I got wood

[dickymint]

Stereolab said:

I’ve seen a few posts about seasoned wood delivered nationwide.

My local, reliable supplier in Wimborne (Dorset) won’t answer calls at all and I am needing to get a good 1/2 tonne delivery before next weekend.

I have tried two alternative local suppliers previously and they both delivered unseasoned wood which foamed and sulked in the burner rather than pumping out the heat like it should have done.

One guy was very pleasant and refunded me / replaced the load with kiln dried. He is no longer trading.

The other guy told me I’d got it wrong and that he was going to come round and ‘break my face you stuck up little c nut’ ??.

So anyone got a recommendation for a home delivery service where the wood will definitely be seasoned and can get here quickly?

Thanks.

If you’re that desperate then just order a load of heat logs from Amazon

[Chris Type R]

dickymint said:

If you’re that desperate then just order a load of heat logs from Amazon

I've just about finished off my seasoned wood and have been burning smokeless coal. Needs must etc

With what seems like a protracted cold spell and having the family in the house full-time the stove is seeing a lot of action this year. I'm also trying to clear out my wood store as I scavenged a large load of wood last year.

[Stereolab]

I think smokeless coal for the win. Thanks 🙏

[will_]

Bumblebee7 said:

Anyone have any experience of EGO chainsaws? I was originally looking at a Husqvarna 120i but have been recommended the EGO CS1800. Has an 18" bar, power equiv of a 45cc for £220 bare. Seems reasonable to me and haven't come across the brand before although reviews online are positive.
Thanks

I have the slightly smaller version and for domestic use it's good - fairly powerful, decent battery life and not too heavy.

[snowandrocks]

Depends what you're doing with it but if it's for cutting any reasonable amount of firewood and you have access to power then I'd forget battery and go for a corded mains powered saw.

I have a Husqvarna 240v saw and it's great - light, quiet and surprisingly powerful. I often use it instead of the bigger petrol saw and there's obviously no issues with batteries going flat.

[Dog Star]

NewChurch said:

Buy one of These and spend 10mins every now and then chopping a few. Good exercise as well.

That’s what I do - every now and then just spend a couple of hours. You can do loads once you’ve got a rhythm going, and when you have got a good technique you can split pretty thick ones.

I’m currently burning my way through the stuff I split and stacked two years ago.

[Bumblebee7]

will_ said:

I have the slightly smaller version and for domestic use it's good - fairly powerful, decent battery life and not too heavy.

Thanks, I decided to go for it it's arrived but still waiting for the battery as it comes in a separate shipment.

Snowandrocks- I considered mains powered but a bit of a pain depending on where around the house I am. Have found myself putting off all tasks that require the use of the extension lead so was a bit of a non-starter. I've started with EGO now so will probably get the strimmer in the not too distant future. Would love a mower too but fortunately my lawn won't be ready for a year or two as they don't yet offer one with a mulcher.

[will_]

Bumblebee7 said:

will_ said:

I have the slightly smaller version and for domestic use it's good - fairly powerful, decent battery life and not too heavy.

Thanks, I decided to go for it it's arrived but still waiting for the battery as it comes in a separate shipment.

Snowandrocks- I considered mains powered but a bit of a pain depending on where around the house I am. Have found myself putting off all tasks that require the use of the extension lead so was a bit of a non-starter. I've started with EGO now so will probably get the strimmer in the not too distant future. Would love a mower too but fortunately my lawn won't be ready for a year or two as they don't yet offer one with a mulcher.

I have the multi-tool and have just ordered a hedge trimmer too. I'd suggest having a couple of batteries so you can have one on charge whilst the other is in use.

I previously had a corded chainsaw but it was a pain to run the cable each time I wanted to use it and it wouldn't necessarily reach all the areas needed, so I went battery powered for the replacement, which will hopefully mean lower running costs compared to petrol.

[Chris Type R]

Chris Type R said:

Any suggestions on how to tackle this lot ? It's freshly cut, and I think some of it is beech.

I have a small electric chainsaw, a roughneck maul, a grenade splitter. Most of these are pretty heavy and I think are going to be a challenge to split. Perhaps letting it season a few months might help here.



I was thinking of giving something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forest-Master-Smart-Split... a go - sales video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXah6D_7Gx0 I can't really justify a full blown hydraulic splitter.

16 weeks later I've managed to work through this lot with an electric chainsaw, grenade and a Fiskar X25. I did have to build an overflow wood store in the corner of the garden. The last couple of rounds were done today while it was snowing. The grenade has lost it's point and a couple of logs managed to hit my shin in the same place.

Thanks for the advice on here. I think I have a 5 year supply here if things get back to normal by next winter.

