Anyone cut firewood for health/exercise?

[Rustyiron]

I ccs about 6 cord a year for *100% of the house and shop heat. The health benefits are a consideration although I'm highly mechanized. I am harvesting my own wood and us a "regular" splitter not a processor and do have a log winch for the tractor. If nothing else, it keeps this "outside dog" - outside. I'll be working on 23-24's wood this winter.
* actually December-april ish. Mini splits do the shoulder seasons.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Spent most of Saturday doing firewood excercises, split and moved a couple cords of wood. The tuff part is that this year we had a wind storm on the 28th of March that blew down lots of Ponderosa
Pine in the area. Most of them in the 40" plus diameter at the stump range. Cut them to a length of 16" rounds to let them dry all summer, lifted these rounds with a tractor onto splitter. A very slow and tedious process trying to figure out the safest way to handle the large rounds.
Have never processed rounds this large before and will not be doing it again any time soon.

I process large rounds by splitting shakes off the outside with a maul until it's small enough to cross split.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Put a wood burner in the house 6 years ago. Mind you, we live in SE Tennessee so the need for heat is not nearly as great as my Northern brethren. But I enjoy it! Gives me great joy to take discarded or deadfall trees and turn them into heat for the family. I have way too many projects to spend much of my free time splitting wood with a maul and stacking it 3 times, so I have been refining my technique over the years. Presently move logs to my processing area with tractor, buck with Husky 359, split with a gas splitter, and toss directly into an ICB tote cage for movement. No, I DO NOT do it for exercise but I still get wore out after 3 or 4 hours of it and I also appreciate that. I am a young buck (46) compared to most of you, hope to still enjoy it for many years to come.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

This is my wood splitting tool. It's a 6 lb. maul with a little kicker on one side that keeps it from ever getting stuck in a split. It's the finest splitting tool I have ever owned. I've been splitting with it for 27 years now. If the fiberglass handle ever gives up, I'll put a new handle on it. I have shopped for a maul with that splitting head, and can't find one anywhere.

I've tried hydraulic wood splitters, and by the time I horse a round into position and wait for the hydraulic to do its thing, plus dealing with setup, fuel, and maintenance, I could have had the job done twice with my maul.

 

[hosspuller]

Pine in the area. Most of them in the 40" plus diameter at the stump range. Cut them to a length of 16" rounds to let them dry all summer, lifted these rounds with a tractor onto splitter. A very slow and tedious process trying to figure out the safest way to handle the large rounds.
Have never processed rounds this large before and will not be doing it again any time soon.

Durn .. I just deleted a photo... I use skidding tongs to lift the 36" Oak rounds on the splitter. Either use the tractor loader or a chain hoist.

 

[cqaigy2]

I forgot to mention. I use a Fiskar splitting axe, the longer one. Even though im very short, the long axe works well for me, as i can develop more speed with it, at least that's what i think. Most types of wood are not a problem. Oak being the hardest, for me to split, so far. One the largest rounds of oak, no knots, maybe 30 inches or so, it will take 3 or more hits in the same spot to get it to come apart. I've got some larger maple rounds that im working on now, but if it's dry enough, seems to split ok. I have a few that are just under 4 feet, not sure how those will go. I moved them with the FEL when they were wet and it had a tendency to make the back end a bit light and lift off the ground if i turned too sharp. I may have to borrow one of the hand pump splitters from a friend, to make them more manageable size.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I cut wood for health reasons, so I don't freeze to death in the winter!!

SR

 

[ericm979]

Now that I have a hydraulic splitter I only use the maul when splitting big rounds down to sizes I can lift on to the splitter. And only to finish cuts that I noodle with the saw.

Most of the species on my land are hard splitting. Tan oak, live oak, eucalyptus are all tough to split. Bay is especially bad. I'll be getting into some big leaf maple soon and I hear it splits well. Madrone is super easy to split but it tends not to grow straight. And it rots really easily and termites love it. But it dries well and burns nicely.

I've only been burning wood seriously for a couple years since we got a good stove. Before that I gave away the rounds. There's so much wood here that there's no need to buy any unless you lack the ability or time to split it, or only have a small plot of land.

