What brand maul for splitting, and how much firewood?

[Godzillamax]

My wife and I just bought a home on eight acres of land, of which half is fairly heavily wooded with mostly older poplar and birch. The home is 2,600 sq feet and for heating has a wood burning stove and a boiler. Heat from the stove is just radiant heat, but the previous owner said she heated her entire home all fall/winter/spring exclusively with the stove. I failed to ask her before we closed escrow about how much wood she went through each season to heat the house, but when we were there to initially look at the home she had a fairly large pile of loose wood in the corner of the barn. We plan on finishing the basement, which would add an additional 1,500 sq feet to the house. Since heat rises I'd imagine I will need to tap into the boiler to heat the basement once we finish it.

Questions #1) I need a good splitting maul (prefer 6 lbs), but I wasn't too impressed with all the Chinese or Korean made crap sold at Menards, Home Depot, and Northern Tool & Electric. Any recommendations on a good quality splitting maul? When it comes to using tools that can cause serious harm to me (knives, axes, firearms, etc.) I prefer well made stuff so that any mishaps can only be attributed to my mistakes, and not shoddy quality in the tools construction. I will pay more to meet this need.

Question #2) What is the best way to estimate how much wood I will need to heat my home via the wood burning stove from Fall through Spring? And do I want all this wood at the end of summer, or should I plan on buying a few cords of wood throughout the winter and spring? I'm going to build a firewood shed and need to know how large to construct it.

Thanks!

 

[bustedup]

Hey there, I am no firewood expert. It depends how much you wanna spend on a maul. The ones outta DIY stores ya really get what ya pay for. The Scandinavian mauls and axes are imo the best around at the moment if you want one that will last and is well made (Gransfor, Hultafors, Wetterlings) The |Fiskars maul is rated but I never used one.

Are ya planning on falling the timber you have? If so my advice would be plan your cutting. Fall things to a lay that ya can limb, buck etc easily and that you can get it hauled with minimum effort.


Don't forget to replant to keep your supply going.


As for how much I really couldn't tell you as really depends on insulation etc etc etc but you need to be well ahead of yourself. The wood needs to season. Sizes to cut is really dependent on the size of stove etc but as a general guide 12"-16".


Good luck and it is satisfying cutting your own


The more knowledgeable guys will be able to give more specifics but hope this is a start

 

[shelbythedog]

I would want an absolute minimum of 5 cord on hand going into the heating season if it were me. As a point of reference, my parents house is 1900 sq. ft., has an old Woodchuck forced air add-on in the basement, and they can easily burn 7 cord/year with 24/7 burning. My house is 1300 sq. ft. heated 24/7 with a stove, and we burn about 4 cord/year. Are you planning to burn 24/7 or just evenings and weekends to supplement the boiler? Is the stove an old smoke dragon or a newer epa certified unit that will burn clean? That alone could mean the difference between several cord of wood. Four acres of poplar and birch really isn't that much timber, I'd guess it won't support your entire need of firewood should you try and heat the house with the stove exclusively. I recall hearing that a properly managed tract of timber can yield approximately 1 cord/acre/year. Aside from that poplar and birch aren't exactly the highest btu rated firewood available. If you plan to build a woodshed, build it big, you will end up wanting to be at least a year ahead on wood so it has had ample drying time, that means two years of wood in the shed at any given time.

 

[Fifelaker]

Get your wood cut split and stacked now. Seasoned wood burns better plus less chance of a chimney fire. It takes more unseasoned wood to make it through a winter as it takes btu's to boil the water out of the wood, btu's that could be heating your home. As to how much wood you will have a better idea next year. Species, how seasoned it is as well as insulation, how warm you keep the house, wind and outdoor temps and how long of a winter you will get all come into play. If you can get two-three years ahead it will make your life easier next year. You wont have to rush to get your wood in. All that said my "guess" is 5-10 full cord not face cord.

 

[CTYank]

From what I've seen close up, Fiskars "splitting axes" are lightweights with lousy head metallurgy- prone to both plastic and brittle deformation. Unsat.

Tried a side-by-side comparison with an "X-25" and my 3 kg (~6.6 lb) Mueller maul. The Mueller cost about 3x the Fiskars, but very well worth it. Should last longer than me.

Wetterlings (Sweden) are bargain-section for Gransfors. Gransfors are excellent but ~$180 on Amazon.

Ochsenkopf (Iltis Oxhead- Germany) mauls are good stuff, and the best price on them can be had at your friendly price-conscious Stihl dealer. Honest. Their price is ~2/3 typical bargain price for Ochsenkopf elsewhere. Imagine that! I had one in my hand recently at a Stihl dealer, and would have bought it except for the Mueller.

Besides excellent metallurgy, the european mauls I've held are MUCH better shaped than the box store, local hardware, Fiskars tools. I copied the shape of the Mueller, as possible, to some 6 and 8 lb cheapies. Huge difference.

