Reducing Dry Branches into Firewood Lengths?

[max2cam]

Here's a hardcore wood-fuel problem:

What do you guys use as the easiest (least labor intensive) and safest means of rendering dry tree branches into stove-wood (18") lengths?

I have used my knee, my boot, axes, hatchets, bowsaws, and chainsaws to reduce dry branches into short lengths but none of those ways are entirely satisfactory.

With knee or boot you can only do weak small stuff plus you always risk hurting yourself.

With an axe you have to keep repositioning the branch and the pieces can go flying several yards away. A hatchet is not quite heavy enough and again the pieces go flying.

The bowsaw is way too SLOW and laborious.

The chainsaw works fairly well if you pile up the branches on a sawbuck and do them en masse, but it's kind of dangerous as the chain tends to "snag" and yank the branches and bar around in unpredictable (risky) ways.

So I keep coming back to loppers as a simple means of snipping the branch up into lengths. Just go down it and "snip, snip, snip." Trouble is I don't know if it would actually work that nicely as the only loppers I own do well on green branches but dry hard branches bends the blade.

I may invest in a heavy-duty (and expensive) loppers, but of course I'm wondering: How well do BIG exprensive heavy-duty loppers work on dry branches?

Anyone use that method?

There is another way that I tried once and forgot about until just now. That is to securely fasten a heavy wide pipe onto something solid, then stick the branch down into the pipe and bend it until a piece breaks off. Sort of like the knee or boot method, but using a section of pipe instead.

By gar, I'm going to set that pipe unit up again!

There is an incredible wealth of BTUs in branches but reducing them in size is actually more labor intensive and difficult than sawing up and splitting a log!

For years I've just burned branches in the woods on bonfires but I'm sick and tired of seeing all that energy wasted with gas and propane at insane rip-off prices!

I want to fight back any way I can!

Please post any other unique and novel means you guys use of rendering dry branches into shorter lengths. I can't be the only one who wants to utilize them as fuel.

PS: My useage for branches is both as indoor woodstove kindling material, but also in an outdoor boxstove I use during warm months to heat water every morning for coffee and for a simple shower/bathing unit. It works like a charm with a few handfuls of sticks for fuel!

No expensive propane for this child!

:rockn:

 

[rbtree]

How bout this...lay out some string every 16 inches or so...lay a huge bunch of branches down.... cinch up and tie all the strings... elevate the bundle ...Grab a saw with a bar long enough to cut em all at once.

 

[Sprig]

I just pile 'em on a couple of strap-ties, cinch the bundle up tight and chainsaw away, stable, safe (r), and quick. Note> The potential for kick-back with this method is very real if the bundles are large, Cut To The Side!




Serge

 

[Mr. Firewood]

buzz-saw

 

[dutch]

I use my old 10" makita chop saw , works great , pretty safe too.

 

[smokechase II]

back up

If you're limbing the tree too, just cut them into firewood lengths while they are still 'held'. You can't do this with every limb. But it might help some.

 

[kellog]

I second Dutch's reply. A chop saw is good for anything under 4 inch diameter.

Over 4 inches gets the cordwood saw treatment.

 

[habanero]

buzz-saw

Works for me...

 

[wdchuck]

Get some buddies over and have stick snapping/cutting party. Many hands make light work.

I use a mitre saw, its fairly quiet, and fast, just watch to not bind the blade. anything that's fairly straight and 1" and under gets this treatment around here, until I get sick of doing it for the season, about a face chord, then all the brush goes to the burn pile.

I have a mitre saw for rough work, the back fence broke, so it resembles a chop saw now, great for quick kindling cutting.

 

[Patrick62]

point of diminishing returns

While I am working a tree, I like to use the smaller saw and go all the way down it and anything that is over about 3 inches is worth saving. So I lop off the slash and shop the rest up into pieces. When I reach the top I start back down the trunk doing the same thing.

I know it is a waste, but there is a point of being foolish with time and fuel cutting "twigs".

-Pat

 

[max2cam]

Cutting Branches

Thanks for the good replies.

I hate to sound dumb, but what is a "chop saw"?

Is that like a circular blade on an arm that comes down or what?

When bucking a felled tree, I normally limb everything up right off the tree into short pieces. But jack pine branches get too small and whippy to saw but burn hot and furiously and are worth collecting. Figure that when you are burning sticks you are drawing in a LOT of excess oxygen which is FREE fuel.

