Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[chucker]

back again after the 5th load.. two good loads left with enough sand for the grand kids sand box refill...

got the videos to load finally..

 

[JustJeff]

I've been cutting a few diff trees up that I can't identify, so far all have been good enough to burn (been testing them out as I cut them to see if I've wasted my time or not, so far so good. Looks like nice wood to me, so long as she burns I don't care what they call it.

I see your stove is outside, now we know where that global warming is coming from!

 

[bigfellascott]

I see your stove is outside, now we know where that global warming is coming from!

Yeah I'm enclosing my verandah to make it into another lounge room, once it's done little ol Lopi is going in there, until then it's keeping me warm in the carport on the cool nights which are happening more and more now.

 

[dancan]

Rjpoog, welcome abord !!!
Don't forget the pics [emoji3]
Coryj, definitely not spruce !
Jeff , congrats on the fiskrs and ticket night !

 

[spyder62]

Cape may wildlife? I thought the only canucks that went to wildwood and cape may were quebeci’s

 

[MustangMike]

Tough to tell from pics (and sometimes in real life too), but looks a lot like Smooth Bark (Pig Nut) Hickory, or Norway Maple.

 

[woodchip rookie]

The smell would be a dead givaway if it were ash. I could lay into a piece of ash with my eyes closed and know what it was. Kinda like pine or oak. Very distinct smells.

 

[Cowboy254]

back again after the 5th load.. two good loads left with enough sand for the grand kids sand box refill...

Nice work chucker Dave. Thanks also for taking the time to make a few videos. I really need to pull the finger and the gopro out and make some vids once scroungin' season starts. Coming up very soon, have some good looking scrounge options. Is it sad that I'm excited?

@JustJeff , I'm rooting for you but if you get two rides a year burning half your allowance in February means a pretty dry rest of the year. Just sayin'.

 

[Conquistador3]

View attachment 635020 So I got a new wallet for Christmas. In the process of moving into it, I found many gift cards I had forgotten about. So much that now I am using my old wallet as a gift card wallet. I was walking around TSC the other day and saw all the fiskars were 20% off but I didn’t have enough cash to make up the difference. So I patiently waited for my allowance and then hustled my behind in there and got the last one! I am hoping it’s all they are cracked up to be. I’d be out there with a floodlight trying it out but my wife went out to see that 50 shades movie so I’m saving my energy just in case tonight is one of the two times my ticket is up this year. I can always attack it with a fury tomorrow.... the wood pile that is.

I bought an X27 last year because of the local hardware shop selling them at even less than eBay. So far I am not in the least impressed and I still much prefer my old no-name splitting maul.
I have some oak to split if/when the weather improves and that's the X27's final call. If I still cannot get on with it, it's going up for sale.

 

[woodchip rookie]

Keep mine for small, strait grain stuff but my Isocore has alot more time on it.

 

[svk]

I bought an X27 last year because of the local hardware shop selling them at even less than eBay. So far I am not in the least impressed and I still much prefer my old no-name splitting maul.
I have some oak to split if/when the weather improves and that's the X27's final call. If I still cannot get on with it, it's going up for sale.

I do not know what species you have over there but for tough to split species over here a good maul will work better than the X27. For the moderate to easy to split species the X27 shines because of it's lighter weight and efficient head design. And the X-27 only works well if swung fast.

When I am hand splitting, things like white oak, sugar maple, pin oak, and larger black cherry go off to the side for the maul if they do not show signs of cracking after 4-5 hits with the Fiskars.

 

[LondonNeil]

I agree-ish. for tough tough tough stuff I need the bigger 8lb maul, but for a LOT of stuff the x27 is ample and at (iirc) 5.7lbs I can swing it quicker and get more done, and be less tired/go longer. It also doesn't stick firm like my old roughneck 6lb maul would. the x27 may stick if the round doesn't split, but it is easy to free with a knock on the handle, it never sticks firm like the roughneck did. I only slightly disagree with Steve in that I think the x27 is very capable, there's only a little stuff that I find it can't split, and a fair percentage of that is unsplitable with my bigger maul too, needing the saw instead. But we all have different woods and different needs, if the x27 doesn't work out for you then try something else, something bigger/heavier maybe.

 

[svk]

I agree-ish. for tough tough tough stuff I need the bigger 8lb maul, but for a LOT of stuff the x27 is ample and at (iirc) 5.7lbs I can swing it quicker and get more done, and be less tired/go longer. It also doesn't stick firm like my old roughneck 6lb maul would. the x27 may stick if the round doesn't split, but it is easy to free with a knock on the handle, it never sticks firm like the roughneck did. I only slightly disagree with Steve in that I think the x27 is very capable, there's only a little stuff that I find it can't split, and a fair percentage of that is unsplitable with my bigger maul too, needing the saw instead. But we all have different woods and different needs, if the x27 doesn't work out for you then try something else, something bigger/heavier maybe.

