Winter Firewood take2

Greetings All,
Another year has passed and here we are again gathering firewood for next winter. This year things are going to be a bit different. I was becoming increasingly concerned about the trees along our front boundary. Planted about 30 years ago they had become close to the road and power lines and had escaped my level of competence to fell. So a contractor was engaged to fell the trees and clean up the area. He arrived last Wednesday with an enormous digger with all sorts of attachments and after a little less than four days the job was done, well his job was anyway. Trunks and big branches have been stacked in a big pile ready for me to cut, split and stack. This may take some time.
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As you can see my trusty 50 plus year old wheelbarrow is ready with chain saws (out of shot) and splitting axe. My son will help, and take some of the firewood. He has suggested hiring a log splitter and offering to pay for it which should come in handy when we get to the big logs in the bottom of the pile.
Wish me luck. Grandpamac.

if you get a heap ringed up...then hire log splitter for the day....have everything ready to go and THREE people lined up.
one,preferably fit strong fella to place rings on log splitter bench.
two probably you,to operate splitter,turn ring,split,turn split,move split....
three to take split pieces off the tray once you have split them,and chuck them onto pile.
it is way faster with three people....with two the splitter has to stop to chuck wood/clear bench or the lifter has to go around you to other side of bench and clear wood then back past you to place next ring on bench.
once you have used a splitter for a day,you wont go back to axe for any more than the odd ring or six.

As they say, the great thing about firewood is it gets you warm twice, during splitting and during burning! Good luck with the splitting and seasoning, but I'm sure you'll be fine.

I should be getting more wood in too, always somethign else to do though....

Note from a guy with a 100 acre gum forest: ring and split quickly. Or just leave alone till you are ready to ring and split. Ring and wait four months to split and you are in for trouble, 35 tonne hydraulic log splitter no go trouble.
But you'll already know this:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by XR500

Note from a guy with a 100 acre gum forest: ring and split quickly. Or just leave alone till you are ready to ring and split. Ring and wait four months to split and you are in for trouble, 35 tonne hydraulic log splitter no go trouble.
But you'll already know this:thumbsup:

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you should try some old ash....never seen grain like it,looks like the wavy hair on bun of a red setter.one block can have grain running in 4 diferent directions. green or dry makes no diference to how it splits,or wont...

Elm is in the same boat

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Originally Posted by XR500

Note from a guy with a 100 acre gum forest: ring and split quickly. Or just leave alone till you are ready to ring and split. Ring and wait four months to split and you are in for trouble, 35 tonne hydraulic log splitter no go trouble.
But you'll already know this:thumbsup:

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Greetings XR500,
I am cutting all the easy stuff first as it is easy to split. Cut for one tank split stack repeat is the process. Satisfying as well as you see the stack steadily growing, an important thing for an old codger. My son had a run in with a standing dead gum of some sort. Felling and cutting was easy but splitting not at all. Great firewood though.
Regards Grandpamac.

There is an easier and more exciting way to split the stuff, but you don't want neighbours within a couple of km:omg::thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by hamsav

The last load of gum I scored for free was twisted to buggery and had been down for years ,being a bit green I ringed it all up and dragged it home . Got to splitting the bigger rings (12 - 20 inches dia ) ......I have never had a logsplitter axe bounce back like that ,wound up ripping them all with saw. I put the round on its side and do 2 evenly spaced verticle cuts almost right thru, then turn the round 90deg and do 2 more verticle cuts this time right thru and if you do it right the 2 not right thru cuts can be split open , leaves you with 9 bits of wood . It stacks real good too. We bunch the sawdust up into bags ,it come off the saw in long strands but anyhow stuff the bag of sawdust into the log burner and spark er up .

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Greetings Hamsav,
Its the luck of the draw with gum. Some like E Nitens are hard to split even green. The dead tree my son had trouble with which I think was E Fastigata was tough. Another standing dead gum I cut years ago was dead easy to split. There are between 300 and 600 Eucalypt species, depending who you talk to so you are never too sure what will happen next. They all burn pretty well though.
Regards Grandpamac.