I like splitting wood. It's kind of repetitive so it doesn't take my full concentration and I can wear my bluetooth hearing muffs and listen to music.

 

[turnkey4099]

I forgot to mention. I use a Fiskar splitting axe, the longer one. Even though im very short, the long axe works well for me, as i can develop more speed with it, at least that's what i think. Most types of wood are not a problem. Oak being the hardest, for me to split, so far. One the largest rounds of oak, no knots, maybe 30 inches or so, it will take 3 or more hits in the same spot to get it to come apart. I've got some larger maple rounds that im working on now, but if it's dry enough, seems to split ok. I have a few that are just under 4 feet, not sure how those will go. I moved them with the FEL when they were wet and it had a tendency to make the back end a bit light and lift off the ground if i turned too sharp. I may have to borrow one of the hand pump splitters from a friend, to make them more manageable size.

I break my big rounds down by one of 3 methods. 10lb sledge hammer and wedges, noodle in half with chainsaw, spit vertically with the splitter. The vertical split use is only rarely. Too much trouble and backache working down there to horse a heavy round into position. I break everything down to a size I can load on the truck and finish the splitting at home - sometimes manually, mostly with splitter. I'm getting a bit long in the tooth for Fiskars and mauls (86 yoa)

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I break down my big rounds by rolling them onto my splitters beam, and pushing them through the 4-way wedge,

SR

 

[Jstpssng]

I don't cut anything that I can't lift by hand. All of the trees that big on my own property were long gone before I bought the place.
Most of my firewood comes from timber harvest jobs, after the wood has been trucked. There's generally someplace every year where we cut a lot of hardwood logs so there are plenty of ends lying around.

 

[MoKelly]

My son (24 years old) loves chopping up wood for fires. He goes thru the woods, finds downed trees, chainsaws into logs then hand splits. He hauls it out with the 4 wheeler and a trailer.

He uses a lot of what he does in bonfires for his friends in Fall, Winter and Spring.

It’s the best exercise he gets.

He could do it for years and still have more to do.

MoKelly

 

[ning]

Splitting wood can be aerobic if you don't let up at all but it takes crazy strength to be able to split the oak around here at that rate; I'm not strong enough to swing the maul rapidly enough to maintain aerobic threshold.

Regardless of how you're doing it though, it's pretty good core exercise, even if not aerobic.

I personally do it because

• I've got all this wood and nobody else is going to split it
• I can burn it and reduce heating bills
• I can put off other chores because this apparently has to get done
• I enjoy the obvious completion of a task ("look at all that wood that got split!") compared to many of the other things I do which seem to never get done regardless of how much effort I put into them

Muscular gains as a result are a happy side effect.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Anyone near S. Central Virginia want 4-5 cords of free oak? Let me know...free & I'll help load it!

 

[Fuddy1952]

I found a taker for wood. Our friend and neighbors brother wants it. That works out great for me since I know him and he lives 10m away.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Well...that's out!
Guy said his back hurts so if I cut it, split & deliver it he'll take it. What tha!
If I burned wood & someone offered lots of wood free, some I'd have to cut & split I'd get it. Main part is about 50" across.

 

[s219]

If you were closer I'd be all over that oak!

 

[oosik]

I've had the same experience as Fuddy - post #57. It will be a cold day in Hell when that happens.

 

[Fuddy1952]

If you were closer I'd be all over that oak!

Where are you in Virginia?

 

[turnkey4099]

I'm 86 and still cutting, hauling, splitting, butning and selling. Been at it since 1977...well, really since I was a pup as I was spliting and piling wood back when I was a kid. 20 years out due to AF service. I do it to keep in shape as well as enjoying the work. Used to do aroun 14-16 cord a year burning 6 cord, seeling the overs. I've slowed down a bunch over the past several years.

I always did enjoy manual splitting but the amount going through the wood yard got to big and I had to go to hydraulic splitters.

Someone back early in this thread mention aerobics. "wooding" really isnot all that good for that, mostly it invovles working in a small area. Does great for muscle tone though.