Not until now. I have other trees that need felling. How does one find someone willing to buy a standing tree?
Thanks. The "advertisement" makes it look all so easy. But, that point is very blunt. It barely dents the center of the 20-inch long oak log!
That's half the current size! I didn't know 10 inches was the right size for splitting. I'm sure the length makes a huge difference!
I'm not sure what 'pellet behavior' is, but, for a campfire, you kind of just want it to burn for a while as you sit around it drinking a beer.
Hmmmmm... Not the campfires we make! :)
Makes sense. But that first split is also the hardest one!
I'm surprised. Mainly because dried oak is cracked while wet oak is seamless. But, it must be (for some reason) that wet wood is easier to split than dried wood as someone would have said otherwise by now.
I wonder how we measure moisture content in percent at home?
If cut and split in the spring it will be ready to burn by Winter ( Alder,Maple,Fir Madrona no experience with Oak) wood Dies from the inside out, it Dries from the outside in
Start in the Yellow Pages. I would imagine that they might pick it up, for a fee. You, of course, would have to delimb the tree, that is, cut off everything but the major portions. After all the costs, I imagine you would owe them money. A load of trees to a mill is roughly 80,000#. That is two tandem trailers of 20-25' lengths of straight logs 12"+ in diameter. If you got that much, you might make some money. Of course, the permits and environmental impact statement is going to cost you thousands. You will have to do all the labor, too.
Let us know how you do. At about $150 a cord for good oak in some areas, firewood may be the way to go.
Maybe depends on how valuable it is. Some friends has trees that they sold and the folks who purchased them scanned them with higher end metal detectors before proceeding.
My brother does wood turning as a hobby and he gets pieces from a local mill. They scan for metal before they process incoming wood.
And along the same lines a relative had a walnut tree stolen when they were away.
An ax is not the way to split the wood. What you need is about a 6 pound splitting maul. Sort of like a sledge hammer, but one side is like a big wedge. Use a light maul and bring it down fast instead of the heaver 8 or
I was under the impression that the firewood was for home fireplace usage.
Not to rain on your campfire fun but over sized / giant fires are rather wasteful of resources. The fire puts out so much heat you have to stand 20' away? Never heard about the native American comment on "white man's fire" vs small fire >>> stay warm all night? Maybe you're not a SoCal green type?
There is no "right size" for splitting or fire place usage. Depends on the size of the fireplace but I prefer smaller pieces. Pieces that are too large consume a fair amount of the fires heat to get them going.
"Pellet behavior" refers to EPA rated wood stoves that burn wood pellets with very little air pollution.
I don't know if you're a skier but Mammoth Lakes outlawed new log burning fireplaces in 1995 and even with the moratorium on new installations, a pall of smoke often hangs over the town in winter when all the pre-1995 fireplaces are burning logs.
Smaller pieces of wood burn clearer, larger ones tend to smoke more. Inadequately dried wood doesn't burn as well & can leave deposits in chimney. Though oak is less susceptible to it.
Not a problem in isolated areas but in SoCal (+20 million people) or in a small town with 1000's of logs being inefficiently burned
Like the killer air pollution in England (60's) due to coal burning...... its all about density & dispersion.
Split dry or wet? It depends on species. I have never worked oak but for B. Locust cut it green but split it dry. It splits with wedge/ sledge (10 lb) green fairly well but willa lmost fall apart with a maul when dry.
Way back I read that wood, split and given enouth time will dry down to the average humidity in the environment. I don't know if htat is accurate but if you can dry firewood to 20% it is fine.
Me? I burn 6+ cords/yr and have since 1976. Knock two chunks of wood together and if it goes "clunk" it ain't dry. It shoiuld 'ring'.
I agree with the "depens on the species", but your example is a horse of a different color. Locust was always split when wet. It's hard work, but it splits fairly readily along the grain. The older trees frequently drop limbs and split along the trunk.
This from Wikipedia:
Uses The wood is extremely hard, resistant to rot and durable, making it prized for furniture, flooring, panelling, fence posts and small watercraft. As a young man, Abraham Lincoln spent much of his time splitting rails and fence posts from black locust logs. Flavonoids in the heartwood allow the wood to last over 100 years in soil.[6] In the Netherlands and some other parts of Europe, black locust is one of the most rot-resistant local trees, and projects have started to limit the use of tropical wood by promoting this tree and creating plantations. It is one of the heaviest and hardest woods in North America.
Black Locust is highly valued as firewood for wood-burning stoves; it burns slowly, with little visible flame or smoke, and has a higher heat content than any other species that grows widely in the Eastern United States, comparable to the heat content of anthracite.[7] It is most easily ignited by insertion into a hot stove with an established coal bed.[citation needed] For best results it should be seasoned like any other hardwood, however black locust is also popular because of its ability to burn even when wet.[8] In fireplaces it can be less satisfactory because knots and beetle damage make the wood prone to "spitting" coals for distances of up to several feet.[citation needed] If the Black Locust is cut, split, and cured while relatively young (within ten years), thus minimizing beetle damage, "spitting" problems are minimal.
It is also planted for firewood because it grows rapidly, is highly resilient in a variety of soils, and it grows back even faster from its stump after harvest by using the existing root system.[9] (see coppicing)
Wait. You're surprised you didn't know something? It's quite clear that you don't know wood from Shinola, so it shouldn't surprise you. Having an inflated opinion of your unsubstantiated opinion is hubris.
Cut a piece of wood, weigh it, heat it up in the oven at a low temperature for a while, weigh it again. Do some math.
Firewood charts list the splitabilithy as "easy". I would rate it 'moderate'. Splitting green 4-5 smacks with wedge/sledge will halve a
2' round then a splitting maul will reduce it to splits.
I am harvesting and stockpiling B. Locust, every stick I can lay my hands on. The Locust Borer is killing it off around here. My stock currentlyi is around 40 cords and that doesn't count the 6 I burned last season. Most of it split by hand. Makes for good physical excersize. My hydraulic splitter only comes out for the knotty/ crotchy stuff. I alos split fence posts out of it years ago - not a hard job at all, time consuming though. 3 wedges, sledge, start on one end and chase the crack down the length of the log.
Hazard of quoting wikipedia. That article is fairly accurate but does have some things I don't agtree with and one major error. See below:
Dunno about it as finished lumber. It checks extremely badly as it dries and is very splintery. I have never seen any of it after planing. Won't say it isn't done, but I hae never seen it.
As a young man, Abraham Lincoln spent much of his time
Wrong! It is highly valued as firewood because it is very dense. Truth is that _ALL_ wood species have approximately the same heat value pound for pound. A pound of balsa wood will produce approximately the same BTUs as a lb of locust.
Hmmm. Honestly, I didn't read the whole wiki article and just did a quick skim and cut and pasted that bit, but you're right about a couple of things being a bit off. Your point about the BTU/weight being very similar, and I have serious doubts about the heat value for locust being the same as anthracite coal. I'd think the coal would be about double the heat value per pound.
I'm still going to quote wiki because it's easy and I'm lazy. :)~
I also doubted the 'coal' comparison. Basicly both coal and wood provide carbon for burning. I am sure that coal packs it far more densely. Too lazy to research it tho. Maybe later.
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