to go NS in the new stove and I have to use the bar all over again. If I cutwithout it I get the old length. I wonder how long it will take me to be on auto again? Good test of the old dog rule.


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## bogydave (Jan 20, 2010)

snowtime said:
			
		

> Like many I marked my bar years ago. I got so use to the length that I found myself not using the bar. That worked fine for the last 40 years but now I cut a short 17 to go NS in the new stove and I have to use the bar all over again. If I cutwithout it I get the old length. I wonder how long it will take me to be on auto again? Good test of the old dog rule.



That's my problem too. Plus add bifocal glasses. (sometimes have them, sometimes I don't)
Old stove, anything less than 22" fit OK, now N/S (back/front) over 18" is too long. 
Not that I can't burn the longer ones during the day at an angle or E/W, but to load for a long burn 18" or a little less is perfect. 
The stick in the hole 3" from the tip is working great for me.
I cut like the old days, fell, de-limb, top.  Then in a few seconds, put on the stick & mark 17-3/4" in the log or mark & cut on anything less than 12" diameter.
Faster than a tape, marks on the bar or long stick with marks on it & more accurate.  Not as fast as I once was but now more accurate. 
Made one from an old fishing pole, Graphite!  looks more professional


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## snowtime (Jan 20, 2010)

The real motivation for me to not measure but to get back to eyeballing it is speed. After I skid the tree and clean it up I lift the whole tree to waist height, usually the tree is 120' and cut from each side. I have to change sides now and then so the tree does not tilt but by doing this I save my back and I can cut as fast as I can lift the saw. It makes for mighty fast cutting and no issues with dirt or turning.


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## bogydave (Jan 20, 2010)

Nice system. 
120' logs (that's huge, 79 - 80 rounds @ 18" per tree)  probably means a stick on the bar would be in the way due to diameter.
But you could walk the tree & mark it with it on the saw, then take it off & get after it.
You cut so much wood you don't need a measure, you just cut & I bet they're dead on.
Would be good to have the tree waist high & just let the rounds fall, but I don't have the equipment for that. (yet, but is on my wish list)


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## snowtime (Jan 21, 2010)

Yes when it comes to equipment I rate my tractor right up there. I recommend a 4+4 diesel. The 4 wheel drive means you can go down in a gravel pit and back out with your bucket loaded and you can skid a pretty good size tree. I do not want to break my tractor so I keep the skid trails clean,level and use long chokers to get into the forest. The diesel is self explanatory.


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## bogydave (Jan 21, 2010)

snowtime said:
			
		

> Yes when it comes to equipment I rate my tractor right up there. I recommend a 4+4 diesel. The 4 wheel drive means you can go down in a gravel pit and back out with your bucket loaded and you can skid a pretty good size tree. I do not want to break my tractor so I keep the skid trails clean,level and use long chokers to get into the forest. The diesel is self explanatory.



I'm envious & you're spoiled.  
In a good way.


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## Eric A (Jan 22, 2010)

Does anybody use the mingo marker or know any thing about it????


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