Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[LondonNeil]

I'm polly burning 3 to 4 cord of softwood and about 2 cord of hardwood during the burn season .

yeah but, how much SPRUCE!?

 

[muddstopper]

Somebody post a pic of the file used to square file a chain. SVK showed me a sq filed chain when he was down a few months back, but I didnt have any wood on hand to test it out on. I gave away my electric grinder because I am to the point I dont sharpen chains and run saws like I used to, but I would like to give sq sharpening a try.

 

[LondonNeil]

It's hexagonal isn't it?


I'm lazy, I have a big brother who's fil has a small business fixing mowers and gardening equipment, he has a grinder and charges £5 a sharpening but nowt for me. I do feel I ought to buy a file to fit each of my chain sizes and a guide, and tickle them myself.... But well.... It's so easy to pass blunt ones over!

 

[turnkey4099]

After seeing from justjeff that I'm not the only one here that isn't a large producer like mighty mouse logging, farmer Steve and even svk and Mustang Mike, I wondered who burns what and processes for who?

I burn almost 2 cord (full,. 6.5m³). I also process a tiny bit for my parents and their house move means I'm upping this, so another ½ cord for them. 20m³ CSS on premises currently, probably the only zone 3 (London tube fare zones) resident that has that!

What do you guys do?

I'm guessing there's a lot of you sing about 20 cord a year, then dancan, farmer Steve, valley firewood, cantoo and others that are in to 3 figures easily?

I burn about 6 cord mixed hard/soft but process around 20. I have customers for some but some I jsut stack. Retired, old, and need something to do to keep active. Rather spend my money on saws and gas than a membership in a boring gymn membership

 

[turnkey4099]

I used to heat by wood, about 6 cord/year, then they ran natural gas through & I converted, but about the same time my daughter got a house and it had a wood furnace, and her husband does not cut ... you know the story. Then a neighbor of hers wanted some, then the guy in the chainsaw shop found out I was cutting wood ... I do over 20 cord every year down here, plus a few more for my hunting cabin, plus the milling, so I stay kinda busy.

But for years I did it all with one saw, my 044. Now I have 12 runners from 026 to 066, 16" bars to 36" bars. I should thin the herd, but ...

The 044, purchased new in Dec 1992, on sale at a place that was discontinuing selling them, still runs strong and is still one of my favorite saws.

That's about my experienced but only have 6 runners now. I see a hole in your lineup. Rent or buy a top handle, MS193T/Echo 303CS or the like. They make the brushing out of a tree go twice as fast. I kicked my rear hard for waiting so many years (like 30) before I bought one.

 

[turnkey4099]

Somebody post a pic of the file used to square file a chain. SVK showed me a sq filed chain when he was down a few months back, but I didnt have any wood on hand to test it out on. I gave away my electric grinder because I am to the point I dont sharpen chains and run saws like I used to, but I would like to give sq sharpening a try.

I got a couple loops of square file way back when. Out cut the regular chipper (round filed) by a bunch but didn't hold and edge as long. I converted them to round file the first time they dulled - wasn't willing to learn to hand file the square stuff.

 

[JustJeff]

Picked up this cheap grinder this morning. Threw an old junk chain on it and tried it out. Put the chain on the saw and it was horrible! Had to lean on it to make it cut and when it did, it was in a curve to the left. Lol. Guess I'll read that book and have another crack at it.

 

[MustangMike]

There are two styles of square file, one is like a triangular file, except the points of the triangle are flat, and the other is like a rectangular file, except the small sides look like "less than and great than" signs. So really, they are 6 sided files.

I prefer the rectangular ones, they do not hit the straps on the other side as hard. I also stick to the factory angles, of 45, 45 & 45 (across, down & angle). My square filed chain holds up just as well as round.

See this: http://www.madsens1.com/bnc_cb_angles.htm

and this: http://www.baileysonline.com/shop.axd/Search?keywords=square+files

 

[dancan]

I burn about 6 cord mixed hard/soft but process around 20. I have customers for some but some I jsut stack. Retired, old, and need something to do to keep active. Rather spend my money on saws and gas than a membership in a boring gymn membership

The retired fella that I gave firewood to passed away last month , he was cutting up the last loads I brought him right up to the week before he passed .
Rest in peace Billy .
I'll miss dropping off wood and having him complain that I blocked some of it up .

 

[svk]

After seeing from justjeff that I'm not the only one here that isn't a large producer like mighty mouse logging, farmer Steve and even svk and Mustang Mike, I wondered who burns what and processes for who?

I burn almost 2 cord (full,. 6.5m³). I also process a tiny bit for my parents and their house move means I'm upping this, so another ½ cord for them. 20m³ CSS on premises currently, probably the only zone 3 (London tube fare zones) resident that has that!

What do you guys do?

I'm guessing there's a lot of you sing about 20 cord a year, then dancan, farmer Steve, valley firewood, cantoo and others that are in to 3 figures easily?

