How small diameter do you burn?

[Spike60]

The quick answer to my own question is I burn down to 3". Below that is kindling, so some of that gets burned also. I've always done some of the 3 and 4 inch wood when cutting at home. But when cutting at other locations I never bother with it, subscribing I suppose to the "it ain't worth the trouble" theory. I know it wouldn't go over well if wood that size was sold to a customer. Also, I have a quadrafire indoor stove. I know this practice wouldn't make any sense for you outdoor boiler guys.

But on my own property I'm saving more of it for the stove, vs it going in the firepit, or just left to rot. Pretty easy work. No heavy lifting, no splitting, can cut it up with the smallest saw I own. Just toss them in the trailer behind the quad and enjoy the being in the woods.

Since I'm no longer in the store all day, burn time doesn't matter. In fact a 4" round will generally burn longer than 4" split. Not a problem to feed the stove more often if I'm home during the day. Either way, being home more often means I'm using more wood no matter what size it is. Might as well use these smaller rounds instead of letting them go to waste. Helps keep the property neat and clean too.

Anybody else burn the small stuff?

[doc henderson]

yes.  it is nice to have a variety of stuff in the IBC tote, and then on the rack, and in the wood box in the house.  bigger stuff for overnight after the fire is going with a bed of coals.  we have been using a plastic wheeled tote for in the house.  load it up and it rolls across the patio and can be slid up the stairs.  put in its spot and all the dirt stays in the tote.



 

[peakbagger]

When I was cutting on someone else's property, I tried to cut down to 3" and tried to make the resulting brush piles as flat as possible. I also cut when the leaves were off to further reduce the volume of brush. Cutting on my own land, I probably cut downto 4", unless its not straight like crown wood on beech. I have a wood boiler in my basement with 500 gallons of thermal storage that has a bottom grate so there is no coal bed to relight the fire between fires, so I have to restart the fire every time I need to heat the storage tank up and having some small stuff mixed in with the big pieces to light it off.

There is a good chance I will have a third party clearing a right of way on my woodlot, I wrote into the lease that any hardwood over 6" will be hauled down to a landing while everything smaller will get chipped and spread in the woods. I think that may result in a few years of firewood. 

[dairyguy]

I have no hard limits.   For premium BTU species I will go down to 2 inches maybe even 1 inch and more like 3 and a half for others.   At these small sizes an even bigger factor is how convenient it is to cut out a straight (ish) piece at least 16 inches long.   

[Stephen1]

All I burn is the sawmill cutoffs, I keep the hardwood bundles for myself and split it all down to 3" . Some of the hardwood bundles will have a bit of pine in them which work great for kindling. I bring all my broken and short stickers home for kindling. I have to start 1-2 fires per day in the Masonary heater as there are no coals left after the fire burns out. I like those totes doc, where did you get them?

[brianJ]

I have no hard limits.   For premium BTU species I will go down to 2 inches maybe even 1 inch and more like 3 and a half for others.   At these small sizes an even bigger factor is how convenient it is to cut out a straight (ish) piece at least 16 inches long.

I cut small rounds out of branches to make them easier to bunch up in a neat pile.     Usually that doesnt need to be as small as yours but smaller than most people.

[doc henderson]

I got the first one at Walmart, then could not find them there so now Amazon.  Sterlite is the brand and 40 gallon.  they last 3 or 4 years depending on how the wood is "thrown" into them.  I have thought about putting a thin bit of plywood in the bottom.  that is where they fail from wood hitting the formed bottom over and over.  It can be full and slide up the concrete steps and rolls nice.  I do not use the lids.  I got a 2 pack still in the box.

[doc henderson]

I now have a chop saw out by the splitter and can cut the smaller stuff and toss it in the crate without splitting.  cutting small stuff in bulk with a chainsaw tends to bind or kick it into my shins. 

