Fire Thread! - Stoves, Wood, Axes, Chainsaws

Which Arada are you looking at, Holborn 5?
It seems they use a steel body and a cast door, which seems like a very good idea.
I really would buy the best you can afford as you may be using it for years to come.
 
Looking forward to getting our Arada Farringdon fired up again this year! Had 500kg of kiln dried oak logs delivered a few weeks ago. Last time we ordered logs we went for 70 nets of oak and ash but the price had jumped from £280 to £450 so thought we'd just go for a crate full. Not as many but it was £280 for 2m3 loose volume.

A few of the logs weren't split properly so finally had an excuse to get an axe :D

edit: Looks like the logs have gone up to £350 from £280 since I bought them, crazy prices at the moment!
 
JonRGV250 said:
Which Arada are you looking at, Holborn 5?
It seems they use a steel body and a cast door, which seems like a very good idea.
I really would buy the best you can afford as you may be using it for years to come.
Click to expand...
Yes Holborn 5.

Next on my list is a log store maybe two and a plastic outdoor box thing for storing coal in.

Anything else I should get?

Suppliers for logs?
 
robj20 said:
Yes Holborn 5.

Next on my list is a log store maybe two and a plastic outdoor box thing for storing coal in.

Anything else I should get?

Suppliers for logs?
Click to expand...

I used Luxury Wood Company for our log store, kiln dried logs and kindling but the price has shot up 33% on the log store and the wood prices have generally gone up 60% from 2 years ago. They were the cheapest I could find last month when I looked and ordered logs though.
 
JonRGV250 said:
Yes, a thermoelectric stove fan, or two.
They really do work, and are pretty cool.
Click to expand...
Agree the fans really do make a difference

Just returned from a FB Marketplace purchase of eight "25 kg" (size as in the size of a builders 25kg bag of sand) bags of joinery offcuts

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Loaded a builders "tonne" bag into the boot of the car and tipped them in

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They are untreated clean / no nails offcuts of various sizes cut to 10" lengths. Very happy for £40 and will be partially split into kindling and partially mixed with hardwood logs for the garden burner
 
robj20 said:
Yes Holborn 5.

Next on my list is a log store maybe two and a plastic outdoor box thing for storing coal in.

Anything else I should get?

Suppliers for logs?
Click to expand...
If you plan to store your logs outside, consider if you need kiln dried logs or simply well seasoned hardwood.

I have used both in the past and pretty much don't bother with kiln dried these days as I found the moisture levels pretty much normalised overtime. Being fair this may be because I have a large woodstore that holds close to 6m2 of firewood so I only get one delivery per year, if that. The only advantage I found with kiln dried is that it tends to be 'less messy' in terms of bits of broken bark and or wood dust and the logs tend to be ash and therefore less knotty and therefore more uniform and therefore attractive if you care about that. I don't!
 
Beta said:
If you plan to store your logs outside, consider if you need kiln dried logs or simply well seasoned hardwood.

I have used both in the past and pretty much don't bother with kiln dried these days as I found the moisture levels pretty much normalised overtime. Being fair this may be because I have a large woodstore that holds close to 6m2 of firewood so I only get one delivery per year, if that. The only advantage I found with kiln dried is that it tends to be 'less messy' in terms of bits of broken bark and or wood dust and the logs tend to be ash and therefore less knotty and therefore more uniform and therefore attractive if you care about that. I don't!
Click to expand...
Good point yes I plan to have a couple of wood stores outside.
 
JonRGV250 said:
You got to be doing something very very wrong for a cast iron stove to crack.
Although running one too hot may do it, or just having a crap quality one to start with.
My Morso (cast iron) retains heat for ages when I shut it off, but that said, it does take a while to heat it up in comparison to a steel one.
Click to expand...
My understanding was that cast iron radiates heat a lot better than steel, so although it takes longer to warm up it ends up putting more heat into the room.

Also you can repair cast iron, if mine ever cracked i'd have a go and welding it myself. If you use a decent ARC welder with the right rods and get it nicely pre-heated and then let it cool down really slowly it should be fine.
 
I wasn't doing anything wrong but wife was -She doesn't like it when she opened the stove door with all that heat so she used to throw logs on and this stove we bought in the 80's so it didn't have any fire bricks in it - I did cut one to fit and put it along back of stove as temp measure.
Looking back on it now it was probably a crap one as the Little Wenlock we had as well was ok.
 
I know most read both threads, but just in case .... Cross post from the man jobs thread



Bought a kindling splitter (you can use it for logs but gor the axes for that) to help with workflow and general well-being of my digits using the axe to produce the kindling :D

Screwed it down to a log to help with vibration / noise if using it on a hard surface

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Split a surprising about of timber offcuts, very quickly into kindling

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Very pleasant in the afternoon sun

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Surprising how much kindling a small about of timber makes !

And still plenty to go at

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I looked at those ages ago but couldn't justfy the price and just ended up clamping down an old axe (facing up of course) inbetween some blocks of wood and it did the same thing.

Of course it doesn't have the same charm to it but it does the job the couple of times a year I need it to break a pallet in to kindling.
 
I started off thinking down that route but, quite honestly, couldn't be arsed :P

Saw the cheaper ones but all got bad reviews so decided to "splash out" and (hopefully) but once

I will get through a lot of kindling with the log burner, new one hopefully going in the gazebo and the fire pit. Expensive but am investment
 
That club hammer looks like a brute!

I like Fiskars' stuff, I have their version of a pickaroon which makes moving logs a lot easier without all that bending down and also makes for a good lever.

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