The Daily Firewood Picture Thread

[mike_belben]

i prefer to manage tops with a tophandle saw so as to have a free hand grabbing stuff but i dont know that i will have the wrist strength for that into my senior years.

[Al_Smith]

I have a handy dandy little 024 Stihl for those tops .With tops etc. they usually don't need split unless it's a big fat 200 year old oak .Those require a little bit larger saw . A little light weight under 3 cube saw on a 16-20" limb takes some time .

[HemlockKing]

i prefer to manage tops with a tophandle saw so as to have a free hand grabbing stuff but i dont know that i will have the wrist strength for that into my senior years.

That's a good idea for myself, constantly annoyed with setting down a saw to move brush, pick it back up to make a tiny cut, set down etc

[Magicman]

 

 
My firewood stack still looks like it did back when I stacked it on October 11th.  75° today.

[stavebuyer]

I probably have burned around what you have stacked. I keep my stacks "topped" so that is a rough guess.
I find "firewooding" to be my favorite chore, always enjoy it.

Mowing, string trimming, and picking beans all seem like work

[Magicman]

Kinda chilly here today e/w 39°, so I built a flicker.  Our Christmas Eve forecast is clear 76° and 73° for Christmas Day. 

Soooo, the firewood stack remains virtually unchanged.  

[sublime68charger]

Kid stacked surplus blend in pile for the wood boiler.



 

[SwampDonkey]

Don't need no high priced pine pitch for axe handles. Just split some balsam, and handle the wood, and you have free Canada balsam, with a non slip finish. A work'n man's axe. :D

[Al_Smith]

Yesterday, raining I figured out why the spark stopped on my splitter and why all the hydraulic oil leaked out .When I built that thing in my haste I neglected to install a hose clamp on the suction hose --oops . The spark was a grounded out kill switch,oops again .
5 gallons of oil at TSC and back in business .Split about a half a face cord  and it rained again which turned to snow .Maybe tomorrow or the next day or the next . 

[Corley5]

  Trying something new.  I've been running Oregon bars and chains for years.  At times the quality hasn't been as good as it should have been.  The steel was soft.  They wore too fast and didn't hold an edge although the last couple batches have been really good.  Our local Oregon dealer isn't anymore.  I'll see how well GB bars and Orbit chain holds up.  The bar was a bit more expensive and the chains are 8 bucks a piece cheaper from harvesterbars.com  The bars have a wider body and broader nose.  Chain cutters appear shorter.  I ran a pickup load off this morning, and they worked well.  



 

     

[jimbarry]

 Trying something new.  I've been running Oregon bars and chains for years.  At times the quality hasn't been as good as it should have been.  The steel was soft.  They wore too fast and didn't hold an edge although the last couple batches have been really good.  Our local Oregon dealer isn't anymore.  I'll see how well GB bars and Orbit chain holds up.  The bar was a bit more expensive and the chains are 8 bucks a piece cheaper from harvesterbars.com  The bars have a wider body and broader nose.  Chain cutters appear shorter.  I ran a pickup load off this morning, and they worked well.  



 

    

With that wider bar, do you anticipate any issues where the chains leaves the bar and goes onto the sprocket?

[Corley5]

It's fairly close to the same width on the sprocket end.  It gets wider from there all the way to tip.  I don't expect an issue.  

[Magicman]

That looks wicked Corley and I hope that it work out well for you.

PatD and I are closing out the year at the Cabin so yesterday I skidded out a couple of Red Oak trees that had fallen across roads.


 
Skidding out with the trusty old 1530 John Deere.


 
All skidded out.


 
What a mess.


 
Bucked and ready for the splitter.




Using this trusty old 028 AV.  

Now I've gotta drag the splitter out either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.  All of this and it is 84° !!!

[Al_Smith]

49 a little after 3 PM ,sun is out .A good time to slice up three logs with most likely a cord in them all .If it's fit I'll split them tomorrow ,if not I'll wait until it is fit .Actually the last few years it's been so mild I only burned a couple of cords down from 4-41/2 from a normal winter .

After thought for this job which is only 12" logs ,24 footers  I'll use a modified Stihl 038 Magnum .That will make short work of them .

[Al_Smith]

It didn't really take that long after I did my "honey do list ".I managed to kiss the ground a few times cutting up the black cherry and basswood and it required a file before I did the hard as concrete ash log .
Now the saw ,Stihl 038 mag  from near Orlando Florida .Snagged on another forum at around 2 AM in the morning .It was given to "Rocky J " misused and abused by the previous owner. Every AV mount was broken ,the boot was torn and the air filter missing .A little scuff on the intake portion of the piston from no filter .I rescued it and eventually added a can of soup .It's got 195 PSI static compression and requires a D-Handle to start it .It's been a good one extremely powerful for  72 cc's .If it ever gives up the ghost I'll build another exactly like it .
BTW that cant hook is much older than me .
 