 

[zogger]

you could always just inquire of the previous owner through the home sale realtor or lawyer , etc

fiskars for the money

shoot for ten cord, better too much than not enough

we go through 4 cord here burned in 25 buck yard sale burner (georgia,not near as cold as your area), very leaky uninsulated smaller cabin, using mixed species, not all primo wood,

 

[FLHX Storm]

Ditto on the comments from the others.

As for a splitting maul, my preference is the Fiskars X27. It won't beat you half to death and is fairly lightweight. I split about 8 and a half cord this last season, 6 of those cord with the Fiskars. However, it is not the "Be All, End All" but it does do a nice job.

The X27 will cut through poplar and paper birch like butter. On your hard woods, like oak, hickory, locust, and black birch (also known as sweet birch) it will be a bit more of a work out but still seems to bust through rounds better than the axes/mauls I've had.

Two other plus's, Fiskars does back their lifetime warranty and it won't break the bank to purchase one. Of course this is just my opinion.

 

[bustedup]

Granfors bought Wetterlings out lol.....they kinda just down the street from each other lol......The older axes stamped by Husqvarna are Wetterlings but I think the newer ones are Hultafors (originally Hults Bruks)


You could search places like ebay etc for older American Axes like Kelly etc just depends on what ya wanna spend really and how much your going to split

 

[zogger]

progression

because this is your first season, concentrate on standing dead and downed trees and branches, even small branches

any live trees in the way, fell them, but cut and split those after the other already dead and partially dried is done, let the green leaves suck some moisture out

again,first season, you aren't ahead, do a loose airy stack, cover the top right before snow starts, and split small

 

[Fifelaker]

I should add that I split for 34 years with a hardware store special. Anytime anything bad happened it was not the fault of the tool.

 

[stihl023/5]

Not sure on the actual amount of wood, however the more you have the better off you are. Cant advise you on splitting, I have a fiskars but really like my splitter.

 

[Iron Head]

If you're going to heat only with wood, then get a storage that can hold at least 10 cords.
Having access firewood is a good thing and you can also use that extra space to store other jung.
I like having only 1 place to store my firewood that way I don't have to move the wood around too much.
Cut, split, and stack into the storage to dry.
So you're not going to know the amount until you burn the first year. And that is just an average.
As far as tools to split by hand. You can go with the Fiskars and you may set on it for live. It's a nice splitter. But in the future if you are curious and want something a little different to fit your developed preference, there are other high quality tools out there.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Sounds like you're considering buying firewood? If so, buy it now, and stack it where the sun and wind can best get to it so it dries before winter. Sellers advertising "seasoned" wood, far too often, aren't. A good wood seller will have good dry seasoned wood available, but it may take some doing to find that seller. If you can afford to buy now and store it, you can likely get it cheaper than you could in-season, and you'll know it will be ready when you need it.

2600+1500=4100sq ft. Consider a second stove in the basement, or an outside burner, if you want to heat the whole house 100% with wood. As you suspect, an upstairs wood stove won't do much good in the basement, but a warm basement will cut down on the need for heat upstairs.

Regarding quantity, as the guys have said, stove type, insulation level, how warm you like it, and other factors come into play here, and it's hard to estimate. My old pre-EPA stove could burn 10-12 cords heating 2200 sf of not greatly insulated house. An improvement here and there in insulation and a new efficient stove have cut that about in half, and I've still got more insulating to do, so it's a huge swing.

The good thing is, stored properly, wood is not a perishable. If you can afford to buy more than you think you'll need, any extras will still be there for the next year. There are exceptions, and poplar is one. I'd try to burn that in the first year it's dried, second at the latest.

What part of god's country do you call home? I'm around Star Prairie, and there are a bunch of us from this corner of the state on here.

 

[Dalmatian90]

Fiskars.

Search for it here, you'll see it goes about 70% "Holy #### this is great," 20% "Yep, works as well as any other sharp ax" -- for the price point in the $50 range, you won't find a better bargain.

I have the equivalent of an X-25, the X-27 was made for the American market where folks kept complaining the old version was too short. Read up on the other threads -- swinging overhead (not over shoulder) and using a chopping block are really good ideas. I have the gash in my old boots and a couple other posters here have ended up at the ER not because the tool is defective, but if you swing it over shoulder like Americans typically do it will come out of a log funny one day and try to clean the gunk out between a couple of your toes.

Most of us the initial surprise is something that light does as well as it does, the big advantage we quickly realize is the less fatigue so you can keep swinging accurately longer and make more wood in each session compared to a heavier maul. I also have to believe it's better for you over the decades to use a lighter but sharper ax then to wear out your joints faster with a heavier, (usually) duller maul.

 

[ziggy2b]

Rocket Stove mass heater

Hey everyone!
I just ran across this on you tube easy to build, low cost to build,Very fuel efficient 20 plus hrs of heat It's called a (Rocket Stove Mass Heater) Keep global warming inside the house not out the chimney, Uses very little wood, Hence very little ashes... The chimney, no smoke and it"s temperature is 93 degrees At that low of heat no chimney fires ??:msp_biggrin:

Good luck on splitting, Here's a Tip (Cut your trees down in January for next years firewood.) Let mother nature help season your wood YEP the Sapp goes to the roots in winter less time to cure...........