Swinging an axe/using a splitter is a lot of double handling for one person

Let the saw do all the work :)

You need horsepower and a 35 degree cutter with 30 thou deep rakers

The blocks burn through the night easily



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Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

Swinging an axe/using a splitter is a lot of double handling for one person

Let the saw do all the work :)

You need horsepower and a 35 degree cutter with 30 thou deep rakers

The blocks burn through the night easily



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Greetings 7mmSAUM,
The blue look and spiral nature of the bark suggests your tree may be one of the southern blue gums, quite common in Hawkes Bay. A lot of them are dogs to split. The smaller branches and logs on top of my heap are splitting easily at the moment but I am sure that more drastic means will be needed later.
Regards Grandpamac.

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Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings 7mmSAUM,
The blue look and spiral nature of the bark suggests your tree may be one of the southern blue gums, quite common in Hawkes Bay. A lot of them are dogs to split. The smaller branches and logs on top of my heap are splitting easily at the moment but I am sure that more drastic means will be needed later.
Regards Grandpamac.

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Your right I even no where that tree is.

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Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

Swinging an axe/using a splitter is a lot of double handling for one person

Let the saw do all the work :)

You need horsepower and a 35 degree cutter with 30 thou deep rakers

The blocks burn through the night easily



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Some of my gums are a metre plus in dia. They start laughing at me if I approach them with a 62cc saw in my hands. But come at them with the 395 and 36" bar, plus the atom attachment on the 50cc saw and a couple of plugs of jelly, and they start quivering big time:cool:

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Originally Posted by XR500

Some of my gums are a metre plus in dia. They start laughing at me if I approach them with a 62cc saw in my hands. But come at them with the 395 and 36" bar, plus the atom attachment on the 50cc saw and a couple of plugs of jelly, and they start quivering big time:cool:

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You got two 395’s?


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One of each: 394 and 395. 394 has slightly more grunt down low than the 395, so teamed up on the 48" double ender bar with 404 semi skip its the berries:pacman:

I’ve got a 395 and 394, I thought you had a busted one


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The 395 forms the rings no problem, I use a 385 on the smaller trees.

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Originally Posted by hamsav

I have a 044 with a 24" oregon bar , the original bar was fine till I broke the rules .....yeah , I lent it out . Had it 30 odd years now ,never missed a beat.

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Yeah, never lend your chainsaw. Lots of other family things can be lent b4 a chainsaw. :P

I've still got my old 045 which is even older than than your 044. Long since mounted on a BT 360 2 man posthole borer.
Bought it at a time when brands like Pioneer were still in use.

Our saws of the day were a couple of Stihl 051s (89 cc) and an 075 (111 cc). All antiques now.
We did a lot of clear felling of old man macs. Unlimited firewood, all axe split, no mechanised softy splitters.
Also had access to some native for firewood but I won't describe where we got that...

The 075 (probably well outgunned by smaller says today) was a superb crosscutting saw. A full day on that and my arms would start to cramp up.

Re gum. I may have imagined it, but when I first encountered old fallen trunks I'm sure I saw sparks coming off my bar tip (not roller tipped). May have imagined that, so long ago.

Got rid of our fireplace a few years ago and went gas. Then they hiked the price of gas. Pricks.

075/076 are still being produced for the third world markets.

They are popular milling saws in Europe.A guy in Wales imports them from Indonesia

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Originally Posted by muzza

This thread reminds why I have gas-fired central heating and no longer cut firewood for anyone......

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Not for much longer ya won't...if Cindy has her way:omg::omg::omg:

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Originally Posted by MSL

I’ve got a 395 and 394, I thought you had a busted one


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Errr, yes I do. Though wasn't going to mention it on an open forum, esp if I said how it got broke:wtfsmilie:

Swapped some antique McCullough chainsaws plus a little cash for an 084 from jim downs in drury back in the 90s. Still have it and it gets used. Jim had a huge collection of old saws some of which were on display in the shop. He was a bit of a hoarder and had sheds full evidently.

Muzza..you can keep your gas-fired central heating. I'll stick to my beloved open fire, burning manuka and pohutukawa. There's nothing better than sitting with a whiskey in your hand, gazing into the flames of wood you cut and split and stacked yourself. And BTW, no woman ever said: "Let's make love in front of the heat pump, darling"...just saying.

