At Home In The Woods

[tony Cecil]

How would he loose his hand?? I was chopping down on some kindling , and a piece flew up and hit me right between the eyes...hurt mightily...Just a couple of weeks ago....So be careful Tony

 

[Obed]

Get yourself a nice high end wood stove! You will use the same amount or wood and get 100x the heat off of it. I have a High valley catylist stove. The wife resisted for a few years as she likes the looks of it and seeing it. Well this one has a glas door and you can see the fire. We use to heat the room barely to low 70s for 4 hours each day. NOw i can use a similar amount of wood and heat the house all day on that ame quantity of wood. The room can get well past 80 F in the dead of winter depending on what part of the house we open up to allow the heat to flow to. I have a large first floor, bout 2500sqft, not really an open plan either, we use 2 fans and sometimes the blowers on central units to distribute the heat. I figure i cut an easy $100/month off the cold months!

clemsonfor,
We have a high efficiency fireplace. It doesn't seem hungry for wood. Last week, we stoked the FP before bed and it still had hot coals in it at 5 PM the next day. We are still trying to "learn" the FP so we don't yet have a feel for how much wood we will need for an entire season.
Obed

 

[Obed]

While you are still splitting by hand put the log to be split onto a stump or another log. You will not have to bend over so far while splitting and it might improve your aim a bit. Just be very careful! If you miss the wood the maul will keep going and sometimes it attempts to split toes or other body parts. Kudos to you for not giving up.

easygo,
I am a little nervous about putting the log up higher on something for the exact reason you mentioned. I have a particular affection for my toes. My aim is by no means perfected; I still drive the axe/maul too long or too short at times.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Here's another tip for splitting wood. Put the wood in an old tire to keep from having to stand up the piece of wood to split it again.

srossman, I never heard of doing that but it sounds like a great idea. It is time-consuming to have to keep repositioning the wood pieces.
Obed

 

[Obed]

That track loader is becoming a permanent addition to your property. I hope he is letting you use it as it's saving him money storing it there.

Yes, it has been here a long time, about 7 months. I think I'm ready for it to leave. No, I don't get to use it. I sure would love to though. I can easily think of several good uses for it around here.
Obed

 

[IndyIan]

I'm holding off on a hyd splitter for as long as I can. My trick is to rip knotty chunks with my saw. I cut 16" firewood so a 20" bar lets you cut parallel to the grain and its surprisingly fast if you've got a sharp chain and a saw with some grunt. So I try to leave myself rounds or halfs that I can split a piece off with one whack so I'm not hitting the same chunk of wood 5 times.
I did a 3 cord ash tree this summer with some rounds over 40" this way. I ripped the crotches or spots with a huge branch on one side as I bucked it up. I still had to rip a few chunks that I couldn't split, but I also didn't have to move 300lb+ rounds more than a couple feet.

 

[Obed]

Dear obed,
I would reccomend you to buy a horisontal splitter with electric hydraulic engine.

I've gone back and forth about the electric ones. At first I discounted them because all the one's I've seen locally are very low power units. Then I saw some higher end stuff on the web. I finally decided to go for a gas powered one because I want to use the splitter at my log pile where I don't have electricity. Splitting the wood at the log pile and stacking it on a pallet reduces the number of times I have to handle each piece.

Take a gander at this Log Splitter, Wood Splitter - Super Split(R)

I'd love to have a Super Split. I just don't think I can justify the price. It's at least double the cost of what I can otherwise buy that will do the job I need done.
Obed

 

[Obed]

I'm holding off on a hyd splitter for as long as I can. My trick is to rip knotty chunks with my saw. I cut 16" firewood so a 20" bar lets you cut parallel to the grain and its surprisingly fast if you've got a sharp chain and a saw with some grunt. So I try to leave myself rounds or halfs that I can split a piece off with one whack so I'm not hitting the same chunk of wood 5 times.
I did a 3 cord ash tree this summer with some rounds over 40" this way. I ripped the crotches or spots with a huge branch on one side as I bucked it up. I still had to rip a few chunks that I couldn't split, but I also didn't have to move 300lb+ rounds more than a couple feet.

Saturday, I gave up on splitting one knotty piece. I set it aside for when I can use a log splitter on it.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Hey guys, look at this! I saw it late last night on craigslist. This morning I called the guy at 7:20 AM and apologized for calling so early.

Almost every gas powered log splitter I've seen on craigslist has sold before 5 PM the next day. I've been looking everyday for the past 6 months and have struck out. I looked at one several months ago but the owner couldn't get the gas engine to start. The one we bought today is a 2 year old 27-ton Troy-Bilt that operates in vertical or horizontal positions. It is the exact model I had already decided to buy new. I probably would have bought a new one this week if I hadn't found this one today.

I sent my wife to go look at the splitter and buy it. She took a hickory log with her and had the seller split the log. Everything checked out so I now have a log splitter after a half-year of looking. We paid $925, pretty much the going rate, for the splitter. A new one costs $1430 counting tax.

I can't wait to try this thing out. I rarely get excited about toys and such but I'm like a kid on Christmas Day.

 

[dstig1]

Wow. You found the mythical CL splitter. Good for you. Very hard to find them there...