I love cutting and splitting, but making kindling would be a job I'd willingly pass on to someone else. January usually finds me tromping through the snow to break up twigs and branches. This year I got on top of it by reducing an entire poplar to kindling. The pictures show only about half of what I managed to split, but at least they show how big the poplar was. Had to get it done this year early because I had rotator cuff surgery a few weeks ago and figured I'd be out of commission most of the autumn.
Done Splitting the Kindling
- Thread starter pweber
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
Need2Saw
ArboristSite Operative
i just use a flame thrower to start fires in the shoulder season and when its middle of winner the fire burns 24/7. Nice work though, that looks time consuming but will save you time this winter!
zogger
Tree Freak
Nice stack there! What I do is just cut the smalls off a tree before I start on the regular sized stuff. Mixed in throughout the stacks, I always have the smaller pieces to get the stove back going in the morning, that and regular splitter trash, bark chunks, etc. I purposely split very small clean straight pine, but that's for bundle wood as a bonus to the customers. Doesn't take long to get a big pile as long as the pine rounds have no knots.
reddogrunner
ArboristSite Operative
I just through a bunch of small branches in my jig and make 3 cuts and that's kindling for a week or two. Throw it in a trash can in the garage. Only need about 3 or 4 sticks to revive the stove. I prowl for the long thin quarter to 50 cent size pieces and stockpile them throughout the year until I have enough to make it worth starting the saw. LOL. Screw that hand splitting stuff......
Kindling??
Done.
Done.
Ever use cotton balls soaked with petroleum jelly? I know they make nice outdoor fire starters and burn for a long time, but I'm not sure I want to use them in my wood stove. I don't know if all that petroleum jelly burns up or if some of it drips down into the fire brick and makes a mess.
How did your rotator cuff surgery go i have torn mine and keep puuting it off
Yes ‼
I have one of those 35mm film containers
poked full of them in every vehicle.They won't drip, the cotton ball acts like a wick, only the outer "jelly" burns.
Those jelly-soaked cotton balls are handy for lots of things besides starting a fire... anything petroleum jelly is, or can, be used for.
Even as a temporary or emergency lubricant (no gutter-talk boys
).*
It went better than expected. The doctor told me I'd be off work for 5-6 weeks, but I was back to work after two days. If you have it repaired, it's really important to keep it immobilized for two weeks - that's the worst part of the whole deal. Don't go all gung-ho and start pushing too hard even though you feel like you can otherwise you'll re-tear it and be out another $45,000! After five weeks, I now have a good bit of mobility back but very little strength. That will come after about 8 weeks apparently. And go for all the therapy that your insurance company is willing to pay for.
