Planning Ahead.

[BrowningBAR]

Planning ahead and buying wood in spring is so much easier and far, far cheaper than doing it in the fall. The guy that sold me the 5 cord for $200 actually had another 5 cords of wood with about 3-4 of it split. I will probably be able to get at least half of it off of him. Just had a guy deliver 2 cords of rounds for $110 (it was suppose to be $150...I'm not complaining). He will be calling me next week to let me know what else he has available. Now I just have to get over to the tree cutter that is giving away two cords of round. Hopefully I will get there this weekend.

It's not as good as free wood, but I'll take cheap wood over wood that costs $200 a cord any day.

Now, on to splitting. Most of the wood I have acquired I can tax an ax to, but I have a few round that are rather large so I was thinking of renting a splitter at some point. I saw a thread on here about someone renting a splitter for $60 a day. Is that about right? Can I expect to pay more depending on my area? What should I look for in a splitter when I rent one?

 

[savageactor7]

Yeah cheap wood is good too and usually green wood goes for less than seasoned.

As far as renting a splitter they're all pretty much the same. Most of us here will plan for a Saturday rental because Sunday become a free day if the rental place is closed. It's a lot easier if you can put someone on the controls...just tell the operator not to lever forward unless they see your hands on top of the round.

 

[firefighterjake]

. . . It's a lot easier if you can put someone on the controls...just tell the operator not to lever forward unless they see your hands on top of the round.

. . . otherwise you may have to change your knickname to Stumpy.

 

[Bigcube]

I called about renting one this morning. It was $60 a day but they are open on sunday so no 2 for one on sat around here.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

It sounds like you are talking about face cords or a rick rather than a full cord of wood. Otherwise I highly doubt you would have bought 5 cords for $200.

As for splitting the large rounds. I've wondered for a long time on this forum why people are so shy about splitting a large log. They seem to think just because it is large they can't split it by hand. Perhaps it is because they expect the thing to split with one whack. That won't happen, but if you give one whack on the far side and another whack on the side close to you and maybe one in the heart those things will split. It just takes a few more swings but you end up with a lot of wood per swing when it is done. Now if they have knots, then the splitter is much, much better.

 

[Got Wood]

Good point Savage on the splitting of large rounds. I have split alot of wood of the last 6 months by hand (over 10 cords by hand). I have a pile of rounds that are set aside for the day I have access to a splitter (actually this Thursday!) because they were just not worth the effort of whacking by hand. The size of these rounds start at 6" diameter and go up - point being it isnt the diameter of the round that makes it difficult. I have split many large rounds by hand - after a while doing this you can look at a round and see the best approach to attacking it. Usually, I start on a side and not through the center of large rounds...then work my way around.

 

[BrowningBAR]

It sounds like you are talking about face cords or a rick rather than a full cord of wood. Otherwise I highly doubt you would have bought 5 cords for $200.

No, I'm not talking face cords. I'm talking 4x4x8. A guy cut down 40 trees on his property. He was selling it $75 per pick-up truck load, but he now just wants it off his property and got tired of people showing up to his house. He has about 6 and a half cords total that are in rounds and 4-ish cord that are split. I will probably pay him a couple bucks more to grab whatever he is willing to give up that was not included in the 5 cord pile he has.

The photo attached shows the 1 1/2 to 2 cords of big rounds in the front of the pile that were delivered yesterday and behind them is about two cords of smaller rounds mixed in with some splits that I have already picked up from the guy that is selling me the 5+ cords for two hundred.

The pile is about 20+ feet long, 12 feet deep and about 5 1/2 feet high. Pile density varies though.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Perhaps what most people should do is to experiment. That is how I learned at a very young age. You will find that most wood will split good through the heart....but not all. Some wood wants to be split from the sides. For example, let's say I have a soft maple log that is 30" in diameter. The easiest way to split this is right through the heart. Once that is done, then you can split wedges from each half and it goes pretty easy. You can do this with a lot of wood. You can split a lot of wood this way using just an axe rather than a heavy maul.