[barbender]

Our harvester operators are always trying different bars. Mainly Oregon,but also the GB and Iggesund. It seems like they all have runs of bad steel and bearings, etc. Pretty much only Oregon chains. I haven't used my processor enough to wear any bars out, chains I get once used harvester chain our guys throw out. Break and spin for my shorter length, run it around the grinder and I have a chain ready to go for next to nothing. I think I have a lifetime supply at my current rate😂

[Corley5]

  I took delivery of another load of seasoned mixed hardwood today.  That's 40 cords of it.  It's a mix of sugar maple, soft maple, black cherry, ironwood, and beech that's been stacked on a landing for a year.  I could do without the soft maple but as winter progresses and seasoned wood becomes scarcer it won't matter.  I was going to go into semi-retirement from firewood for the winter and work on other things and syrup season is fast approaching.  Guess I won't.  But I'll schedule around arctic outbreaks.  With this new wood and what I still had in stock there's enough for close to 200 face cords.  I'm watching wood on Craig's List and FB Marketplace and there's still quite a bit available.  I'm going to give it a couple weeks or three until the supply tightens up.  
 I've also taken in 30 of the 120-pulp cord of green wood that I've got ordered for next fall's seasoned wood.  While the truck was unloading, I cut up a couple of too crooked for the processor red oak logs with the 2156. They're just right for the OWB.  A third one went in the cast-off pile.  Not worth the energy for the energy ;) ;D



 

 

 

 

 

 

[Magicman]

Now I've gotta drag the splitter out either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

  
Da splitter came out and I got-r-done.  A Grandson stopped by and helped me park it back in the "C" can.  I'll load the unsplit/rounds in the trailer in the background and take them home when we leave the Cabin, probably tomorrow.

[barbender]

Looks like a 10 year supply for you, Magic!😊

[Al_Smith]

I think back to when I sold firewood and then look at that mountain of wood Corely has amassed .I didn't sell that much in the entire 8 or 9 years I was at it .Back then it was 40 bucks a pick up load all hand split .I was a lot younger then BTW .

[Magicman]

Ha, you just do not realize how brutal the cold can be down here.  We are still in the 70's today but are forecast to be 26° tomorrow morning....Yikes !!!


 
I finished out my trailer load with the rounds that I did not split yesterday.  That is about ½ cord which should be enough for next year.  ;D


 
That plus this is still here waiting to be hauled another time.



 
I found this Cherrybark Red Oak (on the left) this morning that is about 28"+ butt.  (That is a Sweetgum on the right.)  Unless I can get that bridge rebuilt, it would be well over a mile skid so it may become 'worm dirt'.    I hate it but sometime it's just the way it is.

This morning I also found a fairly nice Walnut tree that has washed into the creek.  At least the butt/stump is on the right side of the creek and it should be recoverable.

[stavebuyer]

Back in the first 70s firewood craze; burger flipping wage was about $2.20/hour and I paid $5600 for my first new 4x4 truck  in 1977. If you could pull up beside a tree and load as you blocked and split with axe. $40 was respectable money. Much better than you could do today. Same truck would cost you about 8 times as much and unless you are selling birch bark bundles in NYC nobody is paying $320 for pick up load.

[Al_Smith]

You get into a conversation about chains and then comes different opinions .As for me I think Stihl chains are the best although they are costly .Many of my Stihl chains were salvaged from my friend's bucket  truck tool boxes .I have the tie straps presets etc for Stihl ,Oregon ,and others .I have not repaired any for several years though as I have enough done to last me a good while . BTW the chain on my saw in the above picture is now at the place the cutters are right at the point they cut the fastest which is right at the point of the rear rivet .Pulls a nice big chip .Old school, I use a file .

[Al_Smith]

My firewood deal happen to be about the time the small woods in this area fell to the mighty D8 Caterpillars which was a shame .They tried their best to make this part of Ohio into the open plains of Kansas .As such it was easy enough to get the wood from slash piles that I could drive up close to .During that time period as a young journeyman electrician I made about $10 an hour and about the same selling firewood .The later of course was much more work .Although I do admit some of that wood was small enough I didn't need to split it which saved me a lot of time .On a good long day I could do two loads plus deliver it .

[barbender]

Magic, we had about 55° colder than that 26° last night. That can make a pile of wood disappear in a hurry!