Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Logger nate]

Forgot to take pictures but this weekend we scouted out the next trees to come down at my place.

One will be the largest diameter aspen I have ever cut. It is near my spring well so it has had ample moisture. It is still healthy but could decimate my sauna building if it came down in the wrong wind. It is kind of a rectangular shaped base about 22-24" wide and about 20" thick DBH so I actually have a reason to use my larger bars.

Another one will be the largest aspen by total size I have ever cut. About 20" DBH and extremely tall. Again will need to be dropped away from the sauna.

Three more aspen (16-18" DBH) that have lots of fungus growths so I know the lower core is rotten and another 14 incher leaning over the road that the wind has partially uprooted will also come down this fall.

Good thing I have all of my CAD saws to help me tackle all of these.

Wow those are some big aspen, I've seen some big ones around here but not that big. Hope you can get some pics when you take them down.

 

[svk]

Wow those are some big aspen, I've seen some big ones around here but not that big. Hope you can get some pics when you take them down.

These are amongst the biggest I've ever seen anywhere. There's one that's positively massive about two hundred yards from the others that is definitely the largest I've ever seen. These are in clay/sandy soil at the bottom of a very large hill so they get ample moisture. I believe all of them are big tooth Aspen.

 

[MustangMike]

Pirate, you get well soon, I may need some help moving some of those boards I mill, they are getting kinda heavy for me!

On a serious note, all the best, get well fast!

 

[kingOFgEEEks]

Still alive and recuperating.
After two weeks in Yale NH , I came home with a new heart valve and a Pacemaker.
Gonna be on lite duty for at est a month. Still on the ten pound limit.
Staying with my daughter. No internet at her house.
I'l check in when I can.
CUL FREDM Oxford, CT

Fred,

Sounds like you just got another 100,000 mile tune-up to me. My grandfather got a heart valve replaced at 81 years old, and he will be 85 next month. He has actually been more active since he got the new valve, because now he actually can get some blood flowing. I hope you recover quickly, and get back to the scrounging!

 

[benp]

Still alive and recuperating.
After two weeks in Yale NH , I came home with a new heart valve and a Pacemaker.
Gonna be on lite duty for at est a month. Still on the ten pound limit.
Staying with my daughter. No internet at her house.
I'l check in when I can.
CUL FREDM Oxford, CT

Speedy recovery Fred!!!

These are amongst the biggest I've ever seen anywhere. There's one that's positively massive about two hundred yards from the others that is definitely the largest I've ever seen. These are in clay/sandy soil at the bottom of a very large hill so they get ample moisture. I believe all of them are big tooth Aspen.

Hopefully they are not punky. Any toadstools growing on them or woodpeckers going after them?


I got to noodling the sugar maple pieces I couldn't split the other day. The 056 was feeling neglected.

Holy crap that was tough noodling. Those big knots and small burls were brutal.

I was wishing I had a semi chisel chain for that bar as I believe I would of done much better that full chisel.

I have never had good luck noodling "harder" wood with full chisel. I throw semi on and the saw just eats.

 

[svk]

Speedy recovery Fred!!!



Hopefully they are not punky. Any toadstools growing on them or woodpeckers going after them?


I got to noodling the sugar maple pieces I couldn't split the other day. The 056 was feeling neglected.

Holy crap that was tough noodling. Those big knots and small burls were brutal.

I was wishing I had a semi chisel chain for that bar as I believe I would of done much better that full chisel.

I have never had good luck noodling "harder" wood with full chisel. I throw semi on and the saw just eats.

I love the looks of a 056. Definitely my favorite vintage Stihl (unless you consider an 064 vintage as well).

The monster aspen near the sauna appear to be solid. The ones closer to the cabin are full of fungus and definitely are core rotted. I cut one of their "neighbors" two falls ago and most of it up to the crown could have been used as Swedish chimneys once the middle junk was dumped out. A big section of it was full of turds, assumingly from a woodpecker or whatever rodent lived in there after the woodpecker. Splitting was easy with all of the center removed, just ended up with 4 halfmoon pieces per round.

Aspen have an average lifespan of 80-90 years and this area was logged in 1912 so the whole stand is definitely near the end. Also as you get into the wetter area it changes from big tooth to balsam aspen/balm of gilead/bombagilian. I have cut those as well. The bark is more chocolate brown and almost looks like elm.

 

[benp]

Dried out popple makes great Swedish candles.

 

[benp]

I love the looks of a 056. Definitely my favorite vintage Stihl (unless you consider an 064 vintage as well).

I agree. I ran a non-stock 064 a couple years ago at a get together and that was absolutely awesome. I would love to have one.

