# Cutting and Curing Firewood - Anyone has tips?



## IrritatedWithUS

I like cutting my wood in the Fall and Winter time for next year's use for some reason. It allows plenty of time for the moisture to escape the wood. I always stack my wood off the ground and in a cross-hatch formation so that air can circulate. 
However, I have had times where I couldn't get firewood until March or April. So to cure quickly I used the same cross-hatch formation and covered the wood in tin sheets so any form of sunlight that I had would shine on the tin sheets and act like a greenhouse. This cures it quicker most times. I have actually cured wood in 6 weeks before by using this method and having a plastic sheet over the wood as well and removing the plastic covering at night to prevent moisture collection. And during the daytime on nicer days I've put a window fan at one end to circulate the air throughout the wood pile.


Anyone else have any styles, tips, or methods to share on this subject? :wave:


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## mosquitomountainman

Cut it into firewood length and even green wood will be dry in four months or less. Long lengths take longer to dry. Wood fibers are like straws. Very little moisture escapes through the sides, most escapes out the ends. The shorter the distance to the open end the faster they drain. Tests have shown that covering doesn't do much to speed things up unless you live where there is lots of rain.


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## Tirediron

If you are curing deciduos trees cut in spring , if you just fall the tree and let if leaf out the leaves pull quite a bit of the moisture out,but the sap stays making hotter wood. (works well on poplars at least)


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## IrritatedWithUS

Has anyone ever been lazy and rented a diesel-powered firewood cutter? I did that in Alaska one Summer.


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## UncleJoe

Splitting it smaller will also hasten the drying time.


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## BasecampUSA

Good post, Irritated... up here in Maine we cut and stack in fall and winter a year ahead.

Tirediron, that method is called "wilt-wood" up here and I have recommended that to newcomer homesteaders that need to get thier woodpiles up quick for thier first year.

Yep... popple dries out real quick that way... burns hotter than hell and quick too... I like it for my maple syrup evaporator. Hmmm - that's coming up the end of next month! Whew... the 'steadin year is about to start another cycle, aint it? 

*sigh!

...now whadid I do with them seed catalogs 

- Basey


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## GroovyMike

IrritatedWithUS said:


> I like cutting my wood in the Fall and Winter time for next year's use for some reason...Anyone else have any styles, tips, or methods to share on this subject? :wave:


Cut dead wood.

Standing dead trees are already more dry than anything you stack up from live trees you cut. When I tell people this they say that they can't find dead trees. I don't understand it. I can't keep up with all the dead wood. Every storm blows limbs down. There are dead standing trees every few hundred yards in any forest.

By the time I clean up 2 or 3 blow downs, there are more within sight of the house. I collect all my wood from about 3 acres of hardwoods and burn 3-4 cords per winter. I can still see dead trees from every window.


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## JayJay

IrritatedWithUS said:


> I like cutting my wood in the Fall and Winter time for next year's use for some reason. It allows plenty of time for the moisture to escape the wood. I always stack my wood off the ground and in a cross-hatch formation so that air can circulate.
> However, I have had times where I couldn't get firewood until March or April. So to cure quickly I used the same cross-hatch formation and covered the wood in tin sheets so any form of sunlight that I had would shine on the tin sheets and act like a greenhouse. This cures it quicker most times. I have actually cured wood in 6 weeks before by using this method and having a plastic sheet over the wood as well and removing the plastic covering at night to prevent moisture collection. And during the daytime on nicer days I've put a window fan at one end to circulate the air throughout the wood pile.
> 
> Anyone else have any styles, tips, or methods to share on this subject? :wave:


If you are respectful of a person's property, many times land owners have allowed their fallen, aged logs and tree ends to be carried out after a logging operation leaves.


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## Frugal_Farmers

We heat 100 percent with wood. We have been keeping one year ahead of burn season, but will increase our supply to two years. Having that extra year of wood will give me peace of mind in the event I am unable to fall, cut and split for health or medical reasons.

This is another prepping objective on our list of things to accomplish this year.


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## goshengirl

A good source for firewood is Craigslist. My DH has taken advantage of some postings where the homeowner had a tree fall down and just wants it cut up and hauled away. We still have a lot of wood to work with on our property, but this helps us extend our resources. Of course, you have to find out what kind of tree it is first - my DH is picky about that stuff.


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## sailaway

Splitting wood is easier below freezing, it shatters apart.


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## Country Living

Frugal_Farmers said:


> We heat 100 percent with wood. We have been keeping one year ahead of burn season, but will increase our supply to two years. Having that extra year of wood will give me peace of mind in the event I am unable to fall, cut and split for health or medical reasons.
> 
> This is another prepping objective on our list of things to accomplish this year.


