Making kindling

cutterboy · November 08, 2020, 07:53:12 PM

A couple of weeks ago a neighbor of mine asked me if I would take down some trees for him. He was extending his lawn and clearing out the brush and trees along the road. He said I could take all the wood and leave the tops and anything I didn't want. He would move all that into a pile with his mini excavator. He is a good neighbor and I like him and I'd be happy to help him out and even leave him the wood if he wanted it but I do not like cutting trees by the road near the power lines. I agreed to take a look. First thing I noticed was that all the trees were leaning away from the road and away from the power lines.( up until 10 years ago there was a field there.) He had cleared the area of all the brush and the trees he wanted down were the smaller firewood sized trees. The large shade trees he wanted to leave. I agreed to do the job.

I took home about two cords of firewood, mostly red oak.

also the 4-footers on each end of the pile came from there.

OK, now the kindling.
In addition to the oaks there were several smallish aspens. (8-14 inches in diameter) I didn't really want these for firewood but I sell a fair amount of kindling each year and I'm short for next winter. I sawed them into short 5-6 foot logs and brought them back to my mill. I had about 20.

I cut the logs into a cant, then sawed it into one inch boards, then put the boards back on the mill up on edge, then sawed the boards into one inch strips.

Then they went into the barn and wait there for a rainy or snowy day for me to cut them into 10" lengths for kindling for next year.

All the best.....Cutter

btulloh · November 08, 2020, 08:04:25 PM

Nice kindling. Or stickers if you get in a pinch. And a bunch of firewood to boot.

lxskllr · November 08, 2020, 08:15:59 PM

That's some fancy kindling. Mine's the little sticks I pick up in the yard. It's a never ending supply. Pretty sure I could solely burn kindling for a year and never run out of wood If I had the time to feed the stove.

trapper · November 08, 2020, 08:38:02 PM

chips and bark ftom splitting wood colected in a cardboard box work good

barbender · November 08, 2020, 10:21:34 PM

If you'd run your mill more you wouldn't have to fire up and saw just for kindling😁 You can come over and get some out of my slab piles😊 I have been known to split wood for bundled firewood with my sawmill. Most uniform bundles ever😁

thecfarm · November 09, 2020, 07:24:21 AM

That's a good way to make kindling.

mike_belben · November 09, 2020, 07:42:41 AM

Round up your sawdust in a 5 gallon bucket. Dump some old turkey frier oil in there and mix it up. 2 scoops of this will light full size stove wood with zero kindling by putting the scoops in a tunnel made from 3 pieces of firewood. One match will light the scoop and it smells like chicken.