 

[LondonNeil]

GRRRRR! I am ****ing fuming. If you have dipped into the splitting tool review thread You may have read I paid a tree service guy for a load of Ash. delivered at night time I was excited by the amount...until I saw it the next day. It was not all 'splitable by hand' as prmised, it was mainly massive crotches and I immediately saw barbed wire in several bits. Well since its out front of the house and I need it out back I've been working in short stints to keep noise aggravation down, but working to split things enough to get them to size that could be shifted. Having split what i could tonight i had a go with the saw on what remained. My battles with it using the maul had meant i'd handled it enough to know ALOT of wire is in that wood. I've also found a brick and some concrete. So I studied each piece hard, looking for wire entry and exit, looking for years old scared bark that would give me a clue of long since swallowed wire, and studying the numerous aborted cuts from the tree guy. Well I wasn't clever enough. 1 hour of work, not quite 3 bits cut up, and 3 chains blunted. FOR ****s sake! Then just as I'm mad one of my neighbours who I don't think of in good terms (as he has a huge oak that is damaging my house and has refused to reduce it....insurance company threatening legal action) has the gall to come and rant about the noise. yeah yeah. okay its 8pm. I had intended to run one tank of fuel and be finished long before 8, but 3 blunt chains and an incident with one getting stuck in the cut slowed me down somewhat. So now I'm left with a tiny bit of fuel in the saw still, which I hate (we have ethanol in our fuel so i hate leaving it in the saw). Still...my last sharp chain is fitted. tomorrow I'm working from home so lunch time I can get out and cut some non ash wood that should be wire free and just finish off the mix in the tank. the 3 blunt chains will go to my brother's FIL who kindly sharpens them on his grinder thing and I can start again. But with at least a dozen more un-move-ably large crotches, riddled with wire....this is going to be a long and slow process. I don't want to annoy my neighbours, and want to get the wood out the back where the gardens are bigger, trees and shrubs absorb the noise, and houses further apart. Trouble is I've got a lot of cutting to do to get these chunks small enough to shift....an awful lot when you hit wire and kill a chain in each lump. FOR ****s SAKE!!! I got well and truly stitched up by that tree guy!

And....breathe!!!

 

[LondonNeil]

Still, when the chain is sharp my ickle MS180 cuts it up ok.....I had wondered if it would struggle to pull a buried 14" bar through the hard wood, but it does ok. It may not be a big saw, but it gets by...if I can keep it away from the ****ing barbed wire!!

Sorry, I clearly need to vent some more yet.

 

[Philbert]

Bummer.

Might try a small metal detector, like those sold to woodworkers, to help you find embedded wire not visible by stains.

Philbert

 

[LondonNeil]

That's something odd, there are no stains. The wire must have been high quality....well galvanised or stainless....is there such a thing as stainless barbed wire? No probably just well galvanised. Anyway its utterly buried, often through the middle, often winding around inside, and must have been there a long time, yet still shiny. This Ash is 30" DBH, so the wire has been there a long while. I'm searching hard for the scars in the bark, the wire where it enters and exits, and really studying the aborted cuts and tryng to work out how to cut the lumps small enough to split while trying to avoid the wire. The fiskars is easier to sharpen when that hits it....and the stihl pro maul doesn't seem to even get nicked if that hits it. Stihl semi chisel chain doesn't fair so well.

I'v got a good dozen more massive, wire ridden crotches to deal with yet. So at this rate its a lot of chain sharpening and a really annoying amount of saw noise out on the street. Oh well. I guess I'll keep it to the weekends and day time.

 

[Philbert]

 

[LondonNeil]

Thanks Philbert. They look useful, but I'm not sure they would help me much, given the depth this stuff is buried at. Would carbide tipped chain survive and cut through the wire, staying sharp? ebay shows its £30 for a 14" loop for the ms180. That's not quite twice the price of a normal stihl chain for the saw, but would be worth it if it would cut this **** fest of wirewood.


scratch that, google just answered my question....carbide and steel don't mix either. poo.

 

[JustJeff]

That's something odd, there are no stains. The wire must have been high quality....well galvanised or stainless....is there such a thing as stainless barbed wire? No probably just well galvanised. Anyway its utterly buried, often through the middle, often winding around inside, and must have been there a long time, yet still shiny. This Ash is 30" DBH, so the wire has been there a long while. I'm searching hard for the scars in the bark, the wire where it enters and exits, and really studying the aborted cuts and tryng to work out how to cut the lumps small enough to split while trying to avoid the wire. The fiskars is easier to sharpen when that hits it....and the stihl pro maul doesn't seem to even get nicked if that hits it. Stihl semi chisel chain doesn't fair so well.

I'v got a good dozen more massive, wire ridden crotches to deal with yet. So at this rate its a lot of chain sharpening and a really annoying amount of saw noise out on the street. Oh well. I guess I'll keep it to the weekends and day time.

Take the stuff you can cut and split. Advertise the rest as free firewood!

 

[LondonNeil]

Tempting, but I wouldn't wish this mess on someone else.

 

[dancan]

Did you get a hold of the wood peddler to thank him for the free load of crap and ask when he'd be delivering the promised goods ?
I've found that sometimes I only have to make a cut of an inch or so and the round yields a lot easier to the sledge and a couple of wedges .
Any rental companies close that rent wood splitters ?

 

[dancan]

And get another wedge , I've split some that I had to attack from both ends and beat it down the sides LOL

 

[LondonNeil]

Thanks Dancan, that might be worth a try on some at least, cut a kerf then pound wedges. I've got 4 so should be plenty.

Not sure on renting a splitter. There probably isn't much call for them, not many fools processing wood in suburban London.

 

[dancan]

Make sure to get some pics , that way we can take a lesson from your suffering and I promise we wont laugh ... Seriously , the pics that is