My "Ugly" Pile

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
  • Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
Status
Not open for further replies.

bcnu

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Dec 1, 2006
495
My second year for splitting wood and have accumulated quite a few "ugly" hunks. (Not enough to justify renting a splitter). At first I tried to split them to a reasonable size - but because of knots or type of wood or whatever, they got the best of me. So now, I have a pretty good size pile and am wondering how well they will burn. Some/most pieces will fill my entire stove and it's a mixture of various wood. Do I use them like any other split or are there some things I should know? Stove is a Hearthstone Homestead. Maybe there is a way to use chainsaw to reduce their size - but it's also only my second year for cutting wood and I haven't come across that yet - so maybe you have some help there also.
 
Take a old saw chain and resharpen it to 10deg. Then just rip the logs. The chain will hold up better at 10 then 35deg for ripping.
Don
 
what about cutting them to disk size and burn them in the between seasons
 
elkimmeg said:
what about cutting them to disk size and burn them in the between seasons

that's what i do. or they make great long burners for the fire pit. with friends and a cold one
 
disk size sounds good. What's a good way to do that with 16" logs? I'm trying to picture that as I've cut a lot of stuff on the ground - but it's longer pieces. Do u just step on one end and start cutting (on the opposite end of course : :bug: : ) I usually don't mind learning by trial and error - but am trying to avoid that approach with the chainsaw!
 
What I will sometimes do is either rip them if they are really hopeless, or if the problem is that they have forks or something like that, sometimes just ripping of the knobby bits.

If I need to cut disks, depending on the size of the round I might just leave it on the ground (big rounds) or put a couple of other logs close on the ground and put the patient on top as a sort of mini-sawbuck. You might even try building a regular sawbuck with two close spaced sets of uprights as a cutting slot and board sides to hold short logs. The problem with a sawbuck is getting big rounds onto it.

Gooserider
 
bcnu said:
My second year for splitting wood and have accumulated quite a few "ugly" hunks. (Not enough to justify renting a splitter). At first I tried to split them to a reasonable size - but because of knots or type of wood or whatever, they got the best of me. So now, I have a pretty good size pile and am wondering how well they will burn. Some/most pieces will fill my entire stove and it's a mixture of various wood. Do I use them like any other split or are there some things I should know? Stove is a Hearthstone Homestead. Maybe there is a way to use chainsaw to reduce their size - but it's also only my second year for cutting wood and I haven't come across that yet - so maybe you have some help there also.

FWIW, I wait until I've got a good hot coal bed and throw the large piece in...I get a bit of satisfaction knowing that I got the last laugh...that is of course assuming it fits in my stove...I know it's been brought up before, but I actually recognize particularly `challenging' splits my maul and I suffered through when pulling them off the pile in the burning season...see earlier comment about satisfaction ;-)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.