Noodling

[67L36Driver]

I like to freehand slab (or noodle) decent wood when I’m breaking in a fresh rebuild. You get useful wood instead of worthless cookies.

Cherry.

Easily stackable emergency fireplace fodder for the front porch.

Also decoy porch pirates. [emoji48]

 

[hotshot]

Steel wedges, I’d ditch them suckers. Accident waiting to happen.

Steel wedges are all we use, plus steel sledge hammers & axe heads when hand splitting where you can’t tow a hydraulic splitter up to.

What’s your choice of wedges?

 

[Little Al]

Buck the wood to length aprox 6" shorter than bar length then noodle with bar parallel to the grain if yo have a chain to enable to be sharpened to noodling angles all the better & a used clutch cover if you do a lot of noodling with the back corner cut away help with the clearing of the noodles

 

[grizz55chev]

Steel wedges are all we use, plus steel sledge hammers & axe heads when hand splitting where you can’t tow a hydraulic splitter up to.

What’s your choice of wedges?

Noodle, ditch the wedges.

 

[U&A]

Ive been wondering WHY you folks talk about noodling so much but I guess I understand now if that's all the firewood you have access to. I suppose I take it for granted when it comes to firewood. If I cant split it with the maul in a swing or 2 it gets pushed over the hill and I move on to better wood.

All those big ones you pushed down the hill just set them aside for me I’ll come get them in a bit.


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[U&A]

It often work better to hold the bar around 45 degrees rather than parallel to the grain, shorter chips that don't clog the clutch cover so bad but still cuts quite nicely.

The SP125 clutch cover will indeed get backed with noodles if you cut parallel to the grain and make long noodles.

View attachment 682849

Mark

I did not mean literally parallel to the grain but used that word to point out that it needs to be facing the same direction as the grain.


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[hotshot]

Noodle, ditch the wedges.

It’s a young man’s sport, but now I am tending to agree. Let the saw do the work on the crotches and gnarly ones full of knots.

I used to say it’s wasting good wood with a cut, uses more fuel, adds runtime onto your saw, and yada yada...but on 2 foot & bigger rounds, that’s just bullchit!

 

[old guy]

I split gnarly wood for 50 yrs. with steel wedges, no accidents, I still prefer steel over those chintzy plastic things. I only use plastic around the running saw.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Those noodles are worth some bread. A horse rancher stopped by when he saw what I was doing and gave me $20 for a half truckload of noodles for his stables. He cleaned them all up and said, "These noodles work better in the stables that just about anything else."

I've also saved a sack full for kindling. I pack them into potato chip containers and small boxes such as cereal boxes.

 

[ammoaddict]

Those noodles are worth some bread. A horse rancher stopped by when he saw what I was doing and gave me $20 for a half truckload of noodles for his stables. He cleaned them all up and said, "These noodles work better in the stables that just about anything else."

I've also saved a sack full for kindling. I pack them into potato chip containers and small boxes such as cereal boxes.

I wonder if you could use the noodles in a smoker for bar b que.

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[SCHallenger]

Noodle, ditch the wedges.

I like to noodle about 1/2 way through, then use a wedge & sledge. For me it's much faster & easier on the back, & there's no risk of nicking the ground with your chain.

 

[Huntaholic]

All those big ones you pushed down the hill just set them aside for me I’ll come get them in a bit.


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LOL If you were in the areas Im working in Id be glad to pile em up and hell even load em for you. Most of what gets left on my logyards are crotches, knots, and crooks. We hand buck all our logs to length so theres really not a lot of waste. If you want to see a pile of wasted wood, go on a job that had used a bucksaw!

 

[U&A]

As far as adding run time on your saw from noodling. Id WAY rather put my saw to work than my sledge. I got the saw to cut wood so I use it as much as possible and work it hard with no regrets.

Its a saw. Take care of it but run it hard as its meant to be.


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[Wood Doctor]

Just thought I would throw in a simple comment. If you noodle cut with the wood grain the same direction as the bar, the wear and tear on the chain is about the same as buck cutting logs to length. The saw's engine, however, never gets relief because the cutting length that the bar and chain sees on a noodle cut is the same throughout the cut from top to bottom.

 

[grizz55chev]

I split gnarly wood for 50 yrs. with steel wedges, no accidents, I still prefer steel over those chintzy plastic things. I only use plastic around the running saw.

I use a splitter to split, plastic wedges to fall, chainsaw to noodle small enough to load in the truck, and a splitting maul to fill the gaps in between. I have a steel wedge that I inherited, haven’t used it in over 20 yrs, nor have I needed it. Everybody has a right to do what they see fit, I’m just pointing out that steel wedges are a danger thats not really necessary in my assessment.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I use a splitter to split, plastic wedges to fall, chainsaw to noodle small enough to load in the truck, and a splitting maul to fill the gaps in between. I have a steel wedge that I inherited, haven’t used it in over 20 yrs, nor have I needed it. Everybody has a right to do what they see fit, I’m just pointing out that steel wedges are a danger that's not really necessary in my assessment.

All you gave to do is run into one of those steel wedges with your saw at WOT and watch a half dozen or more chain cutters disappear from the chain. That's about all that it takes.

 

[heimannm]

Steel wedges are for splitting, not for use when bucking or felling. They have been used for many years by many wood gatherers and can be an effective splitting tool if you have the time and energy. Maintain the head of the wedges and your maul or sledge hammer and they are no more dangerous than driving nails.

Mark

 

[Remle]

I’m sure this will catch some flack, but I take the noodles, put them in a 5 gallon bucket and drizzle used motor oil over them and stir it around until they have a light greasy coating of it. Makes first rate fire starter, burns way cleaner than you would expect and gets rid of two unwanted items at the same time.

 

[heimannm]

I used to keep a 55 gallon drum of sawdust in my old shop, I would pour the used motor oil in there and stir it around, a few scoops was all it would take to get a nice fire going in the double barrel stove. I don't have the capability to burn wood in my new garage or in the museum coming up so I take the truck to the local repair shop for oil changes...

Mark

 

[SCHallenger]

Another good use for noodles, if they happen to be Hickory, Apple, White Oak, or Cherry, is to soak them in water & use them on your charcoal grill for smoking ribs, venison & beef roasts, & chicken!!