need advice on purchasing/processing of log length firewood for homeowner

[peterc38]

Hi,

I am not sure if this is the best category to post this in, but here goes.
I just found out about this forum and hope to learn a few things here. Basically, I am looking for input into the best way for a homeowner to process, i.e. cut/split firewood in log lengths. Obviously I would be looking to save money over by buying bulk in log length as opposed to the buying of pre cut and split. It seems as though I end up splitting a lot of it smaller anyway when I buy it cut and split as many of the pieces are too big.

I have about 7 acres so I have room to store and stack and season as needed. I currently burn about 5 cords per year but may do more as I figure the more wood I burn the less goes to the oil company. I am the type that likes to be as self sufficient as possible. The location is southwestern Maine if that makes any difference. Provided I have the time and patience to do this (I think I do) does this seem like a good idea?

What kind of tools & equipment would be recommended to accomplish this? All of the wood I split now I do by hand so obviously I have a splitting maul, wedges and a few sledges of varying size. I also have a cheapo homeowner 16” chainsaw (homelite) that works ok for light duty cutting and cleanup etc. Would I be better off getting a better chainsaw or some type of cordwood saw? I also have a Kubota tractor so I could potentially run a saw or splitter of the 3 pt but right now I don’t think the CFO (also known as wife) will approve the purchase of any additional implements.

I would appreciate any input ideas, thanks.

Peter

[beenthere]

Welcome to the Forum.
What size (hp) Kubota?

I'd suggest:
Forks for the Kubota.
 8 hp wood splitter, on wheels
Find old used pallets.

Get logs, buck to length, then split and stack wood on pallets for drying.

Move pallets after two years (at least) air drying with Kubota, to the wood-burning site.

Handle wood once, or as least often as possible.

Pics in my Gallery.

[ronwood]

Peter,

Welcome to the forum. Beenthere has some good suggestions.

Ron

[Rick Alger]

Hi Peter,

Welcome to the forum. I'm in northern NH, so we might have some things in common regarding  buying firewood. A few suggestions to add to the above:

Ask around to find an honest logger.

Buy mid-winter to avoid mud and grit.

Learn how to sharpen your saw.

Don't get  a splitter yet. Most firewood around here is around 10" in diameter. Perfect for hand splitting.

Use your saw to halve the crotches and knotty pieces.

Good luck,

Rick

[rebocardo]

> I am looking for input into the best way for a homeowner to process
> , i.e. cut/split firewood in log lengths.

The way I split firewood is with my chainsaw by ripping it length wise with a ripping chain. You will need a pro saw for this as it is too much for most saws you could buy at Home Depot.  Much faster then doing it with a maul or with wedges (though I still do that on occasion).

The "curls" left over are great for fire starters or for mulch. My customers like it for dog bedding.

Around here what people do is stockpile a bunch of wood, rent a splitter for $80 a day, and literally work it 24 hours by teamwork. They split a lot of wood in 24 hours with that rental.

I agree with handling it once. I buck, then split into firewood. Then stack it and let it dry. I try not to go back and split it after I have already bucked it.

The main question is are you using a stove or a fireplace?

Most wood burning stoves can only handle fairly small pieces, a fireplace can handle logs. If you have a stove, an electric splitter might be nice, no fumes. You can split larger rounds into 12" or less diameter pieces, then use the electric to make it smaller or even kindling.

Where you live, a person that heats only by firewood can use 10 cords a year. So, your goal should be to always have 10-15 cords on hand in varying degrees of seasoning.

If you have a nice wood stove and triple wall pipe, you can burn pine with no problems and probably get it for next to nothing, if not free. What I do is get a nice oak fire going and add in the pine. I used about one cord of pine to 3 cords of oak last year.

What you might consider, if you have the money and time, is buying a large tract of land in central Maine where it goes for <$500 an acre. That would give you a constant renewable energy source. Especially if you cut and heat with pine because you can grow enough pine in 20 years to burn it after you planted it or pull out enough wood each year (10 cords) out of 60 acres without clear cutting it.

