Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

Burn quite a bit here in North GA as well

 

Gonna be a bit of a scrounge year for firewood for me this season

 

Come on down OZ we are cutting swap maple fire wood and boards. Skidder is all fueled up ready to go. There is a lot of stuff I have to cut or it's going to end up in the river.

 

Good stuff I have a Wallenstine 3 point hitch chipper. Around here the big box store sells Huskies and unless you get a dealer saw they aren't much That's why I stick with the Stihl's in the states only the dealers can sell them. That's a pretty rugged looking trailer you got there

 

Our whole area of the BC coast is at Extreme for forest fire risk , can't run a saw in the bush at all right now

I am putting together all my odds and ends and that should get me through the winter

This morning the whole area is smoked out and there is ash falling like a light snowfall from 2 big bush fires not too far away

 

Thank you, going to look into this over the summer. Only have 14-1500 sq. ft to heat.

 

Thanks guys ...bar looks good but the chain was from the previous owner...I did sharpen it with an electric sharpener but that didn't seem to help. I just relized today that it is fully adjusted out, so once it stretches again it's done anyway. Thanks for the help...new chain being purchased tomorrow

 

Love my Pacific Energy Alderlea T5

 

Oh that's right you guys are pretty dry out there. Every so often they set fire to the woods in QC and we get the smoke often as far south as the White Mountains. Hope you'll be all right where you are that's some scary stuff the town I live in here in Maine burned to the ground in 1947.

 

That's remarkable. Even when we've had some really dry summers so that you couldn't have a campfire in your own back yard there's never been any problem with running a saw in the woods.
Is the issue with felling the trees, or with the hot mufflers lighting off a fire? Sounds like you need to invest in a good double-bit axe to do your felling, Oz!

 

I've always been awful at doing it by hand.

I have a Stihl 026 that I just use for miscellaneous stuff so I can go a long time before it gets dull. When it does, I replace the chain. I must get the angle wrong or something because I just make it worse if I try to sharpen it.

I have an uncle who thinks guides are pointless because he can do it with just a file and make it good as new. But, he also cuts and uses 4-5 cord a year and has been since the 70s so he has plenty of experience. He showed me once but I've never gotten it right after that.

 

Heh, I spent 3-4 years sharpening my dad's saws before he'd even let me pick one up and run it, so I got pretty good at sharpening them by hand before I started cutting. It does take some practice to get both sides sharpened the same, but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy.

 

Yup, soft maple. It's great for cutting chill in the morning, and early and late season burning. It doesn't leave a lot of ash in the box, as it goes right up the flue. Got it free from my wife's work place (seniors home). They had to cut down a very large maple. What you see is limb wood. All I had to do was buck up the downed limbs and throw them in the trailer. The trunk was way too large for my wife and I to mess with. I burn mostly ash, apple, oak, and elm in the winter. I'll have some cherry this winter as well, since a major windstorm split my beautiful cherry tree in half.

Wallenstein's are expensive when compared to big box China crap, but they last. I believe they are built by the Mennonites in Southwestern Ontario. The trailer is built by Quality Steel Fabrication in the states, and is also a Mennonite product. Best bang for your buck, as it is better built than local fab shop products, completely powdercoated, and has more features for less money. My Husky's are dealer saws, not big box. There is a new local Stihl dealer, but it is Home Hardware. They sell, but send out for service. Like you, I can't have that.

I can sharpen pretty good by hand, but at a cost of $5 a blade to sharpen, it's not worth it to me. I do field touch ups now and then, but I have about 10 chains for each saw (16", 18", 20"), so I just change them out when I need to.

 

I'm cheap; I'll sharpen a chain down to the guide lines before I'll replace it. Plus, I like the ability to do a quick touch up out in the woods if I ding a rock or find some old barbed wire grown into the wood. Carrying a file is a lot easier than carrying spare chains, and I can resharpen a dull chain in about the same amount of time that it would take to swap on a fresh one.
To each their own; I have a cousin who swaps chains rather than sharpening them, and then he'll run them through his electric sharpener when he gets home. It's just not for me.

 

Getting some wood in

 

The electric sharpeners seem to eat up chains. By that I mean it seems that a lot of material is removed when sharpening, shortening the life of the chain. Hand sharpening takes some time to master indeed. I hit my chain each time I re fuel and file the rakers maybe once a year. Key to successful hand sharpening is a good file. I buy Pferd by the box and toss them at the first hint of dullness. Every time I'm helping a buddy, their saw chain needs help. I find that their files are usualy junk and likely the reason they aren't having any luck sharpening their chain. A few of them think my saws are supernaturally powered due to the way they cut wood compared to their own...no voodoo, just a sharp chain.

 

It's not the wood it's a lot softer than a chain it's dirt, it's getting the blade in the dirt when you cut through even dirt from a dirty log or striking even the smallest rock. There are a zillion gadgets on the market most are complex and really do'nt work that well. Follow the line on the chain with your file and you'll do ok it does take a lot of practice.

 

Been burning wood all my life. Wood heat while I was growing up, and had a Fisher Grandma Bear in this house when I built it. Swapped it out for a Lopi a few years back. Do a mix of wood and Propane heat now as I'm not much up for going out in the woods to get wood anymore (age and a bad back) so I pretty much use what comes off the property and around the neighborhood. Big saws are all gone so now I've only got 14-24" mix of Homelite, Echo, and Husky. No more hand splitting, do the power splitter thing for the past 8 or so years. Normally have 6-8 cords put up (now down to about 5) but only burn 2-3 a year. Seems when it is getting in short supply another tree shows up for the taking. Mainly Oak and Maple for the hard wood and cedar for the soft stuff. This was from an Alder that the power company took out in my front yard.

 

Aren't you supposed put the tarp on the top? Oh never mind, I see you're an old guy just like me!

 

I use the Oregon branded files, also buying them by the box. A box will last me a couple of years pretty easily. I typically just use a basic flat bastard for the depth guide, since I keep a bunch of those around for sharpening the sickle, hatchets, axes, mower blades, etc.

Free wood is the best wood.

Woodcutter's dyslexia, haha!