Firewood from the branches

[cutterboy]

A few days ago I cut a large ash tree and took two nice logs to my sawmill. The tree was about 25' from the edge of a corn field and the top branches landed in the field. After the logs were taken care of I went back to cut firewood from the branches.


 

 
This tree had a lot of branches.


 

 

 
Cutting firewood is different once the leaves are on the tree. The leaves are a pain but they make things look pretty.


 
It's back to the barn with a load of wood.


 
The next morning I pulled the main stem out of the woods and cut it up. Now I feel good about harvesting the whole tree.


 

     All the best, Cutter

[Bruno of NH]

I have lots of small pole wood on my property 7" butt stuff.
My lot was logged so the stuff grows up fast.
When I clear more area for the sawmill operation I cut this stuff and run it in the stove.
I hope to make a chainsaw type chop saw to cut pole wood and hardwood sawmill slabs.
It all makes heat.

[hedgerow]

We cut a lot of hedge so we end up with a lot of limbs like that and I run them threw my buzz saw. Like Bruno said it all makes heat. 

[thecfarm]

I like the wood from the branches. Don't have to split it.  ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

I like the wood from the branches. Don't have to split it.  ;D

+1 on that, it is a little more handling, but it handles easy and puts out BTU's like anything else. I cut down to about 2" diameter, I like to use it all up and leave the woods clean. The little branches left make good brush piles for the smaller critters to hide in and the deer like to browse on them.

[Magicman]

I absolutely use the limb wood.  It does require more handling time which is why I suppose that firewood sellers seem to avoid it.  ??

[Old Greenhorn]

I absolutely use the limb wood.  It does require more handling time which is why I suppose that firewood sellers seem to avoid it.  ??

Firewood processors don't touch their firewood at all unless something goes wrong. I was up at @BargeMonkey 's place and looked at his processors system. Logs get picked from the yard and loaded on the feed rails, they roll down and get fed to the saw (I think his is a 52" blade, then pushed through the splitter and onto a belt that feeds the tumbler, where they get cleaned and dumped into a truck and off they go. The operator sits in an enclosed cab. You can't handle branches in this system. For guys like us that are working with our hands, branches make good sense, for the bog boys, they just don't. It's a little bit like how you 'bring up da' wood' in a wheel barrow and I do it with a 1/2 cord trailer. ;D

[cutterboy]

Yes, it all makes heat and yes, it takes more time to handle all the small pieces and I like burning round wood. But even if I didn't I would still use them because I couldn't stand the thought of wasting a large part of a good healthy tree. I also mix the round wood in with the split wood I sell. Nobody complains.

[Bruno of NH]

I also mix in some round wood with the wood I sell.
I have customers that a Ladies and like the easy handling of it.
They ask for it and I deliver it.

[BargeMonkey]

 Having a stroker I take it down pretty small but limb wood doesn't pay. Yrs ago I used to beg people to come get tops, now it goes back in the woods behind the grapple. Anything less than 8" processor drops in efficiency, some isn't bad but I try and stay out of the small stuff if I can. 

[barbender]

The Bell's 6000 doesn't like the small wood too much. Put some 12-16" diameter 20' long stuff on there though, and holy cow will that thing pile it up!!

[Ianab]

As I'm usually working one tree at a time, and have to tidy up after myself, any tops and limbs that look like firewood get lopped up and stacked to dry. Along with some split rounds from logs that weren't worth milling, and any substantial mill slabs. Goes in a big lucky-dip stack of firewood. 

If I have to tidy up that rubbish, I may as well earn a $ for it.  ;)

When the weather gets cooler, a picture like this on the local FB buy/sell page gets 3 orders in an hour. 


Because it's not so cold here, most houses only have a small wood burner, so less wood, and cut / split smaller. The guys doing it commercially of course have machinery, and a small truck or bigger trailer, so they might deliver 4 or 6 cube (cubic meters) in a load. My trailer holds exactly 1 cube, so the folks that just want a mid winter top-up, or don't have the storage space are interested. Pine is also acceptable as long as it's dry. I mix some cypress and random hardwood in my loads

It's only a hobby for me, but don't undercut the guys making a living from it, because A: that's not fair to them, and B: It's hard work  :D I just take the small deliveries they aren't really interested in. 

[cutterboy]

Barge and Barbender, I know you guys who make your living (or part of it) with firewood don't have time to diddle around with small stuff. Selling firewood is a hard way to make a living. 

[Bruno of NH]

I only do firewood because I get the logs for free from the biggest tree company in the country. 
I get a mix of small logs to 24"+
Even with free wood theres not much money in it doing it by hand.
A bigger splitter with a 4way or 6way head would help.
I'm saving for the small cord king that way I can run my hardwood slabs of the mill threw it.

[mike_belben]

I need to make a kicker to sort out the stuff that needs split vs doesnt.  But this is how i handle limbs.  I unload them off a bunk trailer with the bobcat and pile on the deck.  Its a gravity conveyor with a pivot for the saw.  In limbs its very fast and no bending over.  Great for slabs too. 

[cutterboy]

Mike that's a nice setup. How does the chainsaw attach to make it pivot? Is the saw permanently attached or do you just attach the saw when you need to buck firewood? 

[upnut]

Keeping the campfire wood wagon supplied means cleaning up elm blowdowns, tops and all, it all sells...




Limbwood right down to crows nest size


 

This load split and stacked was a rank 10 ft long and 4 ft high



 

Scott B.  