We do the same thing and for the same reasons. :beercheer: We store our firewood on pallets (cheap and easy to find). One thing we did different this year was to put the pallets on top of concrete blocks. This allows the air to circulate a bit more freely and keeps the bottom of the pallets from rotting.

We have four pallets to a section. T-Posts are at both ends of each section so the wood will stack higher. We did the four pallets so we could use firewood tarps to cover the section.

We store split wood according to year cut so it will have at least a year to dry. Right now I have four four-pallet sections of firewood. I use red, white, and blue (sequence is easy to remember) surveyors tape tied to one of the t-posts to identify the sections. The wood we burned last year was from the red section. We're burning the white section this year. This fall we'll use the blue section. The wood we're cutting this year gets stored in a (new) red section. This process gives us current year plus two years.

We store some split wood inside the barn along with all the kindling. A few years ago we had a very wet and very cold couple of weeks. Even though the wood we were using was stored under a metal canopy, it was still damp from all the moisture in the air. Having wood stored in the barn became part of our contingency plan.

We use a 37 ton splitter. It came in handy when the huge red oak fell. That one tree will provide most of the wood we'll use next winter.


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## Jason

I also heat 100 per cent with wood. I use one of those outdoor wood furnaces. I'm not at all picky about the wood I burn because my chimney is a 3' section of single wall stainless pipe. If it gets built up (and it does) with creosote, I just climb on top of the furnace and knock the crap off the pipe back into the firebox with the furnace poker. I actually got some live pine trees a couple years ago from a friend at work. We dropped them on a weekend morning and that afternoon, mainly just to say I did it, I burned a bunch of it. Typically, though, I use dead elm (of which we have a ton around here) or at least I let the pine dry for a while. I go through waaaay too much wood to have several years' worth on hand but I try to stay at least a month ahead of the game. I use a Stihl MS290 chainsaw and a 35 ton splitter.


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## mosquitomountainman

Green wood gives less heat when burning because so much of the heat must be used to evaporate the water stored in the wood itself. Green wood may contain up to 40 percent of it's weight in water. That means a 10 lb. section of green wood may have 4 lbs. of water in it. That's a half-gallon of water. Imagine pouring that much water on your fire and you can get an idea of what's going on when you burn green wood.

I have 6 lb., 8 lb., and 12 lb. splitters.


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## Tirediron

mosquitomountainman said:


> Green wood gives less heat when burning because so much of the heat must be used to evaporate the water stored in the wood itself. Green wood may contain up to 40 percent of it's weight in water. That means a 10 lb. section of green wood may have 4 lbs. of water in it. That's a half-gallon of water. Imagine pouring that much water on your fire and you can get an idea of what's going on when you burn green wood.
> 
> I have 6 lb., 8 lb., and 12 lb. splitters.


If you split by hand I found a time and back saver, wrap the unsplit block with a short piece of chain and a bungee cord (tarp strap) Or spring about the same strength. the chain holds the bunch together on the chopping block so you just have to turn it for the next split, then move the whole bundle to where ever you stack it. sounds silly but after you try it you will like it .


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## mosquitomountainman

Tirediron said:


> If you split by hand I found a time and back saver, wrap the unsplit block with a short piece of chain and a bungee cord (tarp strap) Or spring about the same strength. the chain holds the bunch together on the chopping block so you just have to turn it for the next split, then move the whole bundle to where ever you stack it. sounds silly but after you try it you will like it .


I'll have to give that a try. Thanks!


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## BlueShoe

Tirediron said:


> If you split by hand I found a time and back saver, wrap the unsplit block with a short piece of chain and a bungee cord (tarp strap) Or spring about the same strength. the chain holds the bunch together on the chopping block so you just have to turn it for the next split, then move the whole bundle to where ever you stack it. sounds silly but after you try it you will like it .


That's a back saver right there. Not nearly as much bending over.


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## kyfarmer

Cut now stack to dry, and cut twice as much as you think you need. Handy tip about the splitting.


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## Clarice

We sell most of our wood as only DH's shop has wood heat. Usually we sell about 15 cords a year, but winters are warmer here in SE AR. A man just gave us enough trees to make 20 cords and another gave us 3 trees that will make 2 cords. Now all we have to do is split and stack before it gets too hot. We will take the trailer and splitter with us when we cut and sometimes we can deliver to our customers before we have to take it home unload and stack and then reload and restack at customers house. It's a lot of work, but adds to the income.


