Odd question - how to keep a stump from rotting?

[Amin1992]

Hey guys, I know this is weird as most people try to get rid of stumps, but I'm curious if there is a way to keep a stump from rotting away! I have two stumps out back of the house we bought this year that, lucky for me, are absolutely perfect for my firewood needs. One stump is low to the ground and flat, making it ideal for chopping logs with my maul, and the other is bench height, which is perfect for hatchetting branches and kindling!

However, they are old stumps, and the more I'm chopping away on them, I see they are starting to break down. I'd love to have these stumps last forever.

Any tips? Or can I at least get some positive reinforcement? Ha!

 

[tadmaz]

Put a short round or board over the stump when you are splitting. Sun hitting the stump should keep it dry and slow down rot.

 

[GadDummit]

Pour linseed oil over it, then to protect it further like tadmaz said put a round over it so you're not chopping it up. If you do chop holes in it they'll collect water which will make fungus grow and rot it out.

 

[peakbagger]

If they are dry, you can buy a low viscosity marine epoxy product that is absorbed by the wood and then sets up into solid mass. As long as the wood is not too far gone it works pretty well. One brand name is Get Rot. Epoxy is degraded by UV unless there is UV absorber so you either color it or keep it out of the sun.

I have plywood bed on my Unimog that had some cracking and checking. I had some spare epoxy from boat building so I added some graphite powder for UV stabilization in it and put it on liberally on the dry plywood. Despite pouring it on the wood thick, it sucked it right in and really stabilized the entire bed.