Fire Thread! - Stoves, Wood, Axes, Chainsaws

JonRGV250 · 10 Dec 2022 at 17:53

It's that time again to replenish the log stores.
Luckily my parents are very good friends with someone who looks after a fair bit of forest and the wood is practically free

He also cuts it and lets us borrow the trailer.
First of two trailer loads getting loaded up..

back home and the first lot sorted as to what needs splitting and what doesn't..

let the splitting commence (no messing with an axe or such like)..

and ~~stacked~~ chucked (3 deep) into the left hand side of my log store, and what was left was lobbed in the wood store at the top of the garden..

So, about 1800kg of seasoned wood for the price of a cheap night out in the pub.
Nice

Feek · 10 Dec 2022 at 17:57

We used to have a fire fairly often but my daughter took over the back room where our open fireplace is. She moved out earlier this yea and we've just had the chimney swept for the first time in ages so I got the fire going last night.

It's not used for any other purpose than "it's a fire" and to add a bit of extra warmth to that room. It's not anything fancy, just an old open fireplace.

I managed to get it from this.

To this

over the evening. That used up the last of the coal and so I grabbed some more today, some anthracite based briquette things which seemed damp in the bag and are already proving an absolute pain to light.

{SAS}TB · 10 Dec 2022 at 18:00

JonRGV250 said:
It's that time again to replenish the log stores.
Luckily my parents are very good friends with someone who looks after a fair bit of forest and the wood is practically free
He also cuts it and lets us borrow the trailer.
First of two trailer loads getting loaded up..

back home and the first lot sorted as to what needs splitting and what doesn't..

let the splitting commence (no messing with an axe or such like)..

and ~~stacked~~ chucked (3 deep) into the left hand side of my log store, and what was left was lobbed in the wood store at the top of the garden..

So, about 1800kg of seasoned wood for the price of a cheap night out in the pub.
Nice

Not jelous in the slightest

john_smith · 10 Dec 2022 at 18:04

Decent haul there RGV.

JonRGV250 · 10 Dec 2022 at 18:11

john_smith said:
Decent haul there RGV.

It is, and there's possibly another couple more to come, although I may have to use the summer house to store it.
Not a bad problem to have

JonRGV250 · 10 Dec 2022 at 18:13

Feek said:
That used up the last of the coal and so I grabbed some more today, some anthracite based briquette things which seemed damp in the bag and are already proving an absolute pain to light.

Probably be better to get a multi-fuel stove in there to burn coal, as it needs a bit of air under it to get going.

Feek · 10 Dec 2022 at 19:16

JonRGV250 said:
Probably be better to get a multi-fuel stove in there to burn coal, as it needs a bit of air under it to get going.

Getting coal started isn’t generally a problem, it can just be a bit slow. I’ve never had stuff like this though but it’s all the local place had in stock today. It should be easier next week.

UberTiger · 10 Dec 2022 at 20:25

robj20 said:
Can't decide between an axe, maul, or a wedge for splitting oak logs.
Got a small axe that I use for camping that's only good for kindling.

I have the X25 and it's working well for me.

I can imagine the extra weight of something bigger could be good if you have large rounds. I don't feel any need to upgrade at the moment though.

{SAS}TB · 10 Dec 2022 at 20:29

UberTiger said:
I have the X25 and it's working well for me.

I can imagine the extra weight of something bigger could be good if you have large rounds. I don't feel any need to upgrade at the moment though.

I have the x27 and was the same - have only recently got their maul.as it was in offer

UberTiger · 10 Dec 2022 at 20:31

Oh nice! Which model?

{SAS}TB · 10 Dec 2022 at 20:40

UberTiger said:
Oh nice! Which model?

It's the x39

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UberTiger · 10 Dec 2022 at 21:01

I was actually going to order that one, but it wasn't in stock in Amazon and a was too lazy to look at other online shops, lol, so I just went for the X25

What do you think of it?

{SAS}TB · 10 Dec 2022 at 21:06

UberTiger said:
I was actually going to order that one, but it wasn't in stock in Amazon and a was too lazy to look at other online shops, lol, so I just went for the X25

What do you think of it?

It's weighty - significantly heavier than the x27

i had some knotty conifers which I've had stored for 18 months which the x27 kept bouncing off. The x39 went straight through.

Absolute workhorse but wouldn't fancy it as my only axe / maul unless you also wanted a pretty intense work out

great backup for tougher (really tough) stuff but defo need an x25/27 for general / most situations

DXP55 · 11 Dec 2022 at 13:44

Togged up and got barrow and went out to front log store -filled up and put it in Bench seat by back door -Seat holds about 1 1/2 barrow fulls. Only about barrow and half left now - Still it's lasted about 2 months - As you can see it's only 2 bricks deep so not a big log store. One down 6 to go.

UberTiger · 11 Dec 2022 at 14:57

Chopped up the rest of my wood today and restacked it all 3 shallow rows deep.

it freed up a ton more space, so I think I'll have to gather some more!

Got a new wood pile security guard too.

DXP55 · 14 Dec 2022 at 15:21

In the good old days when we had coal fires my Dad used to get a sheet of newspaper and hold it in front of fire but left a gap just above that bit at front that covers the ash part -Fire was going in minutes -It just creates the draught needed to get coal burning.

Mind you today that would be a no no even though it worked a treat - If paper caught alight just screw it up and push it on fire and get new sheet.

robj20 · 14 Dec 2022 at 15:38

DXP55 said:
In the good old days when we had coal fires my Dad used to get a sheet of newspaper and hold it in front of fire but left a gap just above that bit at front that covers the ash part -Fire was going in minutes -It just creates the draught needed to get coal burning.

Mind you today that would be a no no even though it worked a treat - If paper caught alight just screw it up and push it on fire and get new sheet.

What's a no no?

DXP55 · 14 Dec 2022 at 16:00

Health and safety and all that crap. We also did it as kids. :rolleyes:

Feek · 14 Dec 2022 at 16:36

I remember doing that a few years ago, really don't see anything wrong with it.

I had a fire last night, the new bag of fuel I bought is anthracite so it burns hotter and longer than the previous bag of stuff but far less impressive as it burnt with a barely visible flame. I stopped loading it at around 22:00 last night, it was still proper glowing in the grate this morning and I could measure the temperature at over 300°C. I chucked another lump of coal on to see if it would ignite and although it didn't properly burn with a visible flame, it did very slowly catch and by lunchtime it was ash. When I finally raked it all out at after 15:00, it was still at around 70°C in there.

I need to find a local coal merchant and get some in bulk, I'm sure it'll be far better than buying it from the local hardware shop.

robj20 · 14 Dec 2022 at 16:44

Annoying that the Heta Inspire says multifuel but I think it means different wood, not coal.
Thanks to this cold weather were going through the 1.7m3 of oak rather quickly.