[NE Woodburner]

When cutting out in the woods I probably don't go much smaller than 3" or 4". I cut into sections that I can skid out and cut any remaining tops so they lay close to the ground. This year I have been cutting diseased or hazard trees around the edges of my lawn and near my house and driveway, so I've been cutting much smaller wood - even down to 2" just to have it look neat. Like Doc mentioned, cutting small stuff with a chainsaw by yourself can be frustrating and dangerous. I started using my cordless electric chain saw for this. It can be run with one hand and I can hold the small log with the other. I found it to be reasonably productive to cut small branches into long lengths with my gas saw as I am cutting larger logs into rounds. Once I have a pile of the small stuff I cut with the battery saw and throw the pieces right into my tractor bucket. It's surprising how fast you can fill a bucket.

I still won't bother with the small stuff once I'm back to cutting in the woods again.

[cutterboy]

I like to burn small diameter wood in my kitchen cook stove and also, when I cut down a tree I like to use as much of it as possible so I will cut down to 2" or so.


 

 
When I cut along the edges of fields I cut a lot of small trees.


 

 
Small diameter wood has it's own place in the barn.


 

 
Small stuff does take time but it's worth it to me.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Ill cut stack and burn down to 2 in. for our stoves.   Waste not want not and all that.   I dont sell anything that isn't split.  Sell the best, burn the rest.

[John Mc]

One one of the properties I cut, it's a requirement that anything under 3" be left in the forest to rot. It turns out that the vast majority of nutrients are in the smaller branches (which makes sense since most of the activity is near the surface of the trunk and branches).  So I started doing the same thing on my own property as well. I don;t get hung up on exactly where the cut-off is: sometimes I cut down to 3", sometimes I stop at 4".

It's also rare that I lop the slash down low to the ground. I'll do it near the house or major trails just so things look nice. Other places I leave it: it helps protect the regeneration from deer browse.

[Don P]

Look up "ramial wood" for more on that. Mike Belben was into it for awhile and wrote some on here about it. I found a report from experiments at VA Tech. My understanding is they are talking about pencil sized and below but it all has nutrients and organic matter. There is no waste either way I guess, some is slower release.

I guess I tend to go down to about 3-4" all depending on handling distance.
This morning looked like sweet birch and walnut to start and a minute later i threw on some apple and poplar till it got to a split oak and locust sized fire.

Now that I'm north of the fatwood line, I use a lot of pinecones, which are sorta almost as good



 

[Andries]

. . .  Pretty easy work. No heavy lifting, no splitting, can cut it up with the smallest saw I own. Just toss them in the trailer behind the quad and enjoy the being in the woods.

Funny how we come across someone else doing exactly the same thing, but many miles apart. Quad and trailer, battery saw, the pooch running alongside and picking off the trail and road 'encroachers'.
With the white birch, the tip of the saw is run down the length of the trunk, then blocked to 16". Saves having to use the splitter.

[John Mc]

With the white birch, the tip of the saw is run down the length of the trunk, then blocked to 16". Saves having to use the splitter.

Cracking that bark is a big one for White Birch, especially if you won't be splitting it.

[upnut]

If you've ever burned brush piles you realize how many BTU's there are even in the small stuff. I cut down to crow's nest material in hickory or hard maple, probably down to 4" in the rest. When my Woodmizer log tongs won't engage its probably too small.

Scott B.

[SwampDonkey]

2" for hardwoods and 3" for softwoods. I even burn alder or striped maple. Striped maple is just as heavy as red maple. Stripe maple is very shade tolerant and does not grow any faster than red maple. You'd think it might grow fast like aspen, but nope. I have a clump on the lawn in full sun on old garden ground, doesn't grow fast at all. I'll find one 6-8" on the stump end once in awhile. Out in back wilds I'll find big ones more often growing with large hemlocks.