I should add. When I am splitting up in my home range, the Fiskars will split anything I come across except for knotty pine or the occasional american elm which will not be split by any tool short of a splitter or noodling. When I get further south/east that's when the tougher to split species appear.

 

[MustangMike]

I think you guys just need to learn how to put more spit on that X-27. I keep my hands about 4" apart, and there is noting that I can not split with it that another maul will do. If I can't split it with the X-27, out come wedges, hydro, or saw.

I have split a lot of very large tough rounds with an X-27, over 15 cord one year that included a large Sugar Maple and a large Chestnut Oak.

 

[muddstopper]

Got a load of Limb wood Tuesday. Maple and locust mix. Buddy calls me up and says, I have a dump trailer load of wood, already cut up, laying where you can just pull up beside it with my trailer, do I want it. Foolish question, of course I want it. So I hook up my trailer and ask my brother to go with e to help load it. Brother had a 16ft 4x6 close by and I told him we could tie it on top of the wood to get it home. everything was going perfect until,,,, We drive up to the wood and say oh crap. If this was lib wood, I would hate to see the size of tree they came off of. Some 20-24 in dia. We had nothing to roll rounds up with so brother and I got on each end of a round and hoisted onto the trailer. To make things worse, My trailer sides are 2ft high. I made them that way because a 6x10 trailer load stacked 2ft high is right at a full cord. This isnt a problem loading logs with a loader, or stacking splits, but those side boards strike me right at chest high which meant we had to hoist those big rounds almost head high to get them in the trailer. Made for a good work out. Today, just a few min ago, sae buddy calls and ask if I wanted the rest of the wood that hadnt been bucked yet. I ask him if there isnt a tractor or something with a forks we can just load in log length instead of picking all those heavy pieces up by hand. Sure he says, they have a trackhoe with thumb in the shed. Now you tell me!!. Look I said, just buck the logs into 10ft lenghts so they fit on the trailer and let use the trackhoe to load those logs in the bed. I can buck them up when I get them home. It will save you climbing on the log pile bucking rounds and save me a lot of lifting loading on the trailer. He liked that ideal, so this evening I should pickup about a cord of maple and locust, and maybe I will remember to take a pic or two. Oh, I also want to see the trees those limbs came off of, must of been a duzzey.

 

[LondonNeil]

Well I don't have a hydro, until recently didn't have a saw suited to noodling, and i utterly loathe using my wedges, so I put every effort in to splitting with the axe/maul! I kind of agree with you Mike, except there comes a time where it is less effort/more effective to break out the 8lb stihl pro maul for a few all out swings, than it is to keep battering away with the x27, even though that will often get it with time and the right technique. It's easier to carry the x17, x27 and 8lb maul from the shed and pick the right tool for each swing, than to carry just one tool and make do, but the x27 is the most important part of my splitting arsenal and if i could have just it, I wouldn't be too upset.
I think I've said before but, its not so much the species (although i do see the differences) but the round/where it is in the tree and the individual tree /growing conditions that cause the most effort and require the most thought. As I get more experience (I've done approaching 30 cube now) I know which rounds not to scrounge, and how to tackle the nasty rounds i end up with. When i first started out i had some crotchy rounds from an oak and some knotty pine, no experience and a horrid 6lb roughneck maul and splitting was very very tough.

 

[LondonNeil]

BTW mike, I've still got a few rounds of troublesome wire ash, a round of willow with grain so folded I can't work out where in the tree it grew, and a bit of oak with a major crotch....this is my growing pile of bits awaiting noodling (except the ash...they are forever chopping blocks). If you ever happen to find yourself in London I'll give you the x27 or any pf my other splitting tools, and if you can split those rounds I'd be both greatful and mightily impressed, and want to know your secrets!

 

[spyder62]

There’s still trees in London?

 

[Conquistador3]

I do not know what species you have over there but for tough to split species over here a good maul will work better than the X27. For the moderate to easy to split species the X27 shines because of it's lighter weight and efficient head design. And the X-27 only works well if swung fast.

When I am hand splitting, things like white oak, sugar maple, pin oak, and larger black cherry go off to the side for the maul if they do not show signs of cracking after 4-5 hits with the Fiskars.

There are no easy species here.
Only oddly-shaped oaks, very tall locusts primed to fall on power/telephone lines and other far less useful trees, all growing in impossible places. Struggling when splitting them is just the final part of struggling with the whole process of firewood gathering.

 

[jr27236]

There are no easy species here. [emoji23]
Only oddly-shaped oaks, very tall locusts primed to fall on power/telephone lines and other far less useful trees, all growing in impossible places. Struggling when splitting them is just the final part of struggling with the whole process of firewood gathering.

What he said.