Winter is coming......you can bet on it!

POSTON WIDEHEAD · August 30, 2011, 06:19:11 PM

Got caught up on my White Oak sawing today. Got another trailer load coming tomorrow. Sooooo.....decided to cut firewood on the LT40.
It was 92 degrees today but at least I was in the shade sawing firewood.

ARKANSAWYER · August 30, 2011, 07:13:55 PM

I once had a portable sawing job and the guy had about a dozen logs when I showed up. He wanted them cut in half then cut in half again. After I sawed the first one he started chopping them into 16" pieces. When I finished the next log I asked him why he was having me saw these if he was just making firewood. He looked up and asked "Have you ever split elm"? I sawed up the rest.

POSTON WIDEHEAD · August 30, 2011, 07:28:59 PM

Hey Ark, I have never split ELM, but I'm assuming it must be like sweet gum! Good story about the Elm. :D

forestry mick · August 30, 2011, 08:30:19 PM

The most perfect firewood ever! split on a sawmill! 8)

red oaks lumber · August 30, 2011, 08:45:15 PM

ya buddy come up here this winter then you'll know what winter is ;D you'll need to put that mizer in overdrive to keep up with the guy throwing wood in the stove :D

POSTON WIDEHEAD · August 30, 2011, 09:22:18 PM

Now that IS funny Red Oak! smiley_clapping

WDH · August 30, 2011, 09:25:08 PM

Steve,

I can picture that :D.

GeneH · August 31, 2011, 02:29:54 PM

I've thought about doin' that, and I believe I will. Think it'll hurt to burn through with some blades with missing teeth?

Coon · August 31, 2011, 06:38:02 PM

Don't saw spruce or aspen green for firewood as it seems to take double the time to dry. Spruce is alot worse to deal with than the aspen. We tried this on a circular mill ONCE and will never do it again. It seems as if it closed the pours of the wood so the moisture couldnt escape. Have heard about this a coouple of time besides it happening to us. ???

Jemclimber · September 01, 2011, 07:36:10 AM

Hey Coon, was it stacked or piled? I could see if it was stacked it would probably fit tight unlike split wood, but if it was piled it shouldn't matter. I and a few of my friends around here burn some soft wood (conifers), but most people around here through it out because "You can't burn pine (pine-what most homeowners call all conifers) it will cause creosote in an instant and burn your house down". I sometimes try to explain wet wood is the cause, but usually in vain. It doesn't last very long in the stove but starts easily and is great when it's not to cold out and you just want a small fire to take the chill out and not cook you out of the house.

Coon · September 01, 2011, 12:41:05 PM

We sawed the logs into about quarters and such when the logs were green, then bucked with the chainsaws and piled to dry as if we had split it just like firewood. There was plenty of air space between the pieces in the pile and it was piled where there was sufficient airflow. ???

ARKANSAWYER · September 07, 2011, 07:30:30 AM

You can lose a good wedge in Elm and never get it back. Gum and syckamore is others that are hard to split.
In the fall and spring I burn ERC to heat the stove up and the house but not keep coals all day long. At 50 degrees we need just to put the chill out but when it warms up during the day we do not want the house hot. ERC burns hot and fast and does not make coals.

SwampDonkey · September 07, 2011, 07:55:52 PM

There is nicer firewood to be made from other species easier to deal with than elm, and produce a lot more btu's. All I recall doing with it was letting it fall down and turn to soil. It rots very quick on the ground in the woods. :D 8)

Jemclimber · September 08, 2011, 08:04:16 AM

Elm is tough to split, but when I was much younger, you know like last week :D, I had this disease that would not let me leave ANY valuable wood behind. Three to four years burning supply might be enough to take the pressure off of having enough firewood around. And even then I could sell everything else so I couldn't just leave money laying on the ground to rot. Now that I have an easy to use bandmill every tree looks like valuable boards just waiting to be made so I guess the disease is growing.

SwampDonkey · September 08, 2011, 03:40:34 PM

When there is no market for it, it has no value. Sawed, split or whatever, you won't sell much elm around here.

shelbycharger400 · September 08, 2011, 06:19:07 PM

i have a bunch of elm i saved from splittin ... for flooring

its kinda odd... you go to menards, home depot..ect... they have pine, oak, walnut, and maple, but no red elm . very few places have ash either.

SwampDonkey · September 09, 2011, 01:46:39 AM

Only place I can get ash is at the flooring plant or someone sawing with a portable. The hardwood mills here saw maple and birch and some beech. The beech would be mainly ties. And it's funny, they took out all the railway in this county years ago, used to be a spur line within 5 miles of here 25 years ago. Walking trails? Heck who's walking? They have been over taken by ATV and dirt bikes. ;)

Jemclimber · September 09, 2011, 08:00:49 AM

Lots of people here have fireplaces and the only wood most won't burn is conifers, or pine as everyone that doesn't know calls all conifers. Mix in elm with everything else and call it hardwood. The only wood that gets separated to be sold for more money is cherry. Probably because it looks and smells nice sitting next to the fireplace and very seldom actually gets burned.

zopi · September 09, 2011, 06:44:05 PM

Nothing wrong with burning pine....just have to take care of the flues....folks around here fuss at me about it...I tell em I come from out west, where sometimes that is all the firewood you can get.....

SwampDonkey · September 09, 2011, 10:46:34 PM

Prefer hardwood here to burn. Just cleaned the shop stove pipes and there wasn't anything more than a palm full of soot in 4 feet of pipe and maybe enough to fill the bottom of the pale from the 24 foot flu.

Only burn 1.5 cords in there all winter, small space to heat and insulated well. Never freezes in the shop.