Fire Thread! - Stoves, Wood, Axes, Chainsaws

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Just some random recent images from jobs. Put in spoiler to not spam the thread:

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2 big black poplars just to left of my mate here.




This was my share of the black pops after a lot of cutting and splitting!


One of the 8 cherries on this job. This was one of the smaller ones but worst lean. It was hanging directly over that shed and you can see power lines above as well. Proper pain doing all of these but good experience to have under the belt dealing with them.


Big hung up storm damage alder. This was split right down the middle and into the trunk. The way it had split was lethal. Pic doesn't show how big this chap was. Needed a load of work over that fence but it's a much smaller tree but will live to fight another day now.


Birch threatening the chicken shed one way or would have smacked the house the other so was time to go. Done another 3 same size as this guy.


Thinning out this rowan. I've done weeks of work on this land. You could not see that view before as it had been left such a mess and never managed.
Done 10 cherries in total in here now. Spent 5 hours chipping last week on this job as well.
Got a lovely big ash and this rowan now really able to grow nicely and be appreciated. New apple planted already and we will put a tulip poplar in as well that's being relocated from elsewhere.

 

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Nice work.

Do you use ropes and winches to put any “command” on those leaners or do you just gradually take the weight off the trunk by dropping limbs one at a time?

I have couple of dead/compromised trees to take out this winter, but am lucky that I have plenty of room to drop them whole.

For the likes of that little heavily leaning cherry I used rope tethered to another tree to just back myself up with the cut. I done most those bad leaners solo as well so just done precise cuts and tensioned rope by hand to ensure they went where I wanted. Had way less drama than anticipated thankfully. There is one left that leans directly over the power lines, no way I can do that without climbing it even with a winch.

For bigger stuff, like a few of those larger birch had a bad lean towards property etc I used a tirfor winch. 2 of them I felled and would not have needed the winch but one of them (the one that looked like it would be the OK one!) went down so awkwardly I was glad we had winched the thing, as it just ensured that extra few metres the "correct" way.

 

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Thanks for the advice, I’ll look into getting a similar winch when I run into a heavy leaner near something I don’t want getting broken.

Tirfor's are incredibly versatile things to have. So, so handy!
Have a look on eBay as there is a few sellers on their who refurb and sell them. They're very pricey new.

 

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Thanks for the tip. Do you use chains or straps to secure yours to the tree and anchor point?

Got chains laying around but honestly just use straps for everything. They're nicer to everyone and everything I find and plenty versatile.

 

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Some awesome work there @xdcx. I've got some trees that either need crowning, trimmed or felled but I'll have to get someone in, they're massive and too many. Not sure what the going rate is for tree surgery.

Thanks man

What size are we talking and what are they?
It will depend on a lot of things. Size of job primarily but if they can be dropped easy and you'd be happy with that then it'll be not too expensive for a couple of groundies to crack at it.
If you need someone to climb them to crown or even if they'll need climbed to be felled then it'll be a bigger job really and more expensive. So really depends on situation.

 

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@{SAS}TB nice tidy job.
Did you just want them out to protect the lines coming through your garden?

 

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@Danm54 - Nice Did you go for the Valiant?

3 hours cutting cookies from big pine yesterday. The 2.5ton we got from estate cut is more like 5 ton.

Then 4 silver birch down today, couple of willows and taking my time on a beautiful little oak that will be pride of place in a new garden.

550XP I seem to have nothing but bad luck with that saw. I fitted new clutch drum and sprocket and within 20mins of first cuts the other week I hit some ninja embedded blue rope. Nightmare clearing out a brand new sprocket.
Then yesterday I cut through some of that piled pine and there was grit all over one end I didn't notice.... wondered why the thing was bogging down and running like **** so had to re-sharpen a freshly sharpened chain.
Thankfully today it was running a dream. Another 2 tanks through the thing and it finally feels like a decent saw to run.

 

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Some beautiful burners here, and some beautiful houses too!

I was looking to get some advice - we're currently in the process of having a new house built, and my wife really wants to install a burner. We have a decent sized forest area as part of the land, and the neighboring landowners would be happy to let me cut down trees on their land whenever I want. I already have a chainsaw too.

However, I'm just not sure if it's worth the hassle - I guess the logs have to be dry stored for quite a while before they're usable, and I assume the burner has to be cleaned and given maintenance fairly regularly? I'm also not sure about how much heat it would actually produce - we'd be using it to heat the bottom half of the house which is around 110m2 and if it can't do that then there wouldn't be much point in having it. We also only have around 2 months of cold weather per year, so most of the time it would be sitting unused.

