Firewood Questions

[forgeblast]

First year I burned I made the mistake of splitting some smaller pieces of wood to start the fire with and put them in plastic totes with lids, opened them up to use them and there was mold/fungus everwhere. When I do split I usually leave it out in a pile for 2-3 weeks before stacking. Most of the time when I stack I use the sweedish dome method with a marker stick in the middle, when the wood shrinks to the level I have marked I know its good to burn.

 

[DennisArrow]

LOTS of thoughts here.........If I have cut the wood this year, along about now, I put a tarp over the stack that overhangs the edge by a foot or so.......the stack may be 4' to 6' wide and 6' or a bit more tall and 30' long...........or I have one stack this year that is perhaps 15' wide 6' tall and 30' long.....just depends......

I always put stacks on old pallets..........

For kindling I typically buy a bag of fat wood at home depot or just pull spinters off of wood stacked outside the door and gather a few larger sticks from the yard..........

My wood stacks are perhaps 50 yards from the house down by a barn.....Perhaps once a week or every few days during burning season I load the RTV up and stack on the porch right outside the front door.......the stove is just inside the front door..........

God bless......Dennis

 

[grsthegreat]

Ive been real lazy the past few years and Ive been using my 3 point wood splitter to make kindling. Man....that hatchet sure looks heavy

 

[tcreeley]

All I heat with is wood. I buy in the fall to burn a year later. I cover it with a tarp, but open on at least 1 side. I stack on 2x4 rails side by side. The snow makes it a pain to get. Usually I bring it in every day or every 2 days. I can burn 9-10" x 20-22". I don't split because it burns longer. A small cup of coals is more than enough to start a new fire. Basically the stove never goes out when the season begins. Watch out for carpenter ants in the wood you bring in.

 

[EE_Bota]

Ive been real lazy the past few years and Ive been using my 3 point wood splitter to make kindling. Man....that hatchet sure looks heavy

If you do that, you can tailor the kindling to where you KNOW it will light, but you wonder if it might explode.

 

[EE_Bota]

All I heat with is wood. I buy in the fall to burn a year later. I cover it with a tarp, but open on at least 1 side. I stack on 2x4 rails side by side. The snow makes it a pain to get. Usually I bring it in every day or every 2 days. I can burn 9-10" x 20-22". I don't split because it burns longer. A small cup of coals is more than enough to start a new fire. Basically the stove never goes out when the season begins. Watch out for carpenter ants in the wood you bring in.

Experienced wood burners have tiny wood shop projects already drawn up on microfiche for the carpenter ants to construct. Why use plastic houses and hotels in your monopoly set when carpenters need work in the off season?

 

[tcreeley]

Perhaps the finest set of plans and photographs I've seen for wood stoves -to make yourself, -is that by a little known Italian company, Pimentos, and using the finest walnut. It even burns longer and hotter than the finest Scandinavian cast iron stoves, let alone the Vermont soapstone stoves! Unfortunately it is a one time deal, and rarely seen in action. The lustrous hand polished walnut glows with resins and fits any decor in any setting, certainly old world craftsmanship. I don't have the website- can anyone help me on this? Your friends and family will be amazed at the heat this heirloom wooden stove can put out!

 

[jnelson]

by a little known Italian company, Pimentos, and using the finest walnut

EE Bota previously pointed out the issues one may encounter with carpenter ants. The main problem with the walnut sided wood stoves is that they attract fire ants. :laughing:

JN

 

[valley]

We just got our wood in for the winter. We found a stand of standing dead fir up about 600' from the house. I cut and bucked and the girls pitched and rolled the rounds down to the splitter. We need 4 cords each winter.
This is as soon as we have ever got the wood in. Last year there was snow on the ground as we were cutting. We dropped a few trees for next winter up the mountain side north of the house, be nice if we have time to buck, split and stack early.
We have mostly Fir, some Pine.

 

[Zxyrthe]

I stack various hardwoods cut 14" - 16" in half cord layouts on scrap lumber on bricks. Each stack is under the shade (mostly) and covered (top only) by a tarp. The idea is to keep most moisture off but still allow air to circulate through. I try to age each pile at least 16 months but occasionally find a standing, long dead tree that lends well to immediate burning.

This year I plan to have no leftovers as Hurricane Irene, drought and road work has supplied me with about three new cords of red and white oak. The old must make way for the new.

 

[rkeith]

I cut mine about 18" and stack it under a shed to allow it to dry out. It's stacked in rows with enough space between the rows for good air circulation. :thumbsup:

 

[tcreeley]

We just got our wood in for the winter. We found a stand of standing dead fir up about 600' from the house. I cut and bucked and the girls pitched and rolled the rounds down to the splitter. We need 4 cords each winter.
This is as soon as we have ever got the wood in. Last year there was snow on the ground as we were cutting. We dropped a few trees for next winter up the mountain side north of the house, be nice if we have time to buck, split and stack early.
We have mostly Fir, some Pine.

I figure in your area hardwood is not so common. I have real creosote problems if I burn pine, spruce, softwood and it burns faster than hardwood because of the pitch in it. Do you use it along with another source of heat? Here people using outdoor wood boilers have no problem with burning softwood- hot and short chimney stack.

 

[wolc123]

There is lots of good stuff on this thread. Personally, I season wood for 24 months on average, in an old dairy barn that has a good roof, but gaps around an inch wide between the siding boards. This does a good job keeping out the moisture but lets air circulate real well for good drying. I burn about 12 face-cord a winter, which heats my well-insulated, 2000 sq ft house real well, way up north on the Canadian border. I would love to be able to burn just oak, maple, and cherry but the threat of the emerald ash borer has made ash my primary source the last couple winters. (I hear it has made it to our county finally). I find ash burns well, even unseasoned, but it does live up to its name and makes lots of ash, compared to my preferred species, and it dont seem to throw out quite as much heat either. As for splitting, I have been doing it in the woodshed (barn) the last few seasons using a 22 ton, gas-powered horizontlal/vertical splitter. For me, there are several big advantages to splitting indoors. First, it rains a lot where I am and it is much more productive to have some indoor work available when it does. Second, I find that it is much easier indoors, to gather up all the scraps that are produced while splitting, and I always end up with enough to provide all the kindling wood that I need. It was a pain, in prior years, to have to cut and split kindling from pine boards and such. I almost always leave the splitter in the vertical mode, and sit in a chair as I work. That makes it easier on my back and saves me from having to lift them big pieces up. Fumes are not a problem as I usually open a few of the big barn doors and run an electric fan to blow them away. I do love heating with wood but it wouldn be nearly as fun if I didnt have good equipment (chainsaws, tractors, splitter), a woodlot on my farm, and a great woodshed so I dont have to store that bug-infested stuff in or near the house until it is needed. I also like haveing the stove on the first floor of the house, and the ability to store a half-cord of wood on a covered, outside porch that has a door right next to the stove.

 

[EE_Bota]

First, it rains a lot where I am and it is much more productive to have some indoor work available when it does. Second, I find that it is much easier indoors, to gather up all the scraps that are produced while splitting, and I always end up with enough to provide all the kindling wood that I need.

I like that...rainy day work, and kindling just magically gets made along the way. Slick...