Thread: What size chainsaw for firewood?

Yep

That's my understanding.... split it and stack it and let the sun and wind get at it so you can use it the coming Winter. But I use a power splitter - a sort of threaded steel cone that runs off the PTO on the tractor and sometimes on freshly felled Nitens it is a bit messy. The dead trees are a breeze to split, whether with an axe or using the machine, wet wood is another matter. By the way, I bought a McCulloch 700 20" saw (70cc) about 1977 and it is still totally wonderful. A few years back I bought a smaller Stihl (021 from memory, about 30cc) and I use that on lighter stuff, mainly to avoid wearing the McCulloch out. That Stihl has been a great purchase. No problems at all. I don't think hiring a saw is viable from what you say you are doing - OK for knocking over a couple of trees but not a long-term solution.

Wood most certainly will dry quicker if its split first, BUT
Many of our australian hardwoods just don't want to be split untill they are ready. Yeh you'll splitt them but its hard work.
I generaly stack the logs op outdoors till the cracks start to appear then whack em with the splitter.
cheers

Originally Posted by dean4

If you split green wood wont it dry quicker ?

Dean

Sure it will dry quicker but if you are using Aussie hardwood I wouldn't use it under at least 2 years unless you want to choke your flue up.

As I said earlier our New England hardwoods if the tree has died will take about 20 years to dry out if the tree is standing. If it is lying down it will take more like 30 years.

I split some Yellow Box that had been cut down green that had been cut down for about 15 years that had been cut into 300mm blocks and it took a further 2 years to dry out enough to burn without choking up the flue. It had girth of about 800mm.

My 20 tonne hydraulic block splitter really struggled to split this and there was no way that I could split it with a hand block splitter. It just bounced off the blocks.

Yellow Box burns so hot it will buckle cast iron grates and cause them to disintegrate.