Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
"williams" writes:
|
| A cord, in Michigan, is 4'x4'x8', cut and stacked. However, since stoves
| and grates are always smaller than 4' wide, wood is usually cut to lengths
| of 16" to 18" or so. We call these "face cords", and they measure
| 4'x8'x16"-18". Here, the term "cord" refers to the "face cord". My Hardy
| Outdoor Wood Furnace takes a log 16" in diameter, 31" long, much to large
| and heavy to load into the furnace safely.

Interesting.

| ... I don't even cover my very large wood pile. The sun
| and wind dry it even through rains and snows.

Fine for you - not much good here :-( Our problem isn't that we get
a lot of rain (though some parts do), but that the evaporation is
minimal (about 11" a year in the south, almost all in summer).


Thats simply not so. I assume you are in Cambridge..well I am only 20
miles away, and all wood will dry outside down from whatever green is,
to around about 17%-20%, in a year or two.

We don't even cover it until its cut and split for burning.


| Willow is junk. Don't burn any conifer, anything that stays green all
| winter, as they are full of pitch and you'll have a chimney fire.

I agree about willow and conifers! Holly is evergreen, and burns well,
however. So is and does holme oak (but it is the very devil to split,
wet or dry).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Sacha says...
I wonder if you'd be kind enough to email me about this? (remove weeds from
address) I'd be very glad to hear from someone with similar symptoms,
though yours sound worse than mine are at present.

I've sent you an email.
--
David in Normandy

Graham Harrison wrote:
"Graham Harrison" wrote in
message ...
Having had some trees pruned I now have a pile of logs. Cut to length
but will need splitting before I can burn them in the grate. I have
Holly and Willow wood.

Question is do I split them now or wait until they've cured and then split
them? I'm expecting to have to leave them about 2 years to cure unsplit,
would it speed the process if I split them now?

On a related note, I've looked at local and national hire shop web sites
but can't immediately locate a log splitter. I don't expect to have any
more tree logs coming my way for a good few years so hiring seems to make
more sense then spending something like �200 for a splitter (I know you
can do it by hand and I also know that there are splitters for as little
as �150). I'm in "South Somerset" (between
Yeovil/Frome/Wells/Street/Glastonbury/Radstock and, at a push, Bristol,
Bath, Dorchester, Weymouth.).


The tree surgeon who did the work for us did warn us that the Willow would
take a long time to cure and not burn wonderfully. We don't use the fire
as a primary source so I use wood slowly and can wait for it to cure.

As for splitting, I have tried a maul in the past and not been very
successful. To be frank, I'm worried how much damage I could do (to me,
and surrounding buldings, cars, walls etc. etc) if I were to try with an
axe. Hence the thought about a machine.


Use a hatchet and a club hammer. I did severe damage to myself with a
maul when I hit the washing line someone had thoughtfully strung over
teh wood pile. (in laws house). It bounced back in my face. Fortynately
on te THICKER part of te skull, missing my eye.

Juts one more set of stitches in my ravaged countenance..no big deal.

Using a small hatchet, and then tapping in with the club hammer, is low
key work. In a short while you know juts how hard to hit it.




The comment about the farmer has bought and idea to mind. One of my
neighbours might be able to help.

Unfortunately it is all cut to a maximum of about a foot. That doesn't
preclude turning it but does restrict what can be done (I have a beautiful
walking stick that was turned by a friend of my father many years ago which
rather directs my thinking).

Makes it dead easy to split though.

Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher writes:
|
| Don't bother with the willow - it's trash. It won't keep going until
| completely dry, and then it burns to nothing in next to no time.
|
| It will if its hot enough and ewortks well enough in a stove.
| Its useable. Not brill, but useable.

The OP referred to a grate, not a stove. It's ghastly in a grate.

| How many tons of wood you you have? You can split wood with a couple
| of hand axes, but buying a couple of wedges and a maul or club hammer
| will probably cost you less than hiring a functional mechanical device.
| Anything that works is likely to be large and heavy.
|
| Yes. You can split a ton in an afternoon , but thats a lot of work.

And how much wood do YOU burn? :-) I would guess that few people would
need to spend more than an hour every couple of weeks, even assuming
they use wood for all heating.


