After being exiled from the other thread, which I had fondly called home, I wandered the streets for a while, with my iPhone full of photos hung round my neck, muttering and shuffling my feet and asking passers by "Hey buddy, can you spare a Foto post?" but they averted their eyes and hurried past. One guy reached into his pocket and took out his wallet, but his wife or girlfriend grabbed his arm and said, "Don't give him money! He'll only spend it on chain oil." I even tried to give up wood heat: I checked myself into a rehab outfit called "From Wood to Good", and I felt like I was making progress, but one day I went through a door that was usually kept locked and discovered ... well it's almost too horrible to relate; the room was packed with electric heaters: Bar heaters, fan heaters, oil-filled column heaters, and then right at the end my eye fell on something that chilled me to the bone: one of those electric heaters with plastic logs and a light/fan blade behind them to simulate glowing coals. I was in a mind-control electricity cult! And when winter came they'd use these things on me! Eventually I escaped. The fence was electrified (of course), but I threw some dry twigs over it (Hah! Take that, you electro-zombies - wood is non conductive!) Returning home I grabbed the keys to the shed, and as the door creaked open a shaft of light fell on my Stihl MS-271 with 18" bar. Its orange powerhead cover and scabbard glowed in the dark shed like the last hardwood coals of a long winter evening. "Hungry buddy?" I said, "OK ... let's make some noodles." And we did:
"Why so many noodles?" I hear you ask. Well, I'm glad you asked. It's something I learned on this site and it has come in really handy over the last couple of days. You see, I had thought that anything other than cross cutting was to be strictly avoided, but I didn't understand that ripping and noodling, although they give the same result, are completely different with respect to saw performance. I have a big pine tree trunk up on blocks in a small wilderness area between my property and the neighbouring farm. The landlord told me to help myself. When I moved in two years ago I took some cuts off it, but it was so big in relation to my chainsaw that it made me nervous at my level of experience, so I jacked it up onto a solid masonry block on one end and a thin round on the other to keep it from rotting, peeled the remaining bark off it and forgot about it. Then, the other day I realized that summer is half over and, although I've got plenty of hardwood I have very little softwood to make kindling. In the picture above with the tub of noodles you see the stump it was cut from, so way too big to saw through in one action with an 18" bar, and I'm not much good at matching cuts coming from each side (and the trunk is far from cylindrical with lots of large branches having been cut off). btw, I'll adopt the practice of putting small, fast loading pictures in my posts and full sized (or bigger at least) in my albums if anyone wants to see a higher resolution. Noodling allows me to cut two half rings more in line with my saw's reach: There's another very significant benefit. The trunk is scarily massive up close, and it's off the ground supported at two points. On one side it's resting against two small trees but on the other ... well, the thought of it rolling onto me as the removal of rounds causes the weight to shift is terrifying. Actually the thought of just a full round coming at me is scary. Although I didn't realize it until after the above photo was taken, noodling allows me to cross cut the dangerous side half first without any risk of anything coming off, then when I noodle from the end the half round drops off well clear to my right. I still have to cut the "safe" side, but with only a half round left I can rope it to a tree to control its fall. The round log you see in the foreground was under the trunk but never supporting it (I decided it could be rotten), but you can just see the short round that was then right at the edge once I took the other half out. So I had to re-rig to cut any more. I decided to do two things: put a chain and heavy-duty ratchet tie down combo to tie the trunk to a nearby stump, and put a sturdy log in at an angle to prevent it rolling forward if the chain (or padlock) didn't hold: You can't tell, but it is sloping up to the end closest to the camera (I double checked with a spirit level!) The piece of square-section steel is just compensating for a slight down slope to the left - i.e. to make sure the roundwood doesn't roll off the block. That would be bad. Different angle before cutting the last two rounds. Spacing cuts already made and chalk line to assist. The bounty: Another great thing I discovered was that a "wood grenade" type wedge I bought, that I had found useless with gum (popped right out every time) actually works great with knotty pieces of pine: Which brings us neatly back to noodling. You can see that the grain goes at right angles within this split, so once I had opened it up I could see that it was useless to pound away at it with a maul, so I noodled it to get some stackable and size-appropriate pieces for my (small) wood burner. Although the heartwood was fine, an inch of the entire circumference of each round had to be chipped off because it was infested with huhu grubs. Here's one of the little buggers: And here's the damage they do: All in all a very satisfying day's work. And just as I was packing up, a package arrived from overseas. Some special Italian wood: They forgot to send Sicily!
haha I see someone else saves their noodles! I always save em. Makes a great natural way to get a fire going.