Here's another that I have debated posting. 100% I have found on this forum say to split elm from the sides. Just a slice all the way around. I have not found that to be the best but instead have found that to be the most difficult way to split elm. I split it right through the heart. Also, not all elm splits hard. We've cut some that with one whack it splits cleanly. Then the next one will be all twisted and reminds you of spaghetti.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Hey BrowningBAR, you definitely got a fantastic deal there! Congratulations.

 

[BrowningBAR]

As for splitting the large rounds. I've wondered for a long time on this forum why people are so shy about splitting a large log. They seem to think just because it is large they can't split it by hand. Perhaps it is because they expect the thing to split with one whack. That won't happen, but if you give one whack on the far side and another whack on the side close to you and maybe one in the heart those things will split. It just takes a few more swings but you end up with a lot of wood per swing when it is done. Now if they have knots, then the splitter is much, much better.

Thanks for the Hand Splitting tip. Last year was my first year burning and this will be my first year splitting. Due to the fact I have never split wood before I wanted to plan for the worst case that the large rounds were going to be a pain in the ass and take too much time. I will definitely try it out.

I am unsure as to how much of an issue knots will be, but I have some "crotch" rounds that I have heard they can be a bit tough to work with.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Hey BrowningBAR, you definitely got a fantastic deal there! Congratulations.

Yeah, I figured I should throw up a photo, otherwise I risk sounding like I am making sh!t up.

 

[BrowningBAR]

A little update, here. So for the 5 cords have turned into about 7 1/2 cords. I've picked up 6 cords so far and will be getting the rest this weekend. Plus an additional 3-4 cords he wants to get rid of. That will bring my wood pile to about 14 cords in total. And I never did get to pick up the 2 cords a tree service company was giving away for free.

So, what have I learned from this?
Wood is heavy.
You can load 1 1/2 cords to 2 cords of wood onto a 14' uhaul truck and still make it home.
I will find a different way of hauling large amounts of wood the next time an opportunity like this comes up.
Wood is heavy.
Thank god I have a pickup truck. (when I bought the truck six years ago I was living in Arizona and it was either the pickup or the Nissan 350z. I ended up going with the pick-up)
A Wood pile seems huge when you have to move it, but seems small when you are burning it.

 

[madrone]

A Wood pile seems huge when you have to move it, but seems small when you are burning it.

amen

 

[johnsopi]

With 14 cords renting a splitter is in order. Our Craiglist has people that will rent their splitter out and help splitt. You could splitt
as much as you need for next year and then buy a used splitter. It took me a year to find a good cheap splitter $300.
If you rent have a game plan for splitting. Don't get boxed in and spend your time moving the split wood around.

 

[BrowningBAR]

With 14 cords renting a splitter is in order. Our Craiglist has people that will rent their splitter out and help splitt. You could splitt
as much as you need for next year and then buy a used splitter. It took me a year to find a good cheap splitter $300.
If you rent have a game plan for splitting. Don't get boxed in and spend your time moving the split wood around.

Yeah, I will be renting a splitter next month. I have a place down the road that will rent one and another forum member, BucksCounty, let me know of another that is also right down the road.

But first I want to take a few weeks and split by hand as I need to get better and more efficient at it. This is my first year splitting and I am quite slow at this point.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Hey BrowningBar, do you think wood is heavy? lol

 

[BrowningBAR]

Hey BrowningBar, do you think wood is heavy? lol

Only when it needs to be moved.

 

[iceman]

get whatever you are going to burn this year split quick!
14 cords is great! just get alot split quick start by hand for a day then stack on another but depending on what type wood you got it might not be ready till next year (oak, red or white) so get to splitting ...... and gooooooood luck

 

[Todd]

Great score! Now you have your work cut out for ya. 14 cords will take quite a while to process, don't kill yourself trying to get it all done in short order.

 

[wellbuilt home]

Kinda seems funny to me but in most areas guys pay a lot for wood. I can buy a stack of logs 8' x 28 'x 6.5 for 300 bucks ? some times 200 bucks . I have a large truck and trailer and i think it costs me 100 dollars in fuel to pick up that much wood close buy the house .( 2 trips ) Plus we have to load it up . Im having a load dropped on Monday well see how many cord i get when its split I'm hoping for 9 or 91/2 but it depends on how tight its stacked . John