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## BlueShoe

I notice if I bring a wet piece of wood in and it's standing on end, the moisture will pool out at the base. Will stacking on end dry faster? You'd have to elevate it from the ground.

I saw a road widening project going on today. Tons and tons of potential firewood were going into a chipping/grubbing machine. The only thing it wasn't trashing were the big trunks. Nothing left but the larger trunks.


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## dunappy

I buy wood permits from the forest service so ALL our wood is already dead wood. We aren't allowed to take live trees with the forest permits and that really helps us speed up the 'curing". 

We buy a permit for 4 cords and only use about 2 per winter. Often we don't split the entire 4 cords all at the same time because we don't have enough under the barn storage space for that much split wood. We will split and stack as much as will fit and the rest is stored in logs outside the barn until we have room to split more.


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## Jason

How does the forest service know how much you take? I'm not saying you should take more, I'm just wondering how they keep unethical buisnesspeople from taking more than they are permitted to and selling it all.


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## BillM

*When I was younger*

When I was much younger I heated with wood and cut and hauled it.

I have two peices of advise

Don't cut your self with the chain saw and don't hurt your back !


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## Jason

I've come close with the saw several times but so far my back is ok. I've ended up in the emergency room twice cutting wood though-once for the finger and once when I stepped on a nail in a fence row. Went WAY into the bottom of my foot.


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## mosquitomountainman

Jason said:


> How does the forest service know how much you take? I'm not saying you should take more, I'm just wondering how they keep unethical buisnesspeople from taking more than they are permitted to and selling it all.


Around here you're on the honor system. If they catch you with over your limit they'll fine you but since you're just cutting wood for your own use and only dead wood it isn't costing them anything so they really don't seem to care. It's better for the forest to get the dead stuff out.

Around here you really don't make a lot by selling firewood. By the time you add your time, transportation costs, equipment cost etc. It isn't a good commercial venture. Most of those selling it around here do it for additional income which keeps the price low enough that the commercial guys just don' want to mess with it. We've thought at times it would be cheaper to buy ours instead of cut it ourselves. That's how close the profit margin is on firewood here.


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## Jason

Wow, MMM. Thanks for the info. Around here it goes for over $100 a cord, sometimes you see it for a lot more than that. My furnace goes through way too much for me to buy it and we have tons of it here but I've never even thought of selling it.


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## MrSfstk8d

goes for around 75 to 90 here. thinking of doing some on the side myself.


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## UncleJoe

WOW. You guys have it cheap. Around here a cord starts at $150 and I saw one ad trying to get $225 In general though, it ranges from $150-$190.


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## lotsoflead

people here are getting between 200. and 250. from the city people,300 if they have to stack it and the locals are really taking advantage too, some of the wood is so green it may as well have the leaves on it.


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## IrritatedWithUS

Do you ever see convenience stores and gas stations selling the "one fire" logs? They're a small bundle of 4-5 tiny logs for $4.99 + tax.


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## homealone777

Well' Where I live, I'm alway's having to be ready for winter. All of what you said you did will work except for the plastic; It seems to draw moisture under it no matter what, kinda like a green house effect. I'm 48 and we've used an old warm morning stove about all my life until recently. After switching to electric and seeing the bill; I'm going back to the wood! I've never seen a bill like that before!


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## The_Blob

IrritatedWithUS said:


> Do you ever see convenience stores and gas stations selling the "one fire" logs? They're a small bundle of 4-5 tiny logs for $4.99 + tax.


seen em' for sale... never seen anyone actually buy any tho... :lolsmash:


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## The_Blob

homealone777 said:


> After switching to electric and seeing the bill; I'm going back to the wood! I've never seen a bill like that before!


"energy prices will necessarily 'skyrocket'..."  :gaah:


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## WEFW

Jason said:


> How does the forest service know how much you take? I'm not saying you should take more, I'm just wondering how they keep unethical buisnesspeople from taking more than they are permitted to and selling it all.


As someone else said, they don't know and really don't care. One year when I was getting my permit the ranger even told me that no one's gonna check up on me. In the 5 years I've had permits, I've been "carded" exactly once.

The likelihood of firewood dealers taking more than permitted is pretty slim. Keep in mind that you're only allowed to take wood that's dead & on the ground. I'll find sites that were recently logged, but still most of the treetops & branches are quite a ways in the woods so it's a lot of work hauling it out. You're not allowed to use any sort of motor vehicle (though I suppose if you wanted to bring a draft animal it would be Ok). That alone kind of weeds out the riff-raff.


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