I use a tape measure and kids sidewalk chalk as well. I have found that the pink chalk works best for visibility on logs.
Blue works best for me. I’m colorblind and pink can be hard to see on certain types of bark. I steer completely away from red...
Stick and sidewalk chalk. Make the stick 2" shorter than your cut and mark to the end of the stick as fast as you can walk. Lumber yard cull 1x2's, 1x4's can be used if you want to be fancy. Glitter chalk will help visibility if it's close to dusk or early AM. A regular ole measuring tape will also help with layout if length is very important. Smaller ones can go in the pocket, larger ones get set down on the nearest surface and usually forgotten. Got tired of donating folding tapes, tape measures, etc., to other people cutting after us. Rolled a massive oak log onto an upside down paint can once also, that was fun. My son and daughter (6 and 8) mark for me just as we used to mark for my father. Sticks and chalk are non toxic and easy to use. Love the auto markers, spray paint, etc., but in the hands of my children would be comical and time consuming at the least. Yes, your imagination running wild is about what I'd be dealing with..... Never once cried about leaving a stick or chalk behind, or running them over with equipment. Just my 2c.
Went back to measuring my stuff this year. Pretty good at eyeballing it but after looking at buZZsaw brads stacks, I figured I better go back to using the stick!
Sticks , fat tapes, chalk, kids, magnets, Dingo Mingo, zippies, super dooper marking gimmicks.....fuggetubowtit. Mark the saw ( or use your bar ), cut, rinse, repeat as Lenny said. I don need no stinkin' devices when bucking to length. Hey, I'm breathing hard enough without another step. K.I.S.S. The saw is in the hands anyhow, why stop ?
I use the stick and marking paint or chalk whatever I have on hand. I’m not a logger and don’t pretend to be one. Most all of my wood comes in logs on a truck dumped in piles. My method: Mark a few logs on top Cut the logs I marked into rounds Move the cut rounds off the pile Mark more logs Repeat For me this breaks things up a bit so I’m not constantly bent over cutting on the pile.
When I have new guys cutting with me, a Mingo Marker is great until they get their "measuring eye" fine tuned. I've also used one of those retractable magnetic tool retrievers from the Home Depot or Menards. $3.00 and adjusts to any length.
Great answer thinking of my boys.. in woods with sticks usually ended in Star Wars light saber battles
Now if we had boys around ( we are retired DINKS or really NINKS ) then the sticks would be the way. Fun. But now bucking the felled trees, I chose KISS.
Here's a more pics of how I use my magnetic measuring stick. This was obviously before paint. First time I used some old red paint I had leftover from painting my snowblower. The red proved difficult to locate so I bought a can of hi-vis orange paint instead. In the below pic I stuck the measuring tool on the left side of the bar and you can see just how quick and easy it is to use. Every round is exactly the same (assuming I can cut straight which is a big assumption). I think I have a video of it somewhere but I can't find it.
Yeah cutting straight..... I can measure and mark all I want but the challenge for me is cutting straight. The bigger the diameter the worse it gets.
I use a Spencer tape with Imperial and Metric markings. 4 decimeters (a.k.a. 10 cm) = 16" It's much easier for me to count by 4's than by 16's.
Tape measure and side walk chalk. It is small and compact so easy to carry into the woods. Also not all the rounds always get cut into the same length. Sometimes I am cutting to 4 foot lengths for loading into my truck to get the wood home and sometimes I am cutting for splitting and stacking which is around 16 inches long. I can use the same tape measure and chalk for both.
3 x 16" = 48" = 4' You could kill 2 birds with one stone and mark your splits and still measure out 4'! But yeah I get it - I can make mine shorter if I needed to.......but I can't make it longer. But I like to spit everything 16" because it makes it easier to stack. Although......if I have a super long round then depending on the species (oak, maple, black locust, or spruce thus far) and if it's nice and straight with no knots, I'll cut it in half instead of 16" and make kindling out of it.
Everytime I think I have a perfectly straight one I look down and then wham, crooked like a witch's nose!!!
