I have already downloaded and printed your primer. Greatly appreciate the hard work you put in on it! I also know dry enough wood will be an issue this winter. I do have a moisture meter and will use that. I have a couple of stacks of dead hedge, dead cedar, and some other wood that I put up in the winter. I also still have quite a bit of standing dead cedar trees. They died in an ice storm in 2007 and what I cut up in the winter was already at like 7% moisture when I cut it. I don't want to use a whole stove of cedar at once, but if push comes to shove I will at least have something to burn. We also won't try to heat the whole house with the stove this year - we are going to experiment and see what it does, what we want it to do, what is available, and go from there!
Your door gasket would be the most likely suspect for an air leak but cracks in the stove will let more air in. These things will make it difficult to control your burn as it will suck in too much air & make your burns uncontrollable. If you have to much draft going from too tall of flue pipe that will make it draw too much & make hotter/uncontrollable temps. If you had a reputable installer put your setup in & it’s new then you are probably good to go but you will learn as you go. As far as Osage goes you will just want to do some burns while you are there to monitor things so you will be comfortable with it, that basically goes for all types of wood for new burners. All woods burn differently. A lot of smaller pieces will be harder to control than larger pieces. Others will chime in also to give sound advice or correct me if I haven’t been clear or misspoke.
Thank you, RGrant, for the words of advice. Safety is something I have been considering. I have been using chainsaws for 40+ years, but mainly to clear all those "trash trees" from the pasture for our horses. Now I am getting older, I will be 62, and can't do all the sometimes stupid stuff I did when I was younger. I still prefer my Stihl 026 that I got years ago, but my wonderful hubby did get me a Stihl MS391 for Christmas this year. That baby is huge! Not my favorite because of the size, but it does come in handy on some of the bigger trunks and stuff like that. I am hoping for a log splitter for an early Christmas present this year! LOL, how many women do you know that actually WANT a chainsaw or log splitter for Christmas? That would be me! Anyway, I have been considering what I need to be safer in the woods and that is one of the next things to research. Thanks!
A couple things you can do is the dollar bill test on the firebox door (close door on a dollar bill or something similar. If you can pull it out or if is slips, it is definitely time to change the gasket). The other is to use some insence and go all around joints and gasket areas. No draw on the smoke; no problem.
I have an old Stihl 026 that I bought new years ago. I also just got a Stihl MS391 for Christmas this year. I have purchased a Fiskars maul and put it to some use early this spring. I have borrowed a friend's splitter for stuff that is too tough for me to handle or too knotty. My splitting technique with a maul needs a lot of practice. Accuracy can be an issue......but will get better. A lot of the wood I was splitting had been dead for years, so it was tough and I was happy to get done what I did! Hauling is with our 2017 Silverado - not the best thing to use because it is still in really good shape. I am keeping an eye out for flatbed trailers or something similar I could haul with.
RideNSlide When you want to get a member's attention in a post just put @ before the name. this will alert the person that you have mentioned them. when you post your post, the member's name will show up in red like yours does in this post. Edit: Canadian border VT beat me to it.
No shame with that gear. I've been hauling with the truck around the yard too, I just haven't found the right tractor (and it's very difficult for me to shell out large bills) My splitting accuracy has gotten better, able to hit small rounds well, it's the muscle with large rounds I need help with, sometimes I'll get splits off the sides. Keep it up!
There's a lot of abbreviations and acronyms we use here. Took me a while to learn them all. And no making firewood is not fun in the hot weather.
When i bought my insert in 2001 the guy showed me a trick to test how good the seal is. Take a dollar bill, close and lock the door. If the note pulls out rather easily replace the seal. Rather easy DIY repir. My advice: make sure the fire is out when you do this. I caught a $20 bill on fire when i tried.
You guys realize im joking. Have you ever known me not to joke. It is actually rather hard to pull the bill out on a door with a good seal.
