stirk
Burner
This is a question about the best wood chopping setup and technique and how to most efficiently burn that wood to provide heating for your home.
Wood chopping setup
Axe, 1 meter handle, 2kg head, used primarily to cut larger blocks into smaller pieces which will fit in my fireplace or to be smaller logs to get the fire embers going for the big logs, and also to cut some of the softer wood into kindling.
Also have a small hatchet for making kindling. I find this more accurate when chopping very small 2cm square pieces for kindling.
The chopping block is shit, 1 foot high and also 1 foot in diameter, just a left over tree stump which I use but need to replace with something bigger. Need to find a tree lopper who can give me a big block.
Chopping Technique
I let the axe do the work, swing and with little force hit the wood, some wood splits easily, others just bounce the axe away, I try again with the bounce away type hardwood and use more force the second time but if the result is the same, I'll just give up, and save that log for a slow all night burner. (Until I get a mechanical splitter)
Other logs I know I can break but if the first attempt sees the axe stuck half way in I'll need to lift both the axe and the log stuck to the axe and smash back down again a few times to break it. This is hard work!
The small hatchet just rattles away on softwood making kindling, sometimes the first hit on the log gets stuck a few inches in and then I need to pound away by lifting hatchet and log together until I break the splinter away. This is also hard work on a 1 foot high chopping block.
I need my son to grow a little bit more so he can make the kindling!
The burn
My normal technique in the mild winter we get in sunny Springwood is to let the fire die off from bed time and then fire up again when I get home from work at 6pm.
I've found it takes a fair bit of wood to get the whole combustion fireplace roaring again.
Today I fired it up again in the morning with the still hot embers from the night before and kept the fire ticking over all day by adding a log every hour or so, this seemed to be more efficient than letting the fire go out entirely and subsequently letting the fireplace and also the whole house cool down.
Thoughts and feed back welcome.
Wood chopping setup
Axe, 1 meter handle, 2kg head, used primarily to cut larger blocks into smaller pieces which will fit in my fireplace or to be smaller logs to get the fire embers going for the big logs, and also to cut some of the softer wood into kindling.
Also have a small hatchet for making kindling. I find this more accurate when chopping very small 2cm square pieces for kindling.
The chopping block is shit, 1 foot high and also 1 foot in diameter, just a left over tree stump which I use but need to replace with something bigger. Need to find a tree lopper who can give me a big block.
Chopping Technique
I let the axe do the work, swing and with little force hit the wood, some wood splits easily, others just bounce the axe away, I try again with the bounce away type hardwood and use more force the second time but if the result is the same, I'll just give up, and save that log for a slow all night burner. (Until I get a mechanical splitter)
Other logs I know I can break but if the first attempt sees the axe stuck half way in I'll need to lift both the axe and the log stuck to the axe and smash back down again a few times to break it. This is hard work!
The small hatchet just rattles away on softwood making kindling, sometimes the first hit on the log gets stuck a few inches in and then I need to pound away by lifting hatchet and log together until I break the splinter away. This is also hard work on a 1 foot high chopping block.
I need my son to grow a little bit more so he can make the kindling!
The burn
My normal technique in the mild winter we get in sunny Springwood is to let the fire die off from bed time and then fire up again when I get home from work at 6pm.
I've found it takes a fair bit of wood to get the whole combustion fireplace roaring again.
Today I fired it up again in the morning with the still hot embers from the night before and kept the fire ticking over all day by adding a log every hour or so, this seemed to be more efficient than letting the fire go out entirely and subsequently letting the fireplace and also the whole house cool down.
Thoughts and feed back welcome.