The last couple of years I haven't done that many cords. Maybe 15 last year and 5 or so this year but plan to get busy this fall. The few years before that I was doing 25-30 a year. And that was all hand split and carried from the woods to the truck except for the time I borrowed s a splitter to do a few cords.

I give some away, burn some, sell a bit to friends, and always do a few cords for the children's camp. To me it is exercise, a way to test my saws, and also cleaning my woods of stuff that would otherwise end up falling on the road, my buildings, or just laying in the woods.

As of late I have become more interested in quality versus quantity for both saws and wood. I am getting close to being done with dying aspen (maybe 10 cords left to process). I want to pick up a couple more good saws to complement the fleet and also plan to get rid of some that don't really fit what I am wanting to do.

I have also identified the chainsaw folks who live to stir drama and have dissociated from them both online and in person. Life is too short for that ****, especially for something that is a hobby.

 

[dancan]

yeah but, how much SPRUCE!?

Ummmm

What be this spruce you speak of ?

 

[svk]

The retired fella that I gave firewood to passed away last month , he was cutting up the last loads I brought him right up to the week before he passed .
Rest in peace Billy .
I'll miss dropping off wood and having him complain that I blocked some of it up .

Sorry to hear.

 

[dancan]

I did bring a mixed load of spruce and maple home today

 

[Cowboy254]

After seeing from justjeff that I'm not the only one here that isn't a large producer like mighty mouse logging, farmer Steve and even svk and Mustang Mike, I wondered who burns what and processes for who?

I burn almost 2 cord (full,. 6.5m³). I also process a tiny bit for my parents and their house move means I'm upping this, so another ½ cord for them. 20m³ CSS on premises currently, probably the only zone 3 (London tube fare zones) resident that has that!

What do you guys do?

I'm guessing there's a lot of you sing about 20 cord a year, then dancan, farmer Steve, valley firewood, cantoo and others that are in to 3 figures easily?

In the new house (this is the 4th winter) we burn about 16 cubes or 4 and a bit cord, all local hardwood eucalypt varieties. I am hoping that will reduce a bit once we complete the renovations, plug a few gaps and get it properly insulated. I also take 3 cubes down to my brother in Melbourne. Each year I have cut between 12-15 cubes for the Lady Farmer. So in a normal year I'd cut 30-35 cubes or 9 cord.

This year has been a big one with maybe 10 cubes for the Lady Farmer plus 10 cubes for Ross plus the 20 odd for my brother and us, plus an extra 35 cubes for us for future years so close to 75 cubes or 20 cord. I wouldn't anticipate repeating that anytime soon, in fact I'd be lucky to find enough scrounge to keep us supplied, let alone anyone else.

 

[Hoosk]

I was out clearing a shooting lane and saw a pile of wood split two years ago, long since forgotten, that was being reclaimed by the woods. So, I scrounged a bucket load for the trip back to the barn.

On another note, I haven't run the saws all summer, but kicked off the fall cutting season this weekend. Hope you all are enjoying a happy and safe holiday weekend!

 

[LondonNeil]

so there are a few others buring less than I thought, and Dancan must be confusing cord and MegaCord surely!

Mike, Steve and Cowboy are ridding the world of trees though! Which is as I thought

 

[muddstopper]

Offered a deal on some split wood and wood splitter. Trying to make up my mind whether I want to fool with it. Supposed to be 9-10 face cord already split and stacked in the dry. All oak. Wood splitter is a 20ton honda. The owners wife is wanting to sell because the husband is 85yrs old, bad health and wife is afraid he is going to get hurt. She wants $800 for the whole thing. I already have a good splitter and a half built processor in the shop, so I simply dont need the splitter. I have about 4 or 5 cord in the shed, anothe couple cords stacked outside and probably 2-3 cords I havent processed yet, so I dont need the wood. I also have the house for sale so I cant see stockpileing even more wood. I guess I could sell the wood and splitter, just dont know that I want to get started in the firewood business. What to do, what to do????

 

[dancan]

Hmm, I have multiple chainsaws , multiple axes, multiple woodsplitters, multiple tractors, multiple logging winches , multiple Tirfors , multiple trailers, multiple knives , multiple logging helmets , multiple cords of soft and hardwood,,,, I have no advice on your conundrum....

 

[Jeffkrib]

In the new house (this is the 4th winter) we burn about 16 cubes or 4 and a bit cord, all local hardwood eucalypt varieties. I am hoping that will reduce a bit once we complete the renovations, plug a few gaps and get it properly insulated. I also take 3 cubes down to my brother in Melbourne. Each year I have cut between 12-15 cubes for the Lady Farmer. So in a normal year I'd cut 30-35 cubes or 9 cord.

I'm going to call you out on this one Cowboy..... I don't think you really want to reduce the amount of wood you burn

 

[woodchip rookie]

Nobody can burn as much as he collects. Theres a mountain of wood somewhere in Aus that we would be happy to have a 1/4 of it.