Fire Thread! - Stoves, Wood, Axes, Chainsaws

[xdcx]

A thread to discuss burning things in your house and everything that comes with it.

Stoves.
Firewood & wood storage.
Axes.
Chainsaws.
Tree felling.
PPE.

I have a Clearview 400P which is max 5kW - https://www.clearviewstoves.com/stove-details/pioneer-400p

Currently burning pine, black poplar and cherry. Pine is great for getting the fire going and cherry is an exceptional hardwood, very long burn time and masses of heat.

A bit too much wood to store at the minute. I fell, cut, split and stack all my own wood and have another job lined up for a few more cherry to come down soon after doing 4x medium silver birch last week, which I've just finished splitting.

Spoiler

Top right is 5x cherry all done. All mega leaners pretty damn dangerous things. Approx 4m cubed.
Bottom left is my garage racking mostly polar with some pine. Approx 2.5m cubed.
Bottom right is a little store I made which is rammed with pine. Approx 2m cubed.

Chainsaw wise I'm running Husqvarna 550xp & 435mk2 as well as a Stihl MS391.


Hoping there is some more link minded people on here to have some discussions in here.
I imagine a lot of people do have stoves either way so could also be a good thread to discuss those for people who want to put one in or have problems with existing stoves etc

 

[Nathan]

I am exactly like you, all my friends think I’m crazy albeit one who is similar. I ll post later on today with my little haul.

Very neatly stacked logs! I’m a big fan of the Husky’s, love my XP.

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

We just bought a house with a wood burning stove, came with some wood too... quite a lot actually!

No idea how to use it tho, lol.

 

[gezod]

@xdcx that is some amount of firewood

I have a Hamlet Solution 5 widescreen - https://www.aradastoves.com/solution-5-widescreen/p36746
Love having it lit this time of year

I buy my wood from different companies here in NI
I use to get season hard and softwood and store it in my shed, but have done a few changes during lock down and shed has gone from 12x10 to 6x6
So get kiln dried wood in bags that stores neatly

Miss this bigger shed and seasoned wood, far better value for the money.

 

[PlacidCasual]

I gave up on hand splitting and bought myself a little Clarke splitter, works a treat. I bought a Stihl chainsaw this year (forget the model) but very happy with it. Really easy to use and feels much smoother than my crappy old Chinese knock off. We have two stoves one is an out and out wood burner and is really easy to use lights quickly gets up to temperature quickly and will balance out. The multifuel is a bugger, it uses too much wood when the grate is closed for wood because there is too much bottom air leakage. But getting it started on solid fuel is really tricky. But once lit and you fill it up on solid fuel it will sit their all a day giving a lovely moderate heat warming the dining room up nicely.

The wood burner needs watching for refilling but the solid fuel can be loaded right up and ignored for hours. Great purchases though love using them in the winter.

 

[xdcx]

@xdcx that is some amount of firewood

I have a Hamlet Solution 5 widescreen - https://www.aradastoves.com/solution-5-widescreen/p36746
Love having it lit this time of year

I buy my wood from different companies here in NI
I use to get season hard and softwood and store it in my shed, but have done a few changes during lock down and shed has gone from 12x10 to 6x6
So get kiln dried wood in bags that stores neatly

Miss this bigger shed and seasoned wood, far better value for the money.

Got a m cubed of birch not shown and 2.5tonne of pine logs still to to cut and then split sitting at my friends. They say you can never have too much but I definitely do as no where to keep it all!

What sort of money are you paying in NI for wood? I guess it comes as ton builder bags or m cubed?
Soft is about £40-50 and hard about £60-80 here at min for builder ton bags worth (Scottish Highlands).

2 years ago I had a guy doing kiln dried hardwood for £65 a cube which was ridiculous cheap for stuff all under 10% ash/bech and even some oak. He gave up though which sucks and anything kiln dried around here at moment is like £70 for a ton bag of soft.... a good bit less than a true m cubed and soft also so way less value for money than previous guys stuff.