[Tim O]

Forestry Commission contacted me about an oak tree that straddles our boundary. A mature tree but is losing a battle with a beech tree very close by, and it’s not in great health so they want to take it down. Won’t be easy as it’s very intertwined with the beech, access poor, too, but they’ll manage, I’m sure.

So, oak. I think they’ll let me keep the wood, probably ring it for me, too. Anything I need to know about cutting and splitting. I assume best split when freshly felled? Hints and tips?

[Neil_Sc]

Oak splits just fine with a fiskars X25, its just a fantastic fire wood, so long as you let it season for a couple of years. I don't find it a big problem to split fresh, but left for a month or two, I find it splits really easily, a bit easier than fresh.

[S6PNJ]

[paua]

S6PNJ said:

That's pretty cool, but - Stihl or Husky? Enquiring minds need to know.

[Dog Star]

Stereolab said:

I think smokeless coal for the win. Thanks ??

I use both coal and wood depending on whether I can be bothered tramping off down to the wood store in the freezing rain and dark.
We have a coal man and he recently suggested I try some smokeless briquettes and I'm pretty sold on them. Normally I burn normal coal which smells lush, but leaves a lot of clinker and doesn't half blacken the glass.

Smokeless is so much cleaner.

[TryingHard]

I may have made a slight mistake in estimating how much wood I can store.

Back story - had a big couple of trees in the garden and they were beginning to look a bit iffy. A branch came off in a storm and I decided it was time to take them down. But hey, I've got a wood burner it might keep me going for next year so "Yes please, Mr. tree surgeon...I would definitely like to keep the wood".

I don't know a lot about trees but research tells me it might be cedar. I was told it was the stuff they make pencils out of (and it certainly smells like it).

I tried to start splitting it on my puny 4 ton splitter but it didn't make a dent (I'm ambitious if nothing else). So I've hired a man with a tractor to do it for me and he did the first load this weekend. So pictures.


Trunk size of first tree



Trunk size of second tree



Initial pile (I forgot to take a picture so this is after about 5 wheelbarrows have been removed)



So carted it round to the wood store (actually my wife and children did this).

Woodstore (made with a few pallets and fence posts so cheap!)- here the bottom left and right have already been stacked with the new wood 3 deep


Rest of pile not yet in wood store - excuse the surrounding bit its under going a bit of a makeover at hte moment but is around the side so nobody sees it anyway.


So all good, however I still have a fair bit of wood to be split:



In this last picture you just see the little bit that has been done for comparison:


I might need a bigger woodstore!

Edited by TryingHard on Monday 25th January 11:44

Edited by TryingHard on Monday 25th January 11:45

[MK1RS Bruce]

I finally wore out the 16" bar on my chainsaw after 4 years of cutting, the guides wore away and then finally splayed out on due to being so thin. Luckily I remembered that I had a spare 20" bar and one chain to fit it so I assembled it all and tackled some of the bigger logs I had to process. I thought the saw might struggle with the longer bar but it went through the logs like butter.

I think I had forgotten how nice a new bar and chain are to use.

As a side note that is an £80 timber pro chinese special, can't believe how good its been, 4 years and probably 80-100 litres of petrol through it and all I have done to it is clean out the air filter every now and again.





Horrible knotty scots pine that is hellish to split, even with a tractor mounted splitter, but it burns well.

[Stereolab]

Thanks Dogstar- good to know.

I ended up finding a new supplier local to me who actually seemed to want my business. In order to avoid the psycho guy and his ‘seasoned’ (saturated) wood I asked the new place for kiln dried wood.

It ended up being £20 less than advertised on their website and was delivered promptly to the back of my house despite tight access.

This summer I think I’m going to redesign the very small space I have for storage. We are in a Victorian terrace with a narrow strip of garden so every single bit of spare space is hard fought over...

[Biglips]

Tree surgeons were taking down a couple of trees in our road this morning. Left me a nice pile of ash and walnut in return for a few beer tokens. That’s my exercise sorted for the weekend!

[bucks]

MK1RS Bruce said:

I've a Zomax saw too albeit a smaller one and it's a bloody good saw. Recently cut some wood along side a good mate so naturally we swapped saws to see what each others were like and we both said for the money, the cheap Chinese saw punched well above it's weight.


Anyway, what am I doing here talking to amateurs? If you don't have a crane are you even cutting wood?






Ok Ok, I did nothing that day only take pictures and marvel at the pro's

[S6PNJ]

I cut some 2.5" thick boards (max about 28" wide) with my 41 (ish) year old Homelite 550 chainsaw last week - now drying / seasoning which will take about 1-2 years. They will hopefully end up as a nice oak garden table. The top board cut from the 'log' is considered scrap (or used for odds and sods) and it is the next 2 boards (both with cut faces) that will become usable boards. Ther are still another 3 boards or so to be cut but that will be left for anotehr day.