Mick Boardman
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2020
- Messages
- 2,794
You know the drill, pics or it never happened!
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Lets use those axes for what they were ment for.
- Thread starter rplarson2004
- Start date
Some nice white paper birch......That stuff is a pleasure to work with...Start to finish!!!! Some guys here need some of that birch bark in the puukko thread!!!I fell, buck, and split about a cord every year with just an axe, and I use none of those things. Unlike splitting, you dont buck downwards, you stand next to or on the log and buck from either side. Even the "either side" thing is a generalization, I typically buck from each side but angled down a bit, so the top gets opend up for better access as you work further under the log. The downward angle fluctuates depending on the size of the log and how its lying, I fell all my wood selectively in thick timber... if portions of the log are suspended a bit above the ground when it lands, it makes it easyer to keep the axe out of the dirt but it also means I've got to chop out my notches with more of a downward angle to get through the bottom cleanly.
A bit of planning goes a long way towards keeping the log from hopping around too. I'll typically notch the log on one side all the way down before actually hacking off any rounds from the other, leaving the limbs on as long as possible. Often rather than go from end to end I'll shuffle through the various sections in conjunction with limb removal to best advantage, usually leaving a few big ones to keep it from rolling when I come at the other side. When you finally do take off the rounds I'll do the butt end first, since it takes lots of swings you want the rest of the log holding it still. Then the top, since its so light you also want it attached to a fair bit of log, then the middle, once again working around whatever limbs you've left attached to best advantage.
Hard to get a picture of it all since my axe cut wood ends up mixed in with all the stuff I cut with a power saw, but heres a face-cord-plus I hauled in, right now I've got about 3 more of these that are seasoning in the bush for the summer, and I'll haul them out with a big toboggan when it snows.
RIMG0076 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/153108294@N08/, on Flickr
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2023
- Messages
- 139
Birch is the most efficiently burning wood that we have up here. Given the amount of effort that goes into axe bucking a cord of wood I pretty much only chop birch, though I'll harvest other species with the chain saw. The downside is you dont find it growing anywhere easy to get at, usually you're in for some tricky felling, as well as a bit of hauling. Though it sounds pretty oldschool, finding stands that are uphill of the road and using a big sled to skid the rounds out is actually the most effecient way of getting a truckload that I've found.Some nice white paper birch......That stuff is a pleasure to work with...Start to finish!!!! Some guys here need some of that birch bark in the puukko thread!!!
Most guys who burn lots of birch around here have some forestry connection and are taking it from log decks. Its a source of some pride that I'm one of a very few guys who heats a house on "honest birch" for most of the winter.
Last edited:
That's great...I miss doing.......Enjoy it.
