The joys of wood chopping (Lumberjack bros GTFIH at once)

Al Gorithm said:
I've got a wood burning fireplace that I feed from a little wood lot my pops has out in the country. Probably process about 2 cords of wood a year. A lot of it is hickory wood , which has tons of heat value , but a real pain in the ass to split. Red or white oak splits like a dream compared to hickory.
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How many hours do you need to produce one cord ?

What do you use for felling and cutting ?

I am curious.
 
BearGrounds said:
I use a splitter. Used to split by hand all the time, so much so that I can split both lefty and righty. But those days are over. I can't be bothered to stand up round after round in order to take whacks at them.

But I will do it for fun from time to time, especially if I have a bunch of clean cut Ash which comes apart nicely.

When I do, this is the axe I use, it works well (28"):

B0002YTO7E.jpg
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Isn't it normal to be ambidextrous when using an axe? Otherwise wouldn't people get tired just using one side ?

I see your Fiskars and I am convinced that it is a pretty good axe- I myself am more a Gransförs kind of dude :).

When I retire mine (I have a cheap no-name one and I don't expect it to last very long) I'll be getting a Gränsfors :)
 
I enjoy it as well. It's a great work out, plus you're being productive at the same time. I used to help my uncle out all the time with chopping wood and I could feel my testosterone increase with each swing.
 
KBE6EKCTAH_CCP said:
Isn't it normal to be ambidextrous when using an axe? Otherwise wouldn't people get tired just using one side ?

I see your Fiskars and I am convinced that it is a pretty good axe- I myself am more a Gransförs kind of dude :).

When I retire mine (I have a cheap no-name one and I don't expect it to last very long) I'll be getting a Gränsfors :)
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Most people I've known to split, don't bother switching sides. They're not in it for a workout, just to get the job done, and aren't interested in taking the time to develop their off hand swings. And if they're splitting upwards of a cord, they're using a splitter.

Gransförs look sweet. Have never owned one, but the image search I did leads me to believe that they make a fine axe.
 
KBE6EKCTAH_CCP said:
How many hours do you need to produce one cord ?

What do you use for felling and cutting ?

I am curious.
Click to expand...


My Dad has 20 acres that he keeps a few horses on. About half is open with mature trees here and there in the pasture. Most of the wood i use is stuff that either blows over in storms , which is a tree or 2 a year , and the balance is stuff we take from the wooded portion.

I've got a stihl 390 with a 20 in bar and he's got stihl farm boss with an 18 in bar , as well as a smaller limbing saw. Felling and cutting into rounds in the easy part. Transporting the wood to my place , unloading , splitting and stacking is what takes time.

To split I use an 8 lb splitting maul. Im guessing it probably takes 2 hours to split and stack a cord if you are working steadily . Sometimes a buddy will come over and we will attack it and make a work out of it.
 
Al Gorithm said:
My Dad has 20 acres that he keeps a few horses on. About half is open with mature trees here and there in the pasture. Most of the wood i use is stuff that either blows over in storms , which is a tree or 2 a year , and the balance is stuff we take from the wooded portion.

I've got a stihl 390 with a 20 in bar and he's got stihl farm boss with an 18 in bar , as well as a smaller limbing saw. Felling and cutting into rounds in the easy part. Transporting the wood to my place , unloading , splitting and stacking is what takes time.

To split I use an 8 lb splitting maul. Im guessing it probably takes 2 hours to split and stack a cord if you are working steadily . Sometimes a buddy will come over and we will attack it and make a work out of it.
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Ok, so chainsaw to fell and cut in logs. Then splitting maul to split in firewood. Gotcha.

Damn son, 2 hours for a cord, that's fast.

I only had an axe. So I had to use that for cutting into logs as well. lol. Splitting is always relatively fast, but you can imagine the time it took to produce 1 cord.
 
BearGrounds said:
Most people I've known to split, don't bother switching sides. They're not in it for a workout, just to get the job done, and aren't interested in taking the time to develop their off hand swings. And if they're splitting upwards of a cord, they're using a splitter.