 

[gezod]

For seasoned softwood and hardwood I was getting it delivered m3 loose (£50/£70 and £30 delivery)

Now I'm getting kiln delivered in small 8 packs (works around 0.6m3)
4 bags of birch
4 bags of oak
All in £83

Prices definitely have went up here.
Just wish I had better place to store the loose wood, i've coverage really and use my shed for other things. Although a shed for wood might not be a bad idea

 

[alexakasloth]

I usually get 'barrow bags', which are the size of a wheelie bin, of seasoned ash for £40. Or smokeless coal for £4/10kg bag.
Need to get round to building a log store so I have space for larger deliveries, looks like it would be more economical that way.

I have an open fireplace, coal seems to be best value but logs are nice to burn.

 

[Luke]

Wood prices are high at the moment.
I'm buying seasoned hardwood at £110 per M3 which is the best I can find locally from reputable sources. Loads of FB marketplace sellers offering wood in a variety of formats, but it's so hard to work out their quantities or know if it will actually be seasoned.
I've found a source of wood I can season myself but am limited to how much I can store to season above the approx 1.5 m3 I can accommodate for my ready to burn supply.

So, to address the original points:
Stoves.
Mendip Churchill 5 installed recently in my conservatory



Firewood & wood storage.
2 logstores which take about 1.5 m3. 1st was bought, the 2nd cobbled together. Both double depth and covered in clear heavy PVC but with good airflow.
https://imgur.com/a/KYUYeQ6
https://imgur.com/QfHHyIX

Axes.
Fiskars X37 maul for the big stuff, X7 hatchet for kindling. Chopping on a log segment about 20" high and 14" diameter.
https://imgur.com/a/V11lSBy
Most of what I bought has been further split using a Titan splitter from Screwfix and it has performed flawlessly.
https://imgur.com/a/JiD2PfQ

Chainsaws.
Next on the list, likely going to get a cheap Titan from Screwfix for occasional use and carrying in the car for wood I happen across.

Tree felling.
None as of yet!

PPE.
Just some fleece lined rubber gloves for grip with bog standard goggles.

 

[DXP55]

I just bought approx 2 sq mtrs of sweet chestnut - DO NOT buy that stuff - it just turns to charcoal unless you have vent wide open - Had to move my stack to get to the old wood underneath.
It is showing 15% moisture. Now get fire going well and just put a few on to get rid of them.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

I’m not showing any of my log piles after seeing how neat the OP’s are.

Stoves:
I have a very old fashioned Godin wood burner in the living room and a larger one in the kitchen which we don’t use as the chimney is currently capped, awaiting repairs.

We have gas central heating which ticks over at 19°C just to keep the chill out of this old stone house and light the living room stove in the evening. The heat produced warms the stone and permeates through the rest of the ground floor (dining room, kitchen and main bedroom) and you can still feel the difference in the morning.

If you run the stove too cold or burn a lot of wet wood, you risk a build up of creosote in the pipes and chimney which can lead to chimney fires if you then run a really hot stove.

Tip: Get your chimney/s swept annually. If you have a chimney fire here in France and you can’t show proof that you had it swept, your insurance company may not pay out.

Recommendations: Those Peltier cell stove-top fans are brilliant for moving the heat to the far corners of the room. I highly recommend one of those magnetic stove pipe thermometers to ensure you stove is burning efficiently and safely.

Firewood:

If you’re buying firewood, always check if it’s seasoned and dried or just kiln dried. Seasoned wood will always burn better. Decent firewood is around €65 a stere (cubic metre) here in SW France. Some landowners sell it in unsplit 1m lengths, but firewood suppliers sell it split in 25cm or 33cm lengths to suit the common French stoves.

I stack wood on old pallets for seasoning in a spot which gets loads of sun and plenty of wind. I have tarpaulins just covering the top of the stacks to keep the worst of the rain off them. If you cover them too much, you end up with the upper layers getting too damp.

I have a metal-framed wood stack on the balcony off of the living room which I load using a pulley to lift wood out of my little trailer which I park below. This gives me about 2 weeks worth of evening fires before I need to reload. This has a small tarpaulin on one side as the wind occasionally blows the rain in.

There’s a firewood holder set to each side of my stove so that the heat from tonight’s fire dries out the last of the damp out of the wood before I get around to burning it.

Tip: Get one of those 2 prong electronic moisture meters and don’t burn any wood with more than 15% moisture. After 24 hours indoors, wood should be under 10% moisture anyway and you’ll soon learn to judge dampness without the meter.

