Price of logs

[Teemore]

- throw away the log splitter and get a decent splitting axe. When splitting straight grained wood, I am about 10x faster with an axe -the cycle time on the average splitter is awful. If wood is gnarly - saw it, don't pound away at it.

Working with a heavy old axe I have embarrassed a couple of guys working with a tractor log splitter before now! Watch out at auctions and car boot sales etc. for old axes - the heavier the better. Some of them flare out quite a bit from the cutting edge and this makes them good for splitting wood and they rarely cost a lot. I have also noticed that if you dress the edge to produce a good felling/lopping axe it is less efficient for splitting timber. Lesson = keep an axe or maul for splitting and another for felling/lopping.

As for keeping chains sharp, we have long used a chain file but I'm currently eyeing up those bar mounted grinders and the bench mounted chain sharpeners: there are 'home use' versions that come in at £50.00 or less. We use the saws enough to make one a useful purchase. Anyone have any experience of these or recommendations?

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year
Chestnut only good they say
If for long it's laid away
Make a fire of elder tree
Death within your house will be
But ash new or ash old
Is fit for a Queen with a crown of gold

Birch and Fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last
It is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread
Elmwood burns like churchyard mould
Even the very flames are cold
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a Queen with a golden crown

Poplar gives a bitter smoke
Fills your eyes and makes you choke
Apple wood will scent your room
With an incense-like perfume
Oaken logs, if dry and old
Keep away the winters cold
But ash wet or ash dry
A king shall warm his slippers by

 

[rae]

I have also noticed that if you dress the edge to produce a good felling/lopping axe it is less efficient for splitting timber. Lesson = keep an axe or maul for splitting and another for felling/lopping.

Indeed, they are completely different tools!

The Oregon grinder (about £60 as I recall) is not too bad. The only flaw is that it is a bit flexible, so if you want really accurate sharpening (say, for milling) it doesn't do a good enough job. For general firewood use, it is perfect.

The best is a Stihl USG - about £700 new, but they occasionally come up on ebay very cheaply. I got mine from eBay.

Many garden centres do a shocking job of sharpening - if you get a chain back and the cutters are blued from the heat, demand a new chain, it is has been wrecked.

 

[Gardenbees]

But ash new or ash old
Is fit for a Queen with a crown of gold

True - I get logs from the Wildlife Trust which are mostly ash, and they do burn beautifully. BUT, the "ash green", whilst it will burn quite well, is not a good idea. I burned quite a bit last year that had only seasoned for a few weeks, and the amount of soot today when the chimney sweep came to excavate my woodburning stove flue was quite incredible.

Even with ash, it's really worth paying extra for well-seasoned wood - quite a lot extra. You get your full calorific value out of it, for starters, rather than wasting it on heating up sap. And the soot problem is pretty bad with cheaper, more recently-cut logs.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

. BUT, the "ash green", whilst it will burn quite well, is not a good idea. .

I believe Ash is 140% water when first felled. Although, my tiny brain can't quite work out how that is even possible

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

I believe Ash is 140% water when first felled. Although, my tiny brain can't quite work out how that is even possible

(always wanted to use that smilie)

 

[greatbritishhoney]

(always wanted to use that smilie)

Me too - but have never dared yet!
Also, when is it appropriate to use....

 

[The Cumbrian]

I believe Ash is 140% water when first felled. Although, my tiny brain can't quite work out how that is even possible

Its easy! The log is carved out of ice and has a bucket of water standing on top.

 

[marklaverda]

Hi Rae
Have you any plans for a saw buck? Or pictures I could see?
Thx

 

[Hivemaker.]

I believe Ash is 140% water when first felled. Although, my tiny brain can't quite work out how that is even possible

There is bound water and free water in a fresh sawn log,plenty of imformation about this in books and on the internet if it's a subject you have an interest in.

http://www.mtc.com.my/info/index.ph...catid=31:timber-drying&Itemid=46&limitstart=3

 

[greatbritishhoney]

There is bound water and free water in a fresh sawn log,plenty of imformation about this in books and on the internet if it's a subject you have an interest in.

http://www.mtc.com.my/info/index.ph...catid=31:timber-drying&Itemid=46&limitstart=3

Thanks HM!
The first line..."The amount of water in a piece of wood is known as its moisture content. Because this is expressed as a percentage of the dry weight of the piece, not of the total weight, it is possible to have moisture contents of well over 100%"...has saved my aching little grey cells

 

[rae]

I will take a picture of my saw buck. Meanwhile, here is a picture of my logpile:

 

[Pete D]

I like the sound and smell of wood burning............... but 2 years ago fitted a ground source heat pump............yipee, best thing we ever did
Fitted it myself with help from a friend who has a digger and I have to say its brilliant. Gained a good understanding of how they work and some of the pit falls. My wife never moans about being cold and we have no mess.
It does all my heating and domestic hot water. We have no gas or oil and our bills are down nearly 40% on 2 years ago, despite prices rising.

 

[Gardenbees]

Ground source heat pumps are fantastic if you have the space (and/or depth) to fit them. The office where I used to work was heated by one, and the only real cost was running a small electric motor to keep the pump going. It did the trick in all but the very coldest weather - although the output did fall a bit towards the end of a cold winter, presumably because there wasn't quite such a temp difference between the air and the ground. Still, well worth it. I believe it paid for itself (and I mean really paid for itself, the whole cost) in 4 years.

Wood fires are more cosy, though... and you can't toast marshmallows on a heat pump!

 

[drstitson]

We pay around €13 per quintale for nice mature well dried oak.
Currently have around 4 tonnes in our stack - not that we are expecting a winter that bad!!!!

 

[Storm™]

I see someone has posted the Dartmoor tree law poem, lovely that. Anyhow I had a 400 year old cottage made of cob and granite. I only had a huge villager log burner. Lived there for 10 years. Once that thing was fired up you could melt glass on it. Although the glass tended to crumble when touched afterwards.

I used to burn all sorts on it. When you're low on cash you will turn to anything. I would collect kindling from a local forest and met others doing the same. Driftwood offers free wood and dries very quickly. Hazel burns very quick and hot and so does ash which can be burnt just after cutting. Pallets have graced the fires pressence as have shoes, cardboard and tins amongst other exotic things. After a few weeks you get the hang of it and the different smells of the woods are incredible - cherry and apple are my favourites and I would save them for friends coming round.

Never burn MDF or decking planks. Impregnated with poisonous chemicals etc. Although I have in the past - beggars cant be choosers an all that. Painted item really help.

Depending on how posh you are (i'm not) the easiest way to light a fire is tea lights. Add three to a pile of wood and then spill the melts wax and light that. Its will not stop burning. Or of you care not for the environment, tesco carrier bags *3 will get your fire going faster than anything. Country wisdom says build a small pyramid of kindling but I found with my burner the fastest way was to build a loose log cabin shape. Like a sqaure fence with the combustables in the centre. This was fast and produced quicker hotter embers as the air intake was less hampered. Then place the logs on, and as they catch place others on the outside of the fire to dry while the others burn, then move them in to the fire later and replace with damp ones again on the outside.

Holly burns the hottest as far as I am aware and if you want a good fire, balance soft and hard wood, so some nice cheap pine with a log of oak for longevity in the fire. Have a bucket of salt by the fire to smother it if you hear a screaming sound (chimney fire, the sound is unmistakable) never use water as the instant steam will remove your flesh down to the bone. Invest in some sweeping rods, the cost is going up at an alarming rate for a sweep. What was £15.00 has become £25.00+ apparently. Trago Mills here sell them for about £8.00 per rod (the avergage house is 5 metres tall ish give or take) so thats £40 quid for the rods and a fiver for the brush. I bought mine a few years ago and no hassle to use yourself unless you have a chimney cowl. Sweep before winter - jobs a goodun.

If you are having a log burner fitted ensure that the flu, the tube out of the back is at least 8 inches in diameter. I have always had an open fire from my first house. The previous owner had experienced a chimney fire. She ignored the screaming sound, and only decided that something was amis when the fore brigade dragged her from the house. The soot reached welding temperature and melted her chimney pots. The breast had to be rebuilt and she never went back to open fires. I took on the house and had a liner fitted. By a dodgy little blacksmith scumbag not far from Looe. Curse his soul. It was a 6inch tube from frie place to roof. A couple of open fires later my partner at the time found herself coming round hanging out of the front door (thankfully she had realised she was fading fast and had lunged for the front door before passing out).... The blacksmith was not so lucky. "I've done loads of these.....before his air supply was cut off". So in order to form a case against him I had to research it to death. Something else I know more about than I should. So for log burners the .... by now probably regulation ..... diameter of exhaust pipe is 8 inches or greater. If you have a smokey room when your fire is lit, it could be poor ventury? effect due to living in a dip, or poor incoming draft choking off the fire, or too high a lintel. Open a window in the same room a crack will be enough. Or have a cowl fitted over the front of the fire, or have a cowl fitted on the chimney itself. I'll shut up now. . . . . .


Local animal feed sack of logs - £3.50 and will last two nights ish same price for split kindling.
A animal pick up truck half load £50 to £60 quid
Full load £70 to £80 (I think this a tonne)

 

[Storm™]

Oh forgot to mention - if you're really a conservation type then rip up all your unwanted card and paper and for about a fiver you can get a log maker. Saturate the paper and card and when you have enough pile it into the log maker. Like a footpump with a flower pot on it. Squeeze the water out and you're left with a sodden log. Leave to dry in your greenhouse, garage, shed and you have dense free fuel. Lasts a couple of hours. Enjoy....

 

[rae]

8" is effing huge! Building regs currently state that 6" is required for all stoves between 20 and 30kW - which is a damn big stove. Under 20kW (most of them) 125mm is the regulation, but most stove manufacturers state 6" as the minimum. Our 16 kW Clear view is on 7", and the 11 kW Rayburn is on about 5". I'm not sure from your write up whether you were running an open fire into 6" liner - that would be a recipe for disaster, unless you had a gather installed as well.

And, Hivemaker, yes, I'd love one of those splitters. If you see one on eBay for less than £500 let me know! (fat chance!)

 

[tonybloke]

That's exactly what we normally pay, well it was until I had three 60 foot trees felled last year!

PS Logs don't last long, depending on your burner try using wood to get it going and coal (we use smokeless because we live in a smokeless zone) to keep it going and keep it "in" overnight.
This mix of wood and coal is a far cheaper way of running the fire otherwise you will spend a fortune on wood. We also burn wood when we want it to have more visible flames, like Christmas day when we like the wood burning effect.

Martin, have you a grate in this stove? wood should stay 'in' all night if burnt in the ashes, on 'floor' of firebox

 

[Storm™]

Yep my statement only refers to logs. I know nothing about coal flu requirements. The info came from a heating a flu specialist based in Mutley Plain, Plymouth. It was their statement when I asked them. For logs whether in a open fire or log burner - 8 inches. For coal it was less I do remember that but as I dont or didnt burn coal I didnt bother to retain that info.... hope that clarifies.