[Al_Smith]

My little patch has huge oaks but the under story stuff has a degree of die off .Probably every 4 or 5 years I could enough fire wood to heat my home for a season just from stuff on the ground Just takes a little saw and cut it up,no splitting .I'd get on it now but it's mosquito season .

[Al_Smith]

I've got a fire ring on my back patio make from a 38" rim from a John-Deere model A.The real little stuff goes in it along with some of my half rotten fire wood .It all gets used up plus it's kind of neat to sit out in the late afternoon and kick back and watch the squirrels and enjoy a whistle pop or three .--There is no such thing as "hurry up" in retirement . ;D

[btulloh]

Ha. Good point. 

Half rotten wood, especially poplar works well in a fire pit. Don't know why I have any poplar in my firewood, probably from just cleaning up.  I give it to friends for their fire pit and the love it.  Burns with a lot of flame and is long gone in an hour. Real good for those short sessions. 

I don't usually cut much limb wood. More big oak around to clean up than I can use. Seems like it takes  a day and a half to cut a face cord of the little stuff. I usually it leave for habitat. I can certainly understand using it though, if it fits your situation.

[mike_belben]

Mike that's a nice setup. How does the chainsaw attach to make it pivot? Is the saw permanently attached or do you just attach the saw when you need to buck firewood?

Just a 3/8 bolt welded to the table and a hole thru my 24" bar. double nuts to keep it at the right tension.  

It only gets put on to cut wood, takes 2 mins.

[cutterboy]

Mike, thanks for the pictures. I get it now.

[frazman]

I also use as much of the trees as possible when taking one down. I don't like waist and my time is worth it as it's for me on those cold days.

[mike_belben]

Same here.. I go down to wrist size.. I dont want to have to walk or drive or mow through limbs later on. 

[Spike60]

Cutting on my own property I pretty much use it all. Down to about 3" goes in the regular firewood stacks. The real little branches serve as kindling, and in between gets burned in the outdoor fire pit.

Cutting at other locations is different when hauling a pick up load home 15-20 miles. The branches naturally get left behind in favor of larger blocks. But if it's already here at home it's gonna get used. I enjoy going out with the quad and trailer to collect it; more time in the woods the better. And beyond not wasting it, I don't like the mess.

[cutterboy]

 more time in the woods the better. 

That really is a large part of it. Stepping into the woods is stepping into the world the way God made it. It is peaceful and beautiful.

[SwampDonkey]

I absolutely use the limb wood.  It does require more handling time which is why I suppose that firewood sellers seem to avoid it.  ??

They buy pulp logs that would otherwise head to the pulp mill. Tops are often chipped on the landing. Most of the hardwood up here is going to pulp compared to places south of the border. Years past, I've seen acres and acres of hardwood debarked and ground up on the landing for pulp. Not a log ever saved. Hardwood sawmills you could count on one hand up here. And to be viable they need a steady volume off public land. They don't use a lot of wood from woodlots or even off their own freehold land. Seen mills never touch their own hardwood ground.

[SwampDonkey]

I thin the woodlot for firewood and I burn anything down to 2". 90% of the good nutrients is in the fine limbs and leaves.

[Al_Smith]

You could keep yourself busy for a lifetime just cleaning up the dead fall or standing dead or blowouts from ten acres of hardwoods .You'd never need to cut a live tree for a single dwelling . 

[Spike60]

Al, I learned the deadfall lesson some years ago when heading into the season without enough wood. Not only was there plenty of 3" to 5" wood laying on the ground, it was essentially seasoned and ready to go. Had fun dragging it out and noticed that the pile of that stuff was starting to look impressive. Made a game out of using that wood through the fall and avoiding using the main supply as long as possible, other than some larger pieces for overnight. Set aside a face cord rack of it for the end of the season in case I needed it in early Spring. (and I did)

Time wise it takes a little longer messing with that small stuff, but it's easy work.

[thecfarm]

I have a OWB, reason I bought it, I needed a way to burn all of the dead stuff. When I was in the woods I would push a 8 inch dead pine laying on the ground out of the way so I could drive through there. Few weeks later I would be moving the same dead tree again.  :  I did burn some of the dead pine in a wood stove. It worked, but seem like I was always burning wood in it. Than too, it was real hot or real cold.  ;D Then seem like I have a lot of dead fir. Still do too. I have my eye on a few dead pine and a few dead hemlock. But there is stuff on the ground that needs to picked up too. I am cleaning up another grown up pasture. Lots of scrub pine that would make some great curved benches.  :D As my Father use to say, that tree is so crooked it won't even make straight smoke.

[SwampDonkey]

In my situation the woods is young and not much of any of this dead standing or blown out tops, I'd be freezing to death. ;) Any dead aspen I have has 70 % of the stem missing and rotten the rest is questionable. ;) The woods needs thinned, the second time, so that is where the firewood comes from. ;D

Yeah, but crooked stuff makes straight ashes as dad would say. ;)

[Al_Smith]

Pine is not native on this side of the state but it is on the eastern side .What little bit I have in a stack unsplit was dropped off my one of the tree trimmers .In my entire lifetime I doubt I've dropped a dozen if that many .
On the flip side of the record it's highly unlikely people in the piney woods hills have ever had to deal with a shag bark hickory .

[brianJ]

All my wood comes from field edges so often times not much stem but a lot of limbs and branches.     I get a lot of round wood but dont go down as small as some of you fellows.    I get it down small and short enough to drag thru the hedgerow out into the swamp and thats how I decide.     So usually keep cutting until just past a fork