How small diameter do you burn?

[hedgerow]

 I am batch burning a boiler into storage so the size of splits doesn't matter to much. I am mostly cutting hedge {Osage Orange}. We still cut down to two inch size or so. If I have a lot of small stuff to cut I fire up one of my buzz saws and let the cutting begin. I don't keep the small stuff separated. It gets stacked right in with the other split wood on my trailers.

[doc henderson]

a 2-inch hedge stick, has almost as much energy as a 3-inch cottonwood.

[SwampDonkey]

I don't separate small stuff in my wood piles either. I like it mixed together. I can grab a few slabs and a bunch of small stuff at the same time from the same stack. I never cut all the wood exact lengths either. If something is a little long I dig out the electric chain saw, one like Jeff's, different brand. I tend to cut the little sticks a little long sometimes. :D

[Klunker]

used to keep 2" or so. I'm cutting all hardwood, Hickory, Ironwood and Sugar Maple the most.
Now I generate so much stuff in TSI (thinning) that I have gone to about 4" or bigger.
The rest either lays in the woods or gets stacked into a brush pile and burned.
Also the tops make good deer deterrents when loosely piled around desirable plants.

[47sawdust]

We have a cookstove, as well as, a parlor stove.I will cut down to 2'' limb wood.
I built a dedicated roller table for cutting limb wood and slab wood. I works very well for us.



 



 



 

[PoginyHill]

Just processed a cord of wood today and wanted to see what the smallest diameter I had was. A bit surprised to note that I have as small as 1 1/2" dia!. Not on purpose. In the woods I cut my firewood to 16 lengths, so I'll cut a reasonable diameter (say 3-4") on the large end and measure out until I get to 16ft or un-usable wood. The small ends tend to get very small, I guess. And it goes into an outdoor wood boiler.

[Ianab]

That's the thing, pick up a ~6" limb and think "good firewood" but the other end is maybe only 1.5". At that point you have already picked it up. so you may as well process it as you have to do something with it.

[stavebuyer]

I am spoiled. Living in the epicenter of the Oak-Hickory forest-belt, with an abundant supply of both, my wood pile is 100% split from rounds at least large enough to quarter and will be 95% oak and hickory going forward as the Ash salvage is about over with. I cut up an occasional Red Maple and pile it separate for the "shoulder season" fires. I get plenty of kindling from the sharp wedge on the Super-Split kinetic. I process a few finely split pieces for fire starting. I find it quicker and easier to split on the waste high table of the kinetic splitter than to cut and pick up limbs for fire starting. The split stuff  dries quicker than small rounds and the loose bark falls off going through the splitter. Less bark means less mess and less ashes to clean out of the stove.


One of my boyhood jobs was picking up sticks from the hayfields. I didn't much care for the task then and still don't lol.

[SwampDonkey]

I'm spoiled to, all kinds of wood from thinning, not enough time to keep up on it and no end to the wood. :D

I don't like big tops left, I like stuff close to the ground, so I take it down small. I cut 8-9 cords. Once the shop is up this summer, I will probably add at least 3 cords to the pile. I buck and split where it falls, so an armload of 2" or a couple half slabs is about the same volume. Never was a big deal, don't see it as such now. ;D

I'd rather pick up wood than weed by hand between rows of field potatoes, any day of the week. Or pick rocks for that matter. :D

[thecfarm]

I have a FIL that says he could found something better to do then pick rocks.
But he's not the one that has to mow around 100 rocks enough. Move 100 rocks out of the way, mowing time gets faster.  ;)
But he only owns a 250 foot lot with one tree to  mow around.  ;D
I take the brush down small. Always have, But that small stuff takes time!! When going into the stove too.
As you all know I have an OWB that will take a 54 inch long stick. I have filled that before with small wood. Better plan on doing that for a while!!!!!
I use to wheelbarrow in small wood at my other house.
But if leaving wood in the woods, I cut it short. That way it gets on the ground and will rot quicker. And I can drive my tractor through it without thinking that something might come through the radiator.
When my father was alive we would go in the woods with a trailer and pick up small wood. With 2 of us it went kinda fast.
I have a never end supply of dead wood and blow downs. Never can keep up with it.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, but your rocks are already on top. My rocks are plowed up in the fields. :D  That's why Deersdale was never settled and farmed, boulder fields. :D

[thecfarm]

True.
We never did much plowing as I was growing up. Good thing or I would still be picking rocks from plowing.  :D
My father did work on the lower end of the field. And it looks it too. No rocks on the surface and a stone wall pushed up with a dozer.
He told me the rock just about sat on top of the ground. The dozer would come up against them and off the rocks would go.
Not like the ones that I have dug out on The Farm. 

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah it's funny. Up north of here, on another river, no surface rocks unless it's river shores. Or a place we call Rocky Brook for example. But there is a hill the shape of a cone, called bald peak. The top of that thing is like a huge rock pile you'd see hand picked. No boulders just hand picking size. All loose to. You have to crawl across it, you can't stand up or you'd be on your but with every step. :D On the very peak is a chopper pad made of wood because they have a tower up there to look after. There isn't a single plant of any kind growing in those rocks, just lichens.