I'm hoping so. I nearly threw them on the compost but realized at the last minute that I was throwing away valuable tinder.
Oh you won't be let down...they work very well! bring em inside and "stir" then once in a while so they get nice and dry.
I hope to get some kind of hand planer and make some “noodles” out of my fatwood as you’ve done witb your pine here. Nice story and tell. Got some pine i had similar trouble with myself. Would pop that grenade out as if it were a frozen pea. Still isn’t all that dry!!! It’s been nearly a year. Small pieces too. Might have to haul this to another area where i burn in hopes of waiting a few years and shove them in Der feüre!
I should mention in respect of noodling, just in case there's someone even less experienced than me (if you can imagine such a person), that it's crucial to make sure your sprocket cover doesn't jam up with noodles. Maintain awareness of the noodles flowing out; don't gaze at them to the exclusion of watching out for other dangers - what the bar is doing, etc. - just keep the noodles in your peripheral vision and stop immediately if you detect the flow slowing, even if you're a few seconds from finishing. Stop every 15-20 seconds whether the flow is good or not, as there could be a little knot of noodles that could be overheating components. Keep some long tweezers handy and, unless you think you've got too many fingers, turn the bloody thing off before you go poking around in there.
Noodlin' is a great cutting method to learn in this hobby we have. Not only does noodlin' make things easier on one's back when moving large pieces of wood, but it also makes knarly, knotty gangly crotchwood much easier to stack neatly. As for noodles? I save 'em almost every time I make 'em. There's a large multitude of uses for 'em. If it's warm or hot outside, I'll spread 'em out on a tarp in a bright, sunny spot in the yard and let them dry out, BONE DRY, before stuffing them tightly in big cardboard boxes. Once that's done, I store the boxes in the barn loft til needed. They can be used for tinder, packaging material for mailed items, oil dry, pet bedding, I even used them for my wife's Christmas Nativity set...... I save my cedar noodles for our boy scout troop, that stuff is very easy to get a spark or ember to light into a fire when the boys build friction fires..... What a great hobby (and family) we have here! Thanks for sharing your story, Enzed Bill.
Sehrrrr Gut, Weitermachen! Zhats fantastic Billy, zhe very gute Fotos, zhe hoarders demanding zhe lot more! And where ihz your Motorsaegen-führer-schein?
Weather was looking a bit iffy today, but I took a chance and went after another two rings from the pine trunk. Glad I did because the rain never arrived and I worked more efficiently than last time now that I know (sort of) what I'm doing. Made both cross cuts on the exposed/danger side first. Then noodled off the first half ring, which fell away safely to the right. Picture at that stage. Then roped up the other half with a bit of tension on the line so it would fall away from me, which it did. Then same routine for the second ring. Then noodle off the knotty bits that won't split with a maul. Also found my Smart Holder, which I had forgotten about, and decided to sort out a few branches since I had some fuel left. If you've got loads of branches you're better off with a proper sawbuck, like this sturdy erection, but if you're a back yard amateur like me with just a few branches from time to time, this is a quick and effective way to buck them. And here it is loaded with an oak branch that the arborist took down when they were here. Higher res photos here for those who are interested.
I split and stacked all the pine yesterday. While I was stripping the inch huhu layer off (see above) I got to thinking what a shame it was to waste that inch (i.e. 2.5cm for those countries that have never put a man on the moon ) - the grubs don't actually taint the surrounding wood, they just make tunnels and leave tailings from what they eat. Then it struck me: as long as I kept them separate from my main wood supply I might be able to use the pieces after all. I have loads of HDPE barrels of various capacities. So I made a huhu hotel out of one of the 42gal ones (160L for those without a space programme) I put it in a sunny spot because as you know huhu grubs feel the cold. In direct sunlight it probably reaches a toasty 140F inside (that's 60C in earth-bound nations), and if that's too warm for them, I left a gap so they can wriggle out and play with the birdies.
Hello Bill, speaking of Noodles and one of my most Favorite NZ commercials is this one, I had too... Nice thread my friend!