[Larry]

My shop is 1,500 square foot of very well insulated space. I heat it 24/7 with the wood stove.  It takes very little wood to keep it warm but the downside is on mild days it is easy to over heat it and have to open doors/windows.  For that reason I burn lots of small 2" stuff.  On a day when I know its going to warm up I'll start the fire and throw on a few small sticks.  Probably enough heat to last until evening.

The house is much larger and not as well insulated.  When I fire up the stove (seldom) I don't mess with little sticks.

[Magicman]

I cut down to what is convenient for me to handle which is usually 2"-3".   I do love that small "limb wood" for the morning startup.   ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I will say it depends on convenience for me. If I am out in the woods taking trees I am sure not cutting down to 2" or less, I may go to 3" witjh the goal being to get the brush to a smaller size for rotting, but then I may brush piles for the critters unless the property owner has other ideas.
When I am cutting around the house, well then I have to get rid of everything (I don't have a woodlot, just a small parcel). So either it is going in the woodstove on on a brush pile to burn at the right time. So I usually take just about everything but the small branches under 2".
It all makes BTU's. in fact I could beat you all by saying I burn it all the way down to chip size. ;D This afternoon I did my annual cleaning on my dust collection system. The lower barrel gets the larger chips and the finer stuff heads back upstairs into the collection bag. That collection bag got emptied onto the compost pile and the stuff from the barrel I shoveled into the woodstove in shifts. It put out a surprising amount of quick heat. ;D :D I took the rest of it and put it in buckets for burning later, all mixed, softwood, and hardwood, whatever.
My planer chips get bagged and over the course of the winter I use them for morning fire restarts in both the house and shop, they burn nice and even for a long enough time to get the main wood going well. It's a quick process. No paper or pine cones (which I don't have anyway). I do keep my ERC chips separate and offer them to folks for closet bags or air fresheners or whatever, but rarely get takers.

[Woodcutter_Mo]

 I'll cut down to about 2" on oak limbs, sometimes smaller especially black jack if it's handy and has good heartwood. The small limbs are nice to start up the stove or toss a few in to give it a boost of heat in the morning. For normal burning, usually no smaller than 4"-5".

[Ianab]

When I was selling firewood for some pocket money I'd go down to about 2" with limbs and mill slabs. People were happy with a mix of both species and sizes, as long as the volume was right and it was dry. Some light pine to get a fire burning quick, and some denser chunks of hardwood for a long burn time. I didn't get any complaints, had repeat customers, and sold out of wood.

I was doing storm and garden / farm cleanup at the time, so I had to get rid of the stuff. It was either drag it to a burn pile, or stack it up to dry and sell when the weather cooled off, and get some $$ for it.

[SwampDonkey]

I like the smaller wood to fit in around the bigger slabs. You can also get a quicker bed of coals to lay a nice big slab on. I believe the small stuff helps efficiency of the burn to. A number of manufacturer videos shows wood split pretty fine down to 3-4" on the thickest side. Even for a furnace. Never seen any of their videos with big half round slabs on the fire.

[Spike60]

I now have a chop saw out by the splitter and can cut the smaller stuff and toss it in the crate without splitting.  cutting small stuff in bulk with a chainsaw tends to bind or kick it into my shins.

Have had more than my share of shin bangers, Doc. Chop saw solution is interesting if near the woodshed. And I do have electric run out there. In the woods it's stand on the wood with 1 foot when using a regular saw. Or carefully hold it with the left hand and cut it with a small top handle saw. Never had a mishap there, but do wear protective chain saw gloves as a precaution.

As I'll be focusing on this a bit more, I want to come up with a different storage set up. Want to keep the small stuff stacked separately similar to what cutterboy shows in his pics.

[Hilltop366]

I'll cut down to 2" on most, spruce trees that grow in the open with large branches I will cut the branches up as I limb the tree, seems to be more heat in the branches than the trunk.

I also ended up with a log holder when I bought a used wood splitter, it is handy if you have a bunch of smaller pieces to block up.

Like this one.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDsEeKth8zk