Well sir this 22 ton is my new baby. Handles everything it was put through like a dream. Knots were like looking at a block of thick sliced cheese. For most of birch if in rounds its easy but most of that load at the end was noodled trunk, deep internal knots. I can only look back a little but and just assume what would it have looked like had I done by hand. A week as opposed to 6 hours of work.
I can see pride in them thar stacks! Good job. Have you thought about cribbing the end of your stacks? Sure doesn't matter much how hard a round of wood is to split when you have hydraulics eh? By the way.... your green surroundings makes me a little bit on the jealous side... oh yeah and so does that awesome looking splitter
Absolutely Sean!!!! I actually stood outside for awhile and looked at it all. Its not super perfect but if u can see I have a LOT of these perfect woodstove blocks out of this. I can do Woodstove Jenga. Check that chit out. I wanted to try cribbing but I really didn't like what I was getting with the birch blocks I was working with first. I actually did when I started the stacks at the way beginning but it just wasn't working with me. I got some apple that cribs really well and will likely try that on a smaller stack. Id rather the birch just be done. It was a time sensitive thing since of the moisture content and it got mold on the ends too. I don't have to tell you how much rain that stacks up to be even when the fact that I get plenty of airflow through my yard. I got a meter and it read 45.7 on a fresh split round before I got back to work. I like what I see from my birch in the other stack for this coming winter. 17.7 was what I was getting from a split there. Enough green for me. It'll be nice when it actually starts to dry out and I can make things happen around here. Do a few builds. Get comfortable. Get my racks done and not have the stuff on a waiting list. The splitter takes care of that well. All in all a good day. Got the grass cut, ground cover was like shearing a sheep after 8 years. Thick. Now some bbq and whiskey and lemonade. Enjoy your night. Will post my dinner on the bbq page
They are no more a foot long so these would be packed well in the stove and having the oily bark off without having that flare up danger on hot coals.
You've gotta be kidding me. This stuff was finished split basically A Month after I got it. Granted this is a split at the top of the stack but if I told you that we've only had two days of noticeable rain in the past ~60 days and temps have been at least 70+. Those pins are in all the way too.
For what it's worth, I can't get any wood, with exception of poplar to dry below 18% in any less than 18 months CSS. Time is what it takes brother.
No doubt. Im just surprised to see this number and I have to say that I did this three times. this was the smaller piece. My previous birch pick up is getting around 11-14% but that was months ago. Another round of summer to go for this pile!
Was some of that stuff dead already or was it green? It was split right before sticking the meter in? Birch for me takes about 2 summers. Either way thats pretty cool that its drying quickly. Now if you could get it all to dry that quick that would be cool so that you could burn it this winter.
All of this was green, in fact about a week after I split it , I started looking at a percentage. About high 30's low 40's. Seemed right anyways as a baseline. Yes split the pieces this was the lowest one. Now Im thinking if I REALLY needed it i would burn it but it seems far fetched. Emergency supply? Sure. Just would probably "make" it but not necessary...again im just surprised. I intentionally left some splits bigger to figure out how much was drying and how fast anyways. Summer has been just really hot and dry. All optimal conditions!
I could sell that here for $20 bucks for four round logs. People here stack them in their fireplaces that they don't use for decoration. Not much around here, mostly up north of me in PA. Congrats.
Ive bought some of those candle logs with a spot for tea lights. That's expensive for sure! Problem is that its really wet so likely they put logs in a drying room and get it that way before it rots. Birch isnt the natural tree around here, but it tends to grow real fast. Landscape tree, it is pretty wood. It does however remind me of aspen in some way being just a clean white grain but im sure where it is colder in the winter, the tighter grain provides better "harder" wood as firewood. Still burns plenty hot for me.
Caught me on a cooler day. It was only to go around 72 today and the clouds made it muggy past noon. But this whole week is supposed to be mid 80's. Tuesday around 90.
My mom and dad have had a white birch log in a brass wood carrier on the fireplace hearth since 1972 like this.
TD, you took a left hand turn that brought me back to 72'. We had a cardboard fire place for Christmas, late 60s to early 80s, with birch splits nailed together and sitting on an iron grate with a red light bulb tucked behind. Back to the regularly schedule program....