I like the notion of binding up a bundle of branches and then chain-sawing them. I'll have to try that. I have only piled them up loose.

Nobody mentioned using heavy-duty loppers for cutting up dry branches. Nobody does that?

Thanks!

 

[wdchuck]

Loppers make an already putzy task even more tedious, and dry branches just dull them faster.

If you just bundle the twigs into old fashioned *******, then run the chainsaw through them, they will remain bundled and easy to manage; tie the bundles so that there are two strings around a cut-to-length bundle, then just tighten the strings befor stacking your bundles, all done.

Considering your summer stove usage, it's easy to see the point of using what is laying around, especially after a windstorm, although it's that small stuff rotting on the forest floor that is part of the tree growth cycle.

 

[max2cam]

I like that too: Bind them in two places and then handling the resulting cut bundles will be easier too.

Not to worry, there's still LOTS of woody material still lying the woods for recycling. Plus my stay here is finite in time and when I'm gone it will all revert to wilderness.

Thanks!

PS: if you live in SE Wis. and have a 44" mill what are you sawing? White oak and walnut?

Loppers make an already putzy task even more tedious, and dry branches just dull them faster.

If you just bundle the twigs into old fashioned *******, then run the chainsaw through them, they will remain bundled and easy to manage; tie the bundles so that there are two strings around a cut-to-length bundle, then just tighten the strings befor stacking your bundles, all done.

Considering your summer stove usage, it's easy to see the point of using what is laying around, especially after a windstorm, although it's that small stuff rotting on the forest floor that is part of the tree growth cycle.

 

[jerseydevil]

If you don't have a sawbuck like Blueridgemaek's, you are wasting time. It is designed to be filled with stick of any thickness and length. I highly reccomend anyone who heats withwood, burns for pleasure or just has to keep their yard neat, get one. You will thank him(and maybe me).:monkey:

 

[Roybean]

Cutting dead limbs

If the limb is small, I usually place my left foot on it and cut with a small chainsaw. Usually the limbs I'm cutting are hardwood, i.e., oak or hickory. I don't use pine.

 

[wdchuck]

I like that too: Bind them in two places and then handling the resulting cut bundles will be easier too.

Not to worry, there's still LOTS of woody material still lying the woods for recycling. Plus my stay here is finite in time and when I'm gone it will all revert to wilderness.

Thanks!

PS: if you live in SE Wis. and have a 44" mill what are you sawing? White oak and walnut?

Oak;white, red, burr,
Silver Maple

I could use a 60" capacity mill for some of what I have, but canting or QS'ing will work also.

 

[logbutcher]

Buck in Place

Like Smokechase says:
1. Buck the limbs in place--top down while most are held above the ground.
2. Bend over, pick limbs up, place in bucket, trailer, truck.:monkey:

If the tree is skidded, you need to cut dirt. Chains get angry. Besides, if the bucked tree is left on site, I may forget where it was felled. :angry2:

 

[max2cam]

Oak;white, red, burr,
Silver Maple

I could use a 60" capacity mill for some of what I have, but canting or QS'ing will work also.

That's some big stuff. I've seen some of the BIG (bur?) oak down in Racine County with some HUGE trunks.

What uses does the silver maple lumber go to? I know it isn't considered the highest quality maple, but what are the boards like? Pretty grain? Warp? Hard to nail?

I ask because I have Solo 90cc chainsaw & milling device and have some big silver maple along the river. So far I've only milled red pine. But I see a BIG tipped silver maple I could tackle.

 

[bama]

While I am working a tree, I like to use the smaller saw and go all the way down it and anything that is over about 3 inches is worth saving. So I lop off the slash and shop the rest up into pieces. When I reach the top I start back down the trunk doing the same thing.

I know it is a waste, but there is a point of being foolish with time and fuel cutting "twigs".

-Pat

Same here. The real small stuff is hard to stack and while I don't want to waste wood, I hate wasting my time even more. I leave 2" stuff and smaller. I cut by the river so whatever I leave gets washed away in the spring flood.

 

[wdchuck]

That's some big stuff. I've seen some of the BIG (bur?) oak down in Racine County with some HUGE trunks.

What uses does the silver maple lumber go to? I know it isn't considered the highest quality maple, but what are the boards like? Pretty grain? Warp? Hard to nail?

I ask because I have Solo 90cc chainsaw & milling device and have some big silver maple along the river. So far I've only milled red pine. But I see a BIG tipped silver maple I could tackle.

I'll let ya know when its drier, end of summer.