Processing firewood for beginners

[jetsam]

If you really want, you can break crotches up into chunks with a sledge and wedge.

The one in the picture is small and straight grained enough that you can maul it.

Do those two splits. The further away from the middle you do them, the easier they will be.

If the remaining crotch is still too big to go in the stove on Uglies Day, bear in mind 2 things: Wood splits with the grain, and the grain in the remaining part is a big U shape. You can saw it it half but you can't get through it along grain lines. That particular piece is so small that maybe you could hack through it, but bigger crotches will be harder. The easiest way to deal with unmanageable crotches is to chip off chunks with the grain until what remains fits in the stove. You can cheat and just saw it down the middle with your chainsaw. I won't tell.

Honestly, the piece in the photo looks a little like it might break right in half if you give it a good whack right in the middle. Sometimes they do (usually not though).

Gnarly stuff is extra dense and burns great!

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

If you really want, you can break crotches up into chunks with a sledge and wedge.

The one in the picture is small and straight grained enough that you can maul it.

View attachment 233920

Do those two splits. The further away from the middle you do them, the easier they will be.

If the remaining crotch is still too big to go in the stove on Uglies Day, bear in mind 2 things: Wood splits with the grain, and the grain in the remaining part is a big U shape. You can saw it it half but you can't get through it along grain lines. That particular piece is so small that maybe you could hack through it, but bigger crotches will be harder. The easiest way to deal with unmanageable crotches is to chip off chunks with the grain until what remains fits in the stove. You can cheat and just saw it down the middle with your chainsaw. I won't tell.

Honestly, the piece in the photo looks a little like it might break right in half if you give it a good whack right in the middle. Sometimes they do (usually not though).

Gnarly stuff is extra dense and burns great!

Wow, Jetsam, that's a really well written and accurate lesson on crotches, with graphics even added. Impressive!

 

[Hasufel]

If you really want, you can break crotches up into chunks with a sledge and wedge.

The one in the picture is small and straight grained enough that you can maul it.

Great overview. Also worth noting that crotches can be tricky because the grain and/or the overall geometry can cause axes to bounce or ricochet in unexpected ways, so extra caution is needed. Just ask my shin.

 

[SpaceBus]

I spent ten minutes on a birch crotch yesterday and nothing would work. My 3.5 splitting axe couldn't do it, my 4lb hammer and wedge failed, and even the 6lb maul and wedge together couldn't do it. I tried laying it flat and using a sledge and the steel wedge, still nothing. Finally I gave up after getting it small enough to fit in the stove, and the rest is kindling

 

[edyit]

hydraulics are amazing when it comes to this

 

[Modenacart]

Sorry to hear this. And good to remind everyone to be careful.

Dropping big trees can be very dangerous. I myself take it for granted as I have been felling trees since I was a kid. Just grew up with it. But regardless if your an experienced tree dropper or not, accidents can happen, and if you have doubts to your ability to safely drop a big tree, then don’t do it. In my experience if you have to think about it, as in the tree your wanting to fell doesn’t just come natural, if your second guessing it, then perhaps walk away and find a safer tree to drop. Firewood is not worth anyones safety.

I didn’t really know the guy. He just sat on the other side of the cube. Word was he made some really bad decisions and was in the direction the tree was leaning.

My office must be a killer place to work though, about two weeks ago a guy dropped dead one morning from an aneurysm.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[weatherguy]

Wow, Jetsam, that's a really well written and accurate lesson on crotches, with graphics even added. Impressive!

Jetsam knows crotches.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Jetsam knows crotches.

Well that took long enough!

 

[jetsam]

Here's the sexiest crotch lesson of all: When you stick a big pointy steel ram in the crotch and apply 25 tons of pressure, there is a loud crunching noise and possibly some flying bits, and that puppy gets torn right in half. (Usually.)

Sweet dreams!

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Here's the sexiest crotch lesson of all: When you stick a big pointy steel ram in the crotch and apply 25 tons of pressure, there is a loud crunching noise and possibly some flying bits, and that puppy gets torn right in half. (Usually.)

Sweet dreams!

I have a big pile of super stubborn oak crotches that I've been putting off, I was gonna borrow the neighbors hydraulic splitter, but after reading this, I'm just gonna carve them into cookies with the chainsaw. Probably would've broken the splitter anyway.

 

[mcstatz5829]

Well, that took an unexpected turn.

 

[jetsam]

I have a big pile of super stubborn oak crotches that I've been putting off, I was gonna borrow the neighbors hydraulic splitter, but after reading this, I'm just gonna carve them into cookies with the chainsaw. Probably would've broken the splitter anyway.