Tools:

Those Fiskars axes are very good. I have an X27 for splitting and an X7 for kindling. For really stubborn wood, I have a spiral steel wedge to bang in with a sledgehammer. Make sure that you have an old stump or similar to place the rounds you want to split on top of. Saves your back as well as saving you blunting the edge by hitting the ground or hitting your feet.

YT has loads of good videos showing the safe use of splitting axes and how to sharpen them.

I recently purchased one of those electro-hydraulic horizontal splitters which are great for splitting a bunch on regular sized rounds. I have a number of large breeze blocks that I sit mine on so I’m not bending down all the time. Make sure you read the instructions as they have a bleed value that you have to open to allow correct circulation of the hydraulic fluid during operation. If you don’t, the fluid gets highly aerated and you lose a lot of hydraulic pressure.

Tip: Wear eye and hearing protection and point the splitter away from anything that you don’t want damaged. I’ve split oak round and had large quarter rounds fly over 3 metres and dent a metal rubbish bin.

Operate at arm’s length from the motor end and don’t put you head above the splitter bed. I’ve had wood ping vertically upwards when a big knot let’s go.

 

[xdcx]

Wood prices are high at the moment.
I'm buying seasoned hardwood at £110 per M3 which is the best I can find locally from reputable sources. Loads of FB marketplace sellers offering wood in a variety of formats, but it's so hard to work out their quantities or know if it will actually be seasoned.

Holy moly. £110 is crazy money. What is it testing at when you get it? Less than 15%.

There is lads about here selling "seasoned" HW for £60 a ton bag. Father in law got stung, bought 2 bags and the stuff was soaking. Plenty of these FB marketplace types will happily take the utter **** even though you have their name and details and they have the balls on them to show up at your house and take your money.

Is that one of them Valiant stove fans you have on your new stove there? I have the 3 blade one for years and really rate them. Was a good xmas present for the FiL also and he loves his also.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Chainsaws:

Either go petrol or battery. The corded electric ones are gash as you’ll either trip over the cord or cut it. Do plenty of research before purchasing and make sure you pick one suitable for your intended use. If you’re just limbing and bucking small trees next to your house, a battery saw could be the very ticket. If you’re felling 50cm diameter trees out in the woods, you’ll need a meaty petrol saw.

If you go petrol, it’s better to have a smaller bar on a powerful saw than to try to run a large bar on a entry level saw. Check the weight of saw plus bar. It’s no good having a huge lumberjack saw if you can only use it for 30 minutes before you’re knackered.

I have a Stihl MS 231 CBE with a 40cm bar. Light enough for extended use limbing and bucking, but enough grunt for dropping smaller trees. Very easy starting and I like the new style retained caps for the bar oil and fuel. Not a huge fan of the tool-free chain tension system as I find the tension always changes slightly when the bar clamp is tightened.

Tips: Don’t cheap out on fuel or bar oil. I use the Stihl Motomix as I don’t want to faff about mixing up fuel or searching the local petrol stations for zero ethanol petrol. Pick the bar oil based on your climate and what use your saw will see. Using bar oil designed for sub-zero industrial logging in Canada isn’t going to suit autumn use in SE England.

Learn how and when to sharpen your chain. There’s number of 2:1 filing tools that make it a doodle for even a ham-fisted idiot like myself.

Tree Felling:

Your chainsaw manual should show all the basic techniques and safety protocols to follow. Learn these by heart.

Cut with the bar next to the saw body - not the tip of the bar.

Watch all of WorkSafeBC’s Feller Safety videos on YT.

Never cut from a ladder.

Use a telescopic pole saw to drop as much weight as possible from the tree before breaking out the chainsaw if you can’t just drop the tree safely into a clear patch of ground.

If something feels sketchy, stop, put the saw down and re-think the situation.


PPE:

For splitting wood: Steel toed boots, eye protection and cut-resistant gloves. If using an electo-hydraulic splitter, add ear defenders.

Chainsaw use: Forestry helmet with built in face shield and ear defenders. I wear safety glasses as well as I’ve had fine wood chippings get through the mesh face shield in the past. Chainsaw resistant gloves and the best chainsaw chaps/trousers you can afford.