With all the mills in ME, you might want to consider taking the scraps, even if you have to pay a bit for them, pine or hardwood.

If you want to turn it into a business, take a look at this local guy.

DELETED BY ADMIN
We certainly dont allow links  to banned members that could not behave themselves.

[peterc38]

Thanks for the responses.

Beenthere: The Kubota is a B7610, 24 hp. I already do have access to all the pallets I need and use them to stack my wood.

RonWood: Thanks for the welcome

Rick Alger: hey neighbor, thanks for the suggestion, I hadn’t considered things like buying mid-winter. I think I will make some phone calls to some loggers in my area.

Rebocardo: For fire starters, I generally scounge for scrap pine from shipping boxes, etc at work and cut split it into small pcs  with a hatchet, works great for kindling and the price is right. I am using a medium-large woodstove not a fireplace. Fireplaces ain’t very practical around these parts IMHO. I agree that a lot of woodstoves can not handle large pieces. That is why I split a lot of my wood smaller than what is commercially available (although I still keep some big pcs. as it is good to have a mix). I don’t heat “only” by firewood, I would say 80%. I’d like to put a second smaller stove in my wife’s office over the garage and I think your pretty close in saying I could burn potentially closer to 10 cords a year than the current 5 cords. The land idea is a good one and there are many people in Maine who do just what you are describing. I’ll need to convince the wife on that one though.

Thanks for all the responses and keep ‘em coming

[thecfarm]

Welcome to the forum peterc38.I myself have cut my wood into stove wood lenght with a chainsaw.My Father use to have a cord wood saw,but that was only used for the limb wood.Kinda a bother to pick up a 4 foot stick or whatever about 30 inches high to cut it.You still need a good saw to cut it in lenghts that you can pick up.Could you  sharpen a cordwood saw?I would have a hard time with it.I feel a good chainsaw would do you alot of work.I have a 6hp wood splitter that works great.I have 2 tractors but prefer a self contained wood splitter to a 3 pt one.One has a logging winch on it and the other will have a snow blower attached to it pretty quick.

[rebocardo]

> I generally scounge for scrap pine from shipping boxes

I don't know about the craigslist in ME, but, in GA there is always a ton of wood pallets available for free. Many people get them just for the free firewood and I have disassembled pallets for people that needed free wood that were having a hard $ time and a hard time cutting and breaking them up.

This is where an electric chainsaw is nice because if you hit a staple or stray nail it is not like you wrecked a good chain on a good saw. Plus, it is something you can do without eating fumes inside someone's carport or garage.

Many trucking firms have tons they want to ditch, when I lived in MA, there was a small speciality lumber store that had pallets made from Indonesia mahogney and purple heart! He offered them for free.  The pallets had better wood then you could buy at most stores   If you want to burn a lot, it pays to know someone that wants to get rid of a lot on a steady basis.   

I have used pallet wood myself as cheap firestarters. I don't bother removing the nails. I just shovel them out with the ash.

I agree with the fireplace being fairly useless in ME. I am not a fan of wood pellet stoves either. Besides being expensive, if you get a hole in a bag (like that never happens with mice) it can wreck a whole bag if stored outside. Worse is when the power goes out and the battery fails during a long electric outage.

For a small office over a garage, because of wall clearance requirements on most larger wood stoves, you might consider a soapstone stove. I was pricing a small one for my basement (instead of using a blower to suck hot air down) last week and the smallest was going for $1200 

Though I think you are luckier then me, there is a major OEM soapstone stove maker in NH. The name escapes me at the moment, but, I think it might be "century". I know they do local sales and you can watch the guy make your stove!      I am sure a local buyer could do better on price, especially if you are picking it up yourself.