What would people do in my situation? They're not very common in my location so I can't get much advice locally.

Depends on what type of tree's as to how long it will take to dry out and be useable in a stove.

Wood burning stove is very little maintenance. Sweep out and clean the glass is about as much as I do with any sort of regularity. Get the chimney swept once per year which is less than an hours job for a pro with the kit and costs £60 here in the UK. Once a year if burning decent wood is actually major overkill but it keeps up compliance for house insurance purposes.

Will depend on layout of your ground floor. Is it open plan quite a lot from where you would have the stove?
My house is not as large as yours ground floor wise and is not open plan.... still got 20 degree's average temps in the furthest away parts of rear of house and that's during Scottish winter temps and using no central heating at all, only the stove burning 24/7 in the front of the house.

 

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£3k including stove isn't steep.
But as said depends on the stove, and materials being used for liner, hearth etc.

 

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I would love to have an opening behind my stove like that above so the heat fires right through the kitchen as well. Would be perfect! Nice setup.

Missed a 560XP on eBay over the weekend for £260. Actually gutted. I got the notification it was nearing end of auction and was filling my log baskets at the time. Auction finished mins before I looked at my phone and cannot believe it went so cheap.

 

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In spoiler tags is progress pictures on the site I have been working on for a bit this winter.
And what I have gathered for next winters burning.

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This is the ridiculous roots from 50/60ft Scots Pines that were felled long ago. Bugger all we can do with these other than stack them on other land and let them dry somewhat to then break down or burn with all the gorse I've ripped out.


Progress on the land. The only thing remaining is that beautiful little oak. It will now be able to grow properly and become quite the feature in the garden in the long run. Can't wait to see what it becomes during my time on this earth with my boys playing in the garden for years to come under their oak.


The lad thought it was good to tip 20 ton of chippings on my chopped and stacked pile. But this is mix of alder, ash, birch, cherry, willow and a tiny amount of oak. It'll move to sheltered storage in a couple of weeks I just have no viable storage for it right now.


Chopped limbs. Mix of rowan, birch, alder, cherry. Plus my helpy helper. Stuff on the very right is my seasoned cherry. All that's left of it!




These two are just some the stuff I am yet to get to. Birch, cherry and some rowan.

 

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@{SAS}TB how much was the X7 in B&Q?
I am keen for one.

I was stupid a year back and bought an x25 on offer thinking it be long enough as I am only 173cm/62KG - Was doing some cutting yesterday and the lad splitting for us had x27 so I had a few shots and it's way handier than the x25. x25 is a cracking axe, does the job, but x27 nicer in the hand for sure.

 

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Where are you getting that from ? We recently moved into a place beside Beauly and want to stock up in the summer

2 pines down in Kincraig come up here and do alright softwood.
Lad up near Contin - farm on your right on the A835 just before you get to Contin has a kiln and he's 65 per bag for KD pine.

The best lad used to be out Beauly way who had a kiln. I would never ever have used someone else but he gave it up a couple years back

Avoid most the lads on FB. Advertise dry wood and it's anything but!
Although might be sound just now to stock up part dried stuff if you have space to dry it in time for next winter.

 

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Yeah, utter nonsense.
Freshly felled wood for sale - great for decorating your log store/shed during the summer.
Jobs a good 'un

 

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£400 and they left you with all the hard work. Dread to think what I should be charging the in-laws for the amount of cherries I've dropped for them over the last 2 years!! At least 8x that, all done by axe and the cheeky bugger even burned some of it in his stove as well!

 

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To be fair, the tree was heavily overhanging the road and had to be taken down in a way to avoid taking out the electric cables intermingled within it and the dry stone wall it was growing up against.

Two guys, about 5 hours on a Saturday and did a great job tidying up. I chipped the brush and everything else will get burned!

Sounds like a standard PITA cherry. They look to lop over when they get any height even when they have plenty of space so always ends up being a drama with them if they are near anything structure wise. Can chuck pretty much any other tree twice the size in the same time it takes for some stupid little cherries! But they sure make up for it in dry wood, the stuff is a dream to burn

 

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The last 2 years on the trot the stove has been burning on 5th September.
Still nowhere near this year thus far. Still seeing 18/19 during the day and nothing below 10 overnight.
Pretty nuts.

I have split and unsplit wood all over the place. Heaps still to cut as well. Need to get my finger out and deal with it/move it all.

 

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I've been quoted £110 delivered for approx 1.3m^3 of seasoned logs from a local place - does anyone know if that's a reasonable price? My first time buying any firewood.

Not bad price. Soft wood I imagine?