Chainsaw Chaps/Trousers:

Again, don’t cheap out on these as they may save your leg and/or your life. 80+% of chainsaw accidents involve the chain striking the user’s leg.

Ensure that the ones you buy are rated for the type of saw that you will use. My understanding is that there is a different rating for electrically powered saws as the material used to jam and stall petrol saws is not as effective on electrical saws.

 

[sovietspybob]

We've got a Chilli Penguin stove, a 4.7KW. It's in our open plan living/kitchen/diner and it really heats the whole house up.

I don't cut my own wood but i've built a couple of log stores so we can season our own depending on where we buy it from.

The last couple of times i've used a local guy who gives me a Hilux pickup load of mixed hardwood/softwood for £100 delivered, it's all seasoned so usually around 15-20% but i always try and stay ahead of the game and keep a fair bit in stock so it can season as much as possible.

Around here kiln dried stuff seems mega expensive, like £120 a builders bag which i just can't see the value in unless you've got no where to store normal logs. Plenty of people in these parts doing builders bags for around the 50-60 mark but it is pot luck how well its seasoned.

This year we're using loads more than normal due to the wife being at home all the time and me working at home half the week so I'm waiting on another delivery next week which should see us through the winter I'm hoping.

I do have a splitting axe but it's just an el cheapo one from B&Q in a rather terrible shade of lime green but it seems to split the few logs i get which are too big for our tiny stove.

I need to get a big 3rd log store built really, maybe next year. My stacking skills aren't mega on point i'm afraid but here's what i had last year

 

[Luke]

Holy moly. £110 is crazy money. What is it testing at when you get it? Less than 15%.

The thing is it's not expensive when compared to the other offerings around. A 'bulk' bag is about £60 which is at best 0.6m3, same as a 'ton' or 'builders' bag. Load of people hawking 'tipper loads' which could mean anything. I've not bought any of them so don't know the moisture content.
The hardwood I last bought at £110 m3 was 17% on my probe, so acceptable. It also came when I asked for it and was tipped onto a sheet on my drive. I'd love a cheaper option but I'm sure a lot of the sellers are selling wood that is far from seasoned.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Nice log piles!

The trick with log stores is to keep the wood off the damp ground and keep the rain off while allowing good airflow. Otherwise it’ll get damp and start rotting. Rotten wood goes sponges and doesn’t give of anywhere near the same heat as good fire wood.

Properly seasoned split wood should be darker all over - remember to measure the moisture in the middle of the split logs, not at the ends.

 

[Danm54]

Here's ours, completed just in time for the colder weather.
We had an open fire last year in an odd sized chimney so I've taken that down and rebuilt a new opening and hearth etc, the stove is connected to a 500L thermal store that gives us hot water and heating.

The stove is a Stovax Stockton 11hb boiler stove, output is 11kw to the boiler and 7kw to the room, although I'm sure it won't do both of those at the same time.

I've just finished 2 log stores for this year, both built on pallets with old timber out the house for the sides and top, dpm on the roof and down the front with double layer netting on the sides.

We buy our firewood locally, £65 per bulk bag of seasoned hardwood delivered.
Just had 2 bags delivered and that filled the left store, the right store is nearly full of a few trees we cut down last year and some that were cut a few months ago, plus the cut up soft wood out the house.

We have bought cheaper bulk bags but it was so wet when it was delivered we couldn't burn it for a month or so and it was still too wet then really.

 

[kaiowas]

When we moved into our house a couple of years ago there was already a fireplace here, used it for the first year or so then the chinmey sweep noticed that it hadn't been backfilled properly whenever it had been installed. As it would have to come out to be rectified properly and we weren't really fans of the surround we decided to go the whole hog and get a burner put in instead, looks much nicer now. Had no idea the arch was there until we'd passed the point of no return so really happy with how it came out.

Before:

After:

 

[Terminal_Boy]

That rustic look is much better than the Laura Ashley that you ripped out.

 

[{SAS}TB]

There is a log burner thread

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/forums/threads/my-log-burner.18355364/page-7#post-33295468

My main / large log store

Intermediate store where I out stuff I've cut from the garden to season for the following year



And the small store on the front verandah which usually has smaller stuff / kindling in



The log burner

And a Fiskas axe for smashing the logs