In winter, a couple of hours a week. I fill the back of an old off the
road landrover with it. It makes a useful covered motorised wood shed.
Probably around 1/2 ton if the wood is dense, less if its not.

Except that this winter hasn't really BEEN a winter..

As to what you need for heating a whole house..well as a kid it was
coal. A ton of coal did NOT last a winter, although we nearly always
made it last a winter, and I still have the memories of near hypothermia
and ICE *inside* the bedrooms, and perpetually feeling cold ..

I guess it came to around a hundredweight every couple of days with
about half the house kept at least above freezing.


A ton of coal or wood is probably not far off 1000 liters of heating oil
in terms of heat output. I can easily get through that in 6 weeks here
if the weather is ultra cold. And its a much better insulated house than
that 50's cavity brick one was.

Huge says...
On 2008-01-27, David in Normandy wrote:
Nick Maclaren says...

In article ,
David in Normandy writes:
|
| I've got a heavy axe to split over-wide logs. Some split
| easily as you say, but it is still hard work. I wouldn't
| want to do more than a few at a time. Not good for
| arthritic joints :-(
| Definitely a job for muscular young men.

Hmm. I am past 60, and DEFINITELY not muscular in the arms!
But I don't have arthritis (only tennis elbow).


I'm only in my 40's but have little bits of bone growing in
various places where they shouldn't. Some unfortunately
into major nerves in my neck and also into my spinal cord.

Ankylosing spondylitis?



I don't recall ever being given a specific name such as
that, but the doctors spoke of the formation of bone spurs
impinging my nerves and the degeneration of disks in my
neck.

To quote my medical report:

At C4/5 level there is uncal osteophyte formation with some
narrowing of the left exit foramen and probably impingement
of the exiting nerve root.
At C5/6 level there is left postero-lateral osteophyte
formation, this would appear to be associated with a
chronic protrusion. There is canal stenosis with cord
compression and compression of the exiting left nerve root.

(In none-medical jargon - It seriously bloody hurt!)
--
David in Normandy

On 28/1/08 09:51, in article ,
"David in Normandy" wrote:

Sacha says...
I wonder if you'd be kind enough to email me about this? (remove weeds from
address) I'd be very glad to hear from someone with similar symptoms,
though yours sound worse than mine are at present.

I've sent you an email.

Got it, thank you. Hope my reply makes it back!

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

On 28 Jan 2008 08:56:55 GMT
Huge wrote:

On 2008-01-27, Nick Maclaren wrote:

Oak is one of the harder ones to split.

I've just split several tonnes of oak, without any great issue. Any logs less
than about a foot in diameter split down the middle, any larger you can nibble
round the outside, splitting off "flakes" until it's small enough to split in
two. I did it with a hand axe.


I agree, I find oak one of the easier woods to split because it has a straight grain.
If it is well seasoned the knots break easily. Now ash, is a real pain, especially
if a bit green or knotty.

I split around 10 cords per winter, but with a maul not an axe. This is heavy to
swing (and so hard to aim) but splits much better. You don't have to be particularly
strong, my wife uses it too.

For really big logs you need a wedge and sledge hammer. I've succeeded with
this even on very large lime trees, which are the very devil to split because the
grain is all over the place, and as the woods a bit soft the maul just sinks in.

David obviously you'd better stay away from splitting. And, I do think you'll find
if the chain is well sharpened, it won't smoke going through that beam. (This said
I can cut about two beams before the smoke starts...)

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to ecom
by removing the well known companies
Questions about wine? Visit http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

Huge wrote:
On 2008-01-28, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

A ton of coal or wood is probably not far off 1000 liters of heating oil
in terms of heat output. I can easily get through that in 6 weeks here
if the weather is ultra cold.

Jesus, do you live in Siberia and have a prediliction for sauna-like
temperatures? 1000 litres of oil lasts us nearly a year.

BIG house.

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher writes:
| Huge wrote:
| On 2008-01-28, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
|
| A ton of coal or wood is probably not far off 1000 liters of heating oil
| in terms of heat output. I can easily get through that in 6 weeks here
| if the weather is ultra cold.
|
| Jesus, do you live in Siberia and have a prediliction for sauna-like
| temperatures? 1000 litres of oil lasts us nearly a year.
|
| BIG house.