Greetings All,
Can't compete with the big boys epic chainsaw stories. Am currently using a 250mm bar top handle saw for all the smaller stuff and will move up to a bigger saw with a 450mm bar when I get to the trunks, the biggest of which is about 500 mm in dia. Both are Shindaiwa saws. Works for me.
Regards Grandpamac.

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Originally Posted by Ranger 888

And BTW, no woman ever said: "Let's make love in front of the heat pump, darling"...just saying.

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So, the kitchen table gets dragged in front of the fire....?

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Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
Can't compete with the big boys epic chainsaw stories. Am currently using a 250mm bar top handle saw for all the smaller stuff and will move up to a bigger saw with a 450mm bar when I get to the trunks, the biggest of which is about 500 mm in dia. Both are Shindaiwa saws. Works for me.
Regards Grandpamac.

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GPM here's a small chainsaw story.
When I lived in Oz I had no saws with me. A big pine got blown over near us and the farmer said I could have it for firewood.
I bought a tiny Stihl 010 and set to on limbs. Once it was too much for the 010 I bought a Stihl 032. Over the course of 5 years I cut up that tree with those 2 saws. I had no trailer so the whole lot was moved in my trusty Holden Kingswood. Fully loaded boot and back seat.
Jeez Vic can be cold in winter.

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Originally Posted by zimmer

GPM here's a small chainsaw story.
When I lived in Oz I had no saws with me. A big pine got blown over near us and the farmer said I could have it for firewood.
I bought a tiny Stihl 010 and set to on limbs. Once it was too much for the 010 I bought a Stihl 032. Over the course of 5 years I cut up that tree with those 2 saws. I had no trailer so the whole lot was moved in my trusty Holden Kingswood. Fully loaded boot and back seat.
Jeez Vic can be cold in winter.

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Thanks for that Zimmer,
My whole firewood collecting is low tech and on our small block. The split wood gets shifted around the corner to drying stacks. These are made of two 1.8m fence posts set up on concrete slabs. Over the posts goes 1.2m lengths of branch wood with the firewood stacked on top about 1.2m high. Late summer the dry wood gets towed up the drive with my tiny truck (Suzuki Jimny) and tiny trailer and stacked away in my dry wood shed near the house. Most of the trees were propagated by my late father from seed he collected and planted by me. I think I have a lifetime supply of wood all within 100m of the house. Plans don't always come together that well.
Regards Grandpamac.

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Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Swapped some antique McCullough chainsaws plus a little cash for an 084 from jim downs in drury back in the 90s. Still have it and it gets used. Jim had a huge collection of old saws some of which were on display in the shop. He was a bit of a hoarder and had sheds full evidently.

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Just hope it never needs an Oil pump.

It took me a year to track down a used one.They dont seem to make them any longer.The sprocket is plastic and it just breaks down over time.I could buy the sprocket but couldnt get the arbor off the pump.

Think there is three 084’s up in the shed roof at home, great saws.


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All this talk about chainsaws and no one has commented on that fine looking wheelbarrow, my dad has one just like it and they're the definition of a workhorse.

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Originally Posted by Tombi

All this talk about chainsaws and no one has commented on that fine looking wheelbarrow, my dad has one just like it and they're the definition of a workhorse.

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Greetings Tombi,
Thanks for noticing that. It was my late fathers wheelbarrow and there is a story about it. Sometime over 50 years ago my parents won 10th prize in whatever they called the Golden Kiwi in those days. It amounted to $400.00 and my parents split it 4 ways. I spent my share upgrading my car, I don't remember what my sister and mother spent theirs on but my father bought that wheelbarrow and spent the rest putting in a concrete ring driveway to house the increasing number of cars at our house. All the concrete was wheeled from the mixer in that barrow. When dad moved to a unit he gave it to me. I use it all the time and I believe it still has the original tire which I may need to replace if we don't move into town first.
Regards Grandpamac.

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Originally Posted by norsk

Just hope it never needs an Oil pump.

It took me a year to track down a used one.They dont seem to make them any longer.The sprocket is plastic and it just breaks down over time.I could buy the sprocket but couldnt get the arbor off the pump.

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Please Don't upset me by talking like that.