[Blue Sky]

There is a big difference in the species of wood that you burn for heat.  A rule of thumb I use is this: the slower a tree grows, the more stored energy it possesses.  Around here, your best choices for a wood stove fuel are the Oaks, Beeches, Black Birch,  Hard Maple, Black Locust, Hickory, Hardhack. For fireplaces, Red Maple, Elm, White Birch, Poplar.  I delivered a cord of wood recently to a Westerner(Colorado), who was marveling over the hardwood.  He has never seen hardwood before.  Told me out West , they only burn softer woods.  My point being, White Pine burns great in the fireplace, if seasoned like any other split fuelwood.  I hear so much fear in people's voices when I mention this CREOSOTE" OH MY GOD  I WOULD BURN MY HOUSE DOWN IF I USED THAT STUFF".  Not true.  Green oak creates more creosote than dry pine, so long as you burn pine with your flue wide open.
   As far as seasoning firewood, Pallets keep the air moving under the pile.  It is crucial that you effectively cover your pile of split wood as it is like a sponge.  As it seasons, rain will be absorbed quickly, slowing down the process.
   When it comes to splitting firewood mechanically,  there is no faster machine out there than the Super Split Kinetic Energy Splitter.  I bought mine in 1982, have split 1,000;s of cords on it.  Two 100 lb. flywheels spin at relatively lowrpm.  The splitter uses a rack and pinion mechanism to engage the ram and a duel spring return.  A full cycle time is 2 1/2 sec.  It  holds the Guiness Bookof World record for splitting a cord of 16" wood-20 Minutes!

[Captain]

...and Super Split is "local", in Bridgewater, MA.

Some good advice here, buy log length in winter, get a slightly better saw plus a super split and you will have all of the essentials for many years to come.

Captain

[Phorester]

An option to help with the cost of any equipment, log splitter, etc.,  you would like to have is to go into the firewood business for a year or two. 

[woodmills1]

I have a few customers that buy uncut unsplit wood from me.  two of them burn it themself and one is a dealer who sells to his customers.  I charge 60 a cord for this wood, delivered to them.  This year I have so much extra that I am thinking of going back into the retail firewood business for next year.

[rebocardo]

Wow, that Super Split is fast!

> so long as you burn pine with your flue wide open.

For a stove at least, I agree. I have seen no ill effects from burning pine in mine. My stainless steel chimney was so clean last year all I cleaned it with was a soft cloth to remove the ash inside the pipe.

[Tom]

We burned pine all of my life in the South with no bad results.  I think people's problems occur when they burn a fire too cold or burn nonseasoned wood.  When it got cold enough, we burned anything that we could light.

[PB Logging]

As an extension to the pallet/firewood stacking concept let me add the following:

Cattle Panels

I have 10 pallets with 16' cattle panels attached to tthem.  The panels are folded into squares and the ends wire - tied together.  Then placed on the pallets with the open ends facing side ways (this gives you a top, bottom, and two closed sides.  The panels are then stappled to the pallets.   Since I like to keep things half way orderly I take bailing wire and run a few pieces side to side in the middle of the cage so that they hold theire shape (not bow out, not become short and fat).  Simple math tells us that each of these bundles is 64 cubic feet or 1/2 cord. 

When it comes time to move the bundles I take a 4x4x 3/4 sheet of plywood (one for each end) and use 2 each 2" x 20' ratchet straps to hold the bundles together.


On the high end, each of these bundles has cost me ~$25 to manufacture.  It's turned out to be well worth the investment.  A little more if you figure on the $5 per pallet I've been paying my boys to fill them with split wood, thy've been doing it since they were about 5 so its probably time for a raise.


Make it a safe day!!!!

[stonebroke]

How do you bend the cattle panels?

Stonebroke

[beenthere]

PB Logging
A pic or two of the pallet design would help...we like pics.

[steveforest]

Another option for crotch wood is to cut 9" instead of 18". It splits a lot easier. Electric chain saw is good for pallets because there is less torque to throw the pieces, safer(don't mess with cutting pallets anyway). That's a good tip about the cattle panels, might try that.