Audley End?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 2008-01-28 11:33:51 +0000, Huge said:

Jesus, do you live in Siberia and have a prediliction for sauna-like
temperatures? 1000 litres of oil lasts us nearly a year.

I came from Nazareth. It was quite warm there.

Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher writes:
| Huge wrote:
| On 2008-01-28, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
|
| A ton of coal or wood is probably not far off 1000 liters of heating oil
| in terms of heat output. I can easily get through that in 6 weeks here
| if the weather is ultra cold.
|
| Jesus, do you live in Siberia and have a prediliction for sauna-like
| temperatures? 1000 litres of oil lasts us nearly a year.
|
| BIG house.

Audley End?


Not that big. We have one like that nearby, and it takes about 10 grand
a year to keep it dry, let alone warm.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Huge wrote:
On 2008-01-28, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Huge wrote:
On 2008-01-28, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

A ton of coal or wood is probably not far off 1000 liters of heating oil
in terms of heat output. I can easily get through that in 6 weeks here
if the weather is ultra cold.
Jesus, do you live in Siberia and have a prediliction for sauna-like
temperatures? 1000 litres of oil lasts us nearly a year.

BIG house.

Ditto. 5 bed detached in exposed site.

yeah..we are I guess about 6 bed here, or if divvied up into 'modern'
sized rooms, a small hostel!

On top of the hill and with nothing for miles.

On Jan 28, 11:33*am, Huge wrote:
On 2008-01-28, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

A ton of coal or wood is probably not far off 1000 liters of heating oil
in terms of heat output. I can easily get through that in 6 weeks here
if the weather is ultra cold.

Jesus, do you live in Siberia and have a prediliction for sauna-like
temperatures? 1000 litres of oil lasts us nearly a year.



With open fires, unless you've got rads from the fire, they can
actually make other rooms colder if there are draughts through the
windows. So, a lot depends on the house that they're in, the
fireplace and chimney, and how the air supply is provided as to how
much fuel is needed. In very old buildings with a fire only
downstairs you make the downstairs room warmer and everywhere else
colder!

In article fb5b0f45-9bde-4376-8298-
,
says...
On 27 Jan, 17:26, "Graham Harrison"
wrote:
Having had some trees pruned I now have a pile of logs. Cut to length but
will need splitting before I can burn them in the grate. I have Holly and
Willow wood.

Question is do I split them now or wait until they've cured and then split
them? I'm expecting to have to leave them about 2 years to cure unsplit,
would it speed the process if I split them now?

On a related note, I've looked at local and national hire shop web sites but
can't immediately locate a log splitter. I don't expect to have any more
tree logs coming my way for a good few years so hiring seems to make more
sense then spending something like £200 for a splitter (I know you can do it
by hand and I also know that there are splitters for as little as £150).
I'm in "South Somerset" (between
Yeovil/Frome/Wells/Street/Glastonbury/Radstock and, at a push, Bristol,
Bath, Dorchester, Weymouth.).

As others have said, just find somewhere to get rid of the willow - it
is just about the worst wood for a fire there is. Holly I don't know
about but I can't imagine you've got that much as holly trees are that
much smaller than willows, etc.

I'm going now to play the age game in that I used axe and splitters
until I retired and at that point I bought a hydraulic machine. So if
you are well off retiral age, then go and be a man and do it by
hand !! Having said that the productivity, and lack of exhaustion
(!), using a machine does seriously make it the desirable option.

Rob

I still do ours by hand, I use a grenade rather than a splitting axe as
it is done in the barn which has a lowish ceiling, great thing about
doing it by hand is you often don't need to light the fire as it warms
you up nicely!!
Holly is great for burning, Willow is rubbish
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

On 28 Jan 2008 11:33:51 GMT, Huge wrote:

Jesus, do you live in Siberia and have a prediliction for sauna-like
temperatures? 1000 litres of oil lasts us nearly a year.

I think he lives, like us, in an old solid stone house. Admitedly we are
exposed and at 1,400'. We used to get through about 4,000l year. It's
lower now maybe 3,500 or even a bit less since the really drafty windows
were replace with double glazing. Daytime temp is 18.5C on the stat going
up to 20 for the evening, heating is off over night.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail