Curing and splitting wood for burning

In article , "williams" writes: |> |> A cord, in Michigan, is 4'x4'x8', cut and stacked. However, since stoves |> and grates are always smaller than 4' wide, wood is usually cut to lengths |> of 16" to 18" or so. We call these "face cords", and they measure |> 4'x8'x16"-18". Here, the term "cord" refers to the "face cord". My Hardy |> Outdoor Wood Furnace takes a log 16" in diameter, 31" long, much to large |> and heavy to load into the furnace safely.

Interesting.

|> ... I don't even cover my very large wood pile. The sun |> and wind dry it even through rains and snows.

Fine for you - not much good here :-( Our problem isn't that we get a lot of rain (though some parts do), but that the evaporation is minimal (about 11" a year in the south, almost all in summer).

|> Willow is junk. Don't burn any conifer, anything that stays green all |> winter, as they are full of pitch and you'll have a chimney fire.

I agree about willow and conifers! Holly is evergreen, and burns well, however. So is and does holme oak (but it is the very devil to split, wet or dry).

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Reply to
Nick Maclaren
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David, this sounds horribly familiar. I have bony spurs growing on my neck vertebrae and without gentle chiropractic intervention can't walk straight after a week or so. Yesterday, I did some gentle gardening but it involved quite a lot of bending and then standing up etc. just to tidy things up and carry the debris to the wheelbarrow. Later that evening I had a sudden loss of balance which usually indicates my entire spine is right 'out'. A couple of weeks ago, I suddenly had a brief period of double vision and feeling very weak, almost faint. My previous doc wouldn't even arrange for an X-ray on the grounds that I wouldn't want an operation such as you describe, whatever happened to show up on the X-ray. The chiropractor *did* commission an X-ray and while it's not awful, it's not terrifically good, either. I wonder if you'd be kind enough to email me about this? (remove weeds from address) I'd be very glad to hear from someone with similar symptoms, though yours sound worse than mine are at present.

Reply to
Sacha

Yes, a problem there. I'm fortunate to be on high ground near Lake Michigan, off which comes a usual breeze in most seasons. For years I carefully covered my wood piles (on top, but never on the sides), but in my travels up north I noticed the "old-timers" never did that, so I experimented. There was no need to work to cover my wood, as it seemed to dry just as efficiently uncovered. Lucky, I am.

I do envy those with woodsheds, but I've not seen the necessity in my situation. And, I don't burn wood in the house, but in a furnace 95 feet away, and that beast will burn anything no matter how green or wet, safely. If I still had a fireplace and grate, I'd have a supply of very dry wood under a woodshed roof, you bet.

Red Oak grows here, and splits at a suggestion. What American Elm that remains after the Dutch Elm Fungus killed most of them, is difficult to split. Beech can be knotty. I must have 1,000 White Ash in this woods, and the Emerald Ash Borer is at my doorstep, with the guarantee that every Ash in the State will die soon. I expect to see evidence this spring in my woods. This will mean a slow death for many trees, so I know where my firewood is coming from for the rest of my life. White Ash is rot resistent, can be stacked for years and not rot, is moderately-good firewood, and splits as easily as Red Oak. Bad news, good news, I suppose.

Best,

Tim

Reply to
williams

"Graham Harrison" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com...

The tree surgeon who did the work for us did warn us that the Willow would take a long time to cure and not burn wonderfully. We don't use the fire as a primary source so I use wood slowly and can wait for it to cure.

As for splitting, I have tried a maul in the past and not been very successful. To be frank, I'm worried how much damage I could do (to me, and surrounding buldings, cars, walls etc. etc) if I were to try with an axe. Hence the thought about a machine.

The comment about the farmer has bought and idea to mind. One of my neighbours might be able to help.

Unfortunately it is all cut to a maximum of about a foot. That doesn't preclude turning it but does restrict what can be done (I have a beautiful walking stick that was turned by a friend of my father many years ago which rather directs my thinking).

Reply to
Graham Harrison

small logs then ...

Reply to
geoff

I've just split several tonnes of oak, without any great issue. Any logs less than about a foot in diameter split down the middle, any larger you can nibble round the outside, splitting off "flakes" until it's small enough to split in two. I did it with a hand axe.

Reply to
Huge

Ankylosing spondylitis?

Reply to
Huge

"Graham Harrison" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com...

my experience is that some wood splits better whilst green & some better when aged & starting to crack. Best way to find out is get a splitting axe & try a few lengths of wood. If they split first time you are away. If they are wet & dull cure them & then split. I leave my green fire wood (split) about 6 months over summer & it is good enough for the fire.

rob

Reply to
George.com

Having failed to do it at the time, fer chrissake split the willow before it dries. Its a complete bastard to split once it is.