Mine actually crunches right through them, but I have no doubt that some of them are hard on the splitter.

 

[Kevin Weis]

A two stage should go through them albeit slow it down till it pops. Have a 28 ton TSC and hasn't had a crotch it couldn't master☺️. Kevin

 

[Ashful]

Here, crotches get left in the woods or busted up on the hydraulic splitter, and then thrown directly into the firewood pit with any bark scraps and other splitter swarf. I would not bother trying to cleanly split and stack a crotch, your time is better spent on your clean straight wood, unless you have a shortage of it.

 

[jetsam]

I can see why a commercial processor would skip them, but I've always broken them up. It's above average firewood for days when you are around to feed uglies into the stove. In addition to uglies, you can get a couple flats/rounds off the sides with a maul, and you can sometimes get all flat (but u-shaped) pieces out of the middle with a splitter.

If it was all about the value of my time, I'd have solar panels, a battery bank, and electric heat.

My bonfire pile gets all the bugwood. I have more than I want every year without adding the uglies.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

I can see why a commercial processor would skip them, but I've always broken them up. It's above average firewood for days when you are around to feed uglies into the stove. In addition to uglies, you can get a couple flats/rounds off the sides with a maul, and you can sometimes get all flat (but u-shaped) pieces out of the middle with a splitter.

If it was all about the value of my time, I'd have solar panels, a battery bank, and electric heat.

My bonfire pile gets all the bugwood. I have more than I want every year without adding the uglies.

Agreed, Jetsam. Loads of btus in that dense wood, and there's something about the challenge. Plus I hate waste, and what else do I have to do?

 

[jetsam]

Ashful cranks out big beautiful stacks in a fraction of the time it takes me, so there's not a right and wrong answer here, just what floats your particular boat.

 

[jatoxico]

It's above average firewood for days when you are around to feed uglies into the stove. I

This is true. Besides now an then one gives it up easy. This of course means I get sucked in and once I've started one of us has to break. Really once I'm outside enjoying the day a couple extra whacks doesn't bother me.

 

[coutufr]

When it’s really cold outside is when I split my hard to split wood. I split with a wedge, a maul and a sledge hammer. I do use the chainsaw on occasion to speed things up![emoji3526] Btw is honey locust easier to split when cold (way below freezing)? I tried to split a small piece this summer with the maul and it was impossible to split.....

 

[jetsam]

Splitting elm is best done when it's below 0F. -10 is good, -30 is awesome! Elm is a workout most of the time.

Most woods pop apart real easily when it is very cold out.

Never tried honey locust but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[SpaceBus]

Splitting elm is best done when it's below 0F. -10 is good, -30 is awesome! Elm is a workout most of the time.

Most woods pop apart real easily when it is very cold out.

Never tried honey locust but it wouldn't surprise me.

I've always assumed it was more difficult when cold. 95% of the wood I've split in my life was pine or spruce and during winter. I've split a little bit of stuff during the summer, but it was giant oak rounds that had been sitting for a year. Most of that was done with an 8 lb sledge and a 5 lb splitting wedge with wood sitting horizontal.

 

[jetsam]

I've always assumed it was more difficult when cold. 95% of the wood I've split in my life was pine or spruce and during winter. I've split a little bit of stuff during the summer, but it was giant oak rounds that had been sitting for a year. Most of that was done with an 8 lb sledge and a 5 lb splitting wedge with wood sitting horizontal.

No way, splitting oak when it's subzero makes you feel like hercules!

 

[weatherguy]

Most hardwoods split better frozen, I have some hickory I'm going to split soon, it was a bear when I tried in the warmer weather.

 

[wooduser]

There's a scene in the movie "Sometimes a Great Notion" that's a sobering reminder about the hazards of dropping trees... That scene is in this trailer.

Quite a movie, too.

A hugely dangerous occupation.

Not many REAL men working since OSHA took the death out of the working world.... mostly.

 

[SpaceBus]

There's a scene in the movie "Sometimes a Great Notion" that's a sobering reminder about the hazards of dropping trees... That scene is in this trailer.

Quite a movie, too.

A hugely dangerous occupation.

Not many REAL men working since OSHA took the death out of the working world.... mostly.

First, real man doesn't mean anything. Second, there would be MORE "real men" working since there are less deaths. Seems like a lot of guys don't think safety is cool or manly. PPE has saved my ass in several situations in which I would have died or been crippled with out it. I'd rather be alive and unmaimed than manly or cool.