Gransförs look sweet. Have never owned one, but the image search I did leads me to believe that they make a fine axe.
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Yeah but I figure that being ambidextrous will make you much more efficient in the long run, work out or not. But I get you. People who do these things seriously tend to not give a shit about these hipster concepts :)

And yes, the Gransförs are absolutely gorgeous. Have had a few in my hands but never used ones, although the reviews are extremely positive.
 
KBE6EKCTAH_CCP said:
Ok, so chainsaw to fell and cut in logs. Then splitting maul to split in firewood. Gotcha.

Damn son, 2 hours for a cord, that's fast.

I only had an axe. So I had to use that for cutting into logs as well. lol. Splitting is always relatively fast, but you can imagine the time it took to produce 1 cord.
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Yeah , chainsaw is definitely a huge labor saver , so is having some help while you're splitting. Having to bend over and stand up your log 4 times and bend over to move the split stuff is slow. No way could is be able to split a cord by myself in 2 hours. Ill wack away for 30 minutes here and there like that.
 
Al Gorithm said:
Yeah , chainsaw is definitely a huge labor saver , so is having some help while you're splitting. Having to bend over and stand up your log 4 times and bend over to move the split stuff is slow. No way could is be able to split a cord by myself in 2 hours. Ill wack away for 30 minutes here and there like that.
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there are some vids out there of dudes who put the log vertically in a tire and it holds it in place.

But you need to be chopping the perfect diameter tree, though. Must make sense for people who exploit a big forest and are able to pick exactly the right diameter that they want to fell, cut and split.
 
KBE6EKCTAH_CCP said:
Isn't it normal to be ambidextrous when using an axe? Otherwise wouldn't people get tired just using one side ?

I see your Fiskars and I am convinced that it is a pretty good axe- I myself am more a Gransförs kind of dude :).

When I retire mine (I have a cheap no-name one and I don't expect it to last very long) I'll be getting a Gränsfors :)
Click to expand...
Fucking hell they got some sexy axes in that Gransfors line
 
Turtlejuice said:
I imagine it's no better than hitting a tyre with a sledge hammer, which a lot do anyway.
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I prefer hitting the wood. Because I think you actually try to hit it harder cause you're trying to split it. With the tire, the maul just sorta bounces back and I don't think I tend to drive it home.
 
Turtlejuice said:
I imagine it's no better than hitting a tyre with a sledge hammer, which a lot do anyway.
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Is the motion is very similar, yet it is very different. The way the sledghammer bounces back on the tire means that the end of the movement is not quite the same.

And you don't get the satisfaction of having actual work done.
 
ripskater said:
I prefer hitting the wood. Because I think you actually try to hit it harder cause you're trying to split it. With the tire, the maul just sorta bounces back and I don't think I tend to drive it home.
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KBE6EKCTAH_CCP said:
Is the motion is very similar, yet it is very different. The way the sledghammer bounces back on the tire means that the end of the movement is not quite the same.

And you don't get the satisfaction of having actual work done.
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True, but if it's puerly for the work out, there's a lot less prep and clean up I'd imagine. Plus I'm from the UK, if I were chopping wood with an axe I'd probably get tazered.
 
Turtlejuice said:
True, but if it's puerly for the work out, there's a lot less prep and clean up I'd imagine. Plus I'm from the UK, if I were chopping wood with an axe I'd probably get tazered.
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Yeah that's absolutely right.

I live in Germany and if I posted the headaches associated with using an axe to chop wood people wouldn't believe me.
 
KBE6EKCTAH_CCP said:
Yeah that's absolutely right.

I live in Germany and if I posted the headaches associated with using an axe to chop wood people wouldn't believe me.
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Funny thing, I used to work for GAME years ago, we had security radios that all the shops had and connected to the police. One day we had a call through from a shop called wilkinsons and it went

"Uh, there's a guy here acting weird...

uh....

he's got an axe"

About 10 minutes later armed police turned up.
 
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