[thecfarm]

There are fields just 5 minutes from me with no rocks and not a stone wall in sight and flat.  ???
My Father would say when we saw a field like that, they need some rocks to damage their equipment.

[SwampDonkey]

My grandfather used to work for a potato farmer in Maine, so this was 80 plus years ago. Most of the stuff was held together by hay wire as any wooden parts were rotted away or old bolts broke off. Every time he drove a harrow over a shallow spot, over ledge, there was parts laying about. :D

[crazy4saws]

I laughed when I read this post title. My brother routinely says "leave the small stuff" to which I reply "you're leaving behind BTUs". It's usually 2" for us. If it's convenient and straight, we go smaller. Laying limbs and smaller trees across the Gator elevates the work space, keeps the saw out of the dirt, and reduces picking up pieces off the ground. Top handled saw is a must for this set up. This small stuff gets stacked in IBCs and used in the Fisher stove.

 

 

[SwampDonkey]

Is all the grass on an old field plot returning to woods? Up here ash, red maple, aspen, white birch and spruce usually reclaim fields. Sometimes even fir does and if it's been growing a generation, for the first firs to die and fall down, the ground will get thick with fir because I've thinned some of that for mills and it's like dog fur. But nice walking and working on, just whicked thick. :D

[Big_eddy]

If I'm cutting a tree in the woods, I usually end up cutting down to about an inch in diameter on some limbs, 2" on others.  If I can get a 16" straight section to pick up, then I cut it and toss it in with the rest. I quit at the point where nothing is straight or without a fork, or there are too many other limbs to step over to reach it. But if a 3" limb has landed tangled in other brush, it can stay there.
That said, there are times I go out looking for small wood. We boil syrup, and there is nothing better than "rocket fuel" - I.e. 2" dia dead standing dry ash - for stoking our small evaporator. Takes no time at all to drag 50-100 dead ash poles into the X-X supports and buck them up into 16" lengths for syrup wood. I have at least a cord of syrup wood stacked in the sugar house, and not a piece has been split and nothing would be over 3" diameter.



 

 

[kelLOGg]

I prefer stuff big enough to split but do burn down to 2 to 3 inches if that is what is available. The down side for me to burn small stuff is more ashes. Small diameter has greater ratio of bark to wood so i get more ashes to clean out. My vermont castings stove does not have a grate so fire must go out to shovel it - not too big of a problem in the South.

[SwampDonkey]

I don't cut a large volume, but more for the home than you guys to the south. What I do with 1" stuff if there is ash and maple, is I cut garden stakes 4 or 5 feet long, they last a few years. Some I have had 3 years and still solid, I'm seeing how many years they will go. I suspect 5 will be the limit. The spruce top get cut for rails for wet crossings, even the bushier top gets thrown on wet spots on the trails. Aspen and fir tops down small are most of the waste on the ground. Green fir is heavy, I'd rather not drag or carry those tops. Spruce is much lighter and compact. I find a use for lots of the left overs. ;D

[Hilltop366]

I thought this was a good idea for collecting small wood with a ATV and trailer or Gator. It eliminates cutting on the ground and picking up all those little pieces.

Skip to 8:30 for just the using of the saw holder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPq2Aaq0b0A

[thecfarm]

That's a good idea.
Kinda on the slow side, but like almost any job, another person makes it go easier and faster.

I have hauled out a lot of branches with my 3 pt winch. I lay down a 12 foot chain and pile branches on top of the chain. When I think it's "full" I hook the chain up and winch it in!!. Yes, most times it's kinda sideway, because I pile the branches at about the four foot mark.  But as I said I have the OWB that will take a 54 inch stick, so I  have it made that way. I just unhook the chain and then saw it how ever it lays. Yes, I never saw the last few sticks, but when I get to the bottom of the pile when I bring the wood to burn, I saw the bottoms one than.

[Ron Scott]

A lot of small limb size wood is cut and cleaned up from the ongoing yard tree debris and burned to start and retain the warming fires in our indoor fireplace insert.

[Hilltop366]

Seen this one the other day

I kind of like the idea of hinging the saw near the bar tip better, it looks safer to me because you don't end up with the bar tip up in the air when when in resting position and the log looks more secure against the back rest. I'm also thinking that the motion of pushing down vs pivoting up looks more comfortable. Could use a line and counter weight instead of a spring.

Firewood chop saw - YouTube

[Al_Smith]

Much ado over ashes .My old Lopi glass front which is bottom fire bricks burns it right down to powder .I only scoop it out once a week if that often .Little stuff like two inch stuff gets thrown in the fire pit .The fire in the insert stove never goes out from start to finish ,most of the time .If it gets too hot I turn off the blower and use less wood .
I live basically in the woods and get a lot of blown branchs that get cleaned up with a battery saw .Neat little tool for that task but it's not designed to be an oak slayer .That would be like elephant hunting with a Daisy Red Rider BB gun .