What's the deal with the tiny stoves they use over the pond?

I can tell you doing 5-6 cords of "no longer than 10" wood will make a guy go crazy.

Seems all the customers I get that want really short wood ended up with a stove from Europe.

Why don't they have normal stoves that can handle 16-18" lengths?

 

That's a good question. When I went to England for work I noticed that everything was small. The family size sedan was the size of a civic. There were larger cars but they were viewed as luxury. Small yards, garages, houses...I don't know why.

I didn't see a "truck" when I was there. There where some vans with a bed but they were small. The main thing that stuck in my mind was the Guiness was always in a pint. That made me happy.

 

+1 I noticed the same thing overseas. I saw one full sized Chevy 4x4, I think it was in Italy. It looked like a monster truck sitting in traffic.

 

We spent a couple weeks in London a few years ago. My brother in law has family over there and we spent a fair amount of time with them at their houses. The houses are all really small. I would estimate under 1000 square feet and that was typical of the majority of the homes there. Imagine a Englander 30 in a house like that, it would take up half the living room and the house would be 90.

 

It's the American way...Bigger is better!

 

The European way...waste not, want not! When you have fewer natural resources, you tend to treasure them more.

 

My recently retired Morso "squirrel" was best suited to 8" splits oriented N-S.

No biggie. I just c/s/s 16" for the stacks. Then it could go either to friends for their disposal units (fireplaces) or buzzed to 8" with my bandsaw. It was really difficult to dispose of much wood with that stove- managed to burn all of 2 cords last winter, partly to clear outdoor storage space.

John Connolly (TX Gov.): "America didn't conserve its way to greatness." We are learning to change our ways, though. I hope.

 

I've had one person this year ask if I could do 5 cords of 8" wood. I'm not even sure if I could stack it 6ft high in my truck before it would tip over.
12" isn't too bad, but 8"... Holy cow!

 

Loading 5 cords of 8" wood in the stove- Better keep the stove door hinges well lubed.

 

That's a lot of sawing per cord for 8" wood!!

Who the heck buys a tiny stove that lives on Alaska unless its like in their bedroom? And isn't that illegal and against codes to have stove in bedroom?

But the houses in Europe are small so they need a small stove

 

When I was in the US Navy in the early 70's I was stationed in England for 2 years. In those days, most of the stoves in the English row houses burned coal, not wood.

 

Actually, it's simple to prepare 8" splits. I c/s/s 16-inchers, stack 'em outdoors, then haul in a couple hundred pounds at a clip with a cart I got from NT. Right inside outer door is a Grizzly 14" bandsaw. Quick & simple to buzz them to 8" with minimal wood waste. A couple of those little guys could keep it going nicely for 2-3 hours. I'm all for efficiency, even it my stacks are enough for many years.

One time back when, I tried to stack 8" splits. Dumb idea. Anyhow, the 7110 Morso stove that arrived recently can accomodate 16" splits. It won't see many of them until around Christmas. Meanwhile, it's very happy with stocky 8-inchers- makes it easy to extend batch burn-time without excessive heat output. Flexibility: a big PLUS.

 

If it was for my stove maybe that would work since I could spend forever doing it and not care but it's for a customer... ie... I can't spend much longer than with doing normal length wood or I start loosing $$.

I think next year I will change my rates that really none standard lengths are more $$. 14-24" I can deal with just fine, but 8" is just nuts IMO.

The other issue too is if I do a load of 5 cords of 8" and they cancel or "disappear" what the heck am I gonna do with all of that?!

 

Recutting all your wood on a band saw seems like an awful lot of wear on your bandsaw. I assume its a quality one so the actual run time is probably a non issue but the cost of the band saw blade or whatever you call it would add up.Cutting even a cord of splits down to size is a lot of cutting!!

 

Why wouldn't you just adjust the price to maintain your accustomed profit margin? If they don't want to pay it, that's up to them.

I realize that's basically what you're already planning to do next year, but it surprises me to think anyone would even try to do it at the same price per cord as they charge for 16" splits when they've got to make twice as many cuts, burn twice as much saw gas, do twice as much sharpening and handle twice as many pieces.

 

Yep, which is a legacy of the fact that most of the British islands were stripped bare of trees by the late middle ages for construction and firewood. They where running seriously short of wood of all kinds when the founded the colonies, one of the reasons all the best trees on the east coast where tagged as "Kings trees" and cut and shipped back to England to build royal navy ships, etc.

We did the same here in the early 1800s. Look at old photos of New Enland in the 19th century... very few trees. It was only after the coal boom of the industrial revolution that the forests there and here began to grow back.

Like everybody said above... In Europe you have a lot of people squeezed into a much smaller land area so everything is smaller. Homes are small and close together. Old roads are small, often because they where built over old Roman roads packed into tightly settled villages going back to the middle ages. There is not enough room, or need for big cars and big stoves.

 

The other issue too is if I do a load of 5 cords of 8" and they cancel or "disappear" what the heck am I gonna do with all of that?![/QUOTE]

Sell it to Europe through CrAIGSLIST!

 

I don't cut firewood with a saw, I have a processor. It's good to 10-15 cords on a chain sharpening. It's more the "handle twice as many pieces".

Never had to worry about it, first time in 3 years someone has wanted short wood like that.

 

Rather than a bandsaw, you could station a cheap HF chop saw for cutting duties. Shrinking wood from 16 to 8.

Sailboat stoves are also very small. Charming Im sure but when you need more heat for a bigger space you need a bigger firebox.