Guess what my afternoon task is today..

Buy a splitting maul. Or a bomb if you can find one.

I am using a hatchet and a sledge for the willow. Since the bomb broke.

At least when wedged right in you can knock it out.

Any thing more or less wedge shaped steel will work if it can be driven in HARD.

The beech I had doesn't need the sledge. It splits (after a year), with one mega whack from the hatchet, once sawn to < 12" long pieces.

Blackthorn, hawthiorn and maple are a shade tougher, as is fruit wood.

Not done holly yet.

>
Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

It will if its hot enough and ewortks well enough in a stove. Its useable. Not brill, but useable.

Yes. You can split a ton in an afternoon , but thats a lot of work.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I use it not for mainheating, but for extra heating in some very large rooms. A good fire (open)will get through about two or three large trivets of wood in an evening. Each one is heavy, but not that heavy - say 15-20kg,. So lets say 50kg of wood a day per large fire or stove. In cold weather.

Or a figure in hundredweights.

Maybe a hundredweight a day. Stoves in smaller properties may do much better.

Does

Either. No rads on my setup.

A lot. One mature beech tree has lasted me half this winter.Thats a

50year old tree..dunno how many to the acre..20 or so? so two a year means you need 8 acres?

I'd say probably around 5-10 acres of woodland would provide..Willow is the fastest biomass accreter, but its crap wood. Maple is probably a decent choice here on clay.

My overall calcs on energy per square mete of land to generate any biofuel suggests that this is not a particularly efficient way to use sunlight/land area.

Its also a shame to waste *good* timber on burning..

However if you have the land, and don't care to use it more efficiently,why not?

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Great post. I split dry maple, but next time I'll split it green.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

In article , The Natural Philosopher writes: |> |> > Don't bother with the willow - it's trash. It won't keep going until |> > completely dry, and then it burns to nothing in next to no time. |> |> It will if its hot enough and ewortks well enough in a stove. |> Its useable. Not brill, but useable.

The OP referred to a grate, not a stove. It's ghastly in a grate.

|> > How many tons of wood you you have? You can split wood with a couple |> > of hand axes, but buying a couple of wedges and a maul or club hammer |> > will probably cost you less than hiring a functional mechanical device. |> > Anything that works is likely to be large and heavy. |> |> Yes. You can split a ton in an afternoon , but thats a lot of work.

And how much wood do YOU burn? :-) I would guess that few people would need to spend more than an hour every couple of weeks, even assuming they use wood for all heating.

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Reply to
Nick Maclaren

Thats simply not so. I assume you are in Cambridge..well I am only 20 miles away, and all wood will dry outside down from whatever green is, to around about 17%-20%, in a year or two.

We don't even cover it until its cut and split for burning.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I've sent you an email.

Reply to
David in Normandy

Use a hatchet and a club hammer. I did severe damage to myself with a maul when I hit the washing line someone had thoughtfully strung over teh wood pile. (in laws house). It bounced back in my face. Fortynately on te THICKER part of te skull, missing my eye.

Juts one more set of stitches in my ravaged countenance..no big deal.

Using a small hatchet, and then tapping in with the club hammer, is low key work. In a short while you know juts how hard to hit it.

Makes it dead easy to split though.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

In winter, a couple of hours a week. I fill the back of an old off the road landrover with it. It makes a useful covered motorised wood shed. Probably around 1/2 ton if the wood is dense, less if its not.

Except that this winter hasn't really BEEN a winter..

As to what you need for heating a whole house..well as a kid it was coal. A ton of coal did NOT last a winter, although we nearly always made it last a winter, and I still have the memories of near hypothermia and ICE *inside* the bedrooms, and perpetually feeling cold ..

I guess it came to around a hundredweight every couple of days with about half the house kept at least above freezing.

A ton of coal or wood is probably not far off 1000 liters of heating oil in terms of heat output. I can easily get through that in 6 weeks here if the weather is ultra cold. And its a much better insulated house than that 50's cavity brick one was.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I don't recall ever being given a specific name such as that, but the doctors spoke of the formation of bone spurs impinging my nerves and the degeneration of disks in my neck.

To quote my medical report:

At C4/5 level there is uncal osteophyte formation with some narrowing of the left exit foramen and probably impingement of the exiting nerve root. At C5/6 level there is left postero-lateral osteophyte formation, this would appear to be associated with a chronic protrusion. There is canal stenosis with cord compression and compression of the exiting left nerve root.

(In none-medical jargon - It seriously bloody hurt!)

Reply to
David in Normandy

Got it, thank you. Hope my reply makes it back!

Reply to
Sacha

Jesus, do you live in Siberia and have a prediliction for sauna-like temperatures? 1000 litres of oil lasts us nearly a year.

Reply to
Huge

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