A while ago, I thought I would email a few local tree surgeons to see if they had any unprocessed wood that they could sell to me. I only had one who could help of the 4 or 5 I got in touch with - a local company run by husband and wife. What a lovely couple they are, they dropped this load of field maple of today in exchange for a bottle of wine and a small amount of cash. There's more to come too so hopefully this will the start of a mutually beneficial relationship. Hope you're all keeping well
What a nice arrangement, I've heard that wood is harder to come by in the UK than here. Looks like solid stuff. Life here is depressing and uncertain, I'm sure you know the drill.
Yes it is quite hard unless you own land. I have had some luck with free wood on Gumtree but I have found it all tends to be in bigger towns and cities and seldom worth the fuel and time for me; especially as I don't own a trailer. Field maple is the only native maple here, I'm finding it similar to sycamore but slightly heavier and harder. It's very wet - to the point that the tip of my maul has been dripping wet but I understand that it dries pretty quickly. All to familiar with the drill over here too I'm afraid but I'm sure things will get better soon. Cheers guys, to be quite honest it's my first time dealing with rounds of this size and it is proving quite a challenge to split by hand. It'll all be worth it in the end though and I'm always learning. I'd love to say yes but it was from a great wine shop we have here, haven't been able to pop in for a while but that's probably a good thing as I always spend too much there
If some of them are too much to split, maybe buZZSawBRAD can introduce you to the concept of noodling....one of his favorite things to do
