me, 18" ak, and dry slightly rotted alder firewood

Y

yoippari

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May 8, 2004
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We went camping this weekend and I finally got a chance to swing my AK. The friends we were visiting at the campground found some refuse alder branches no more than 5" diameter. I dont know if it was me, the knuk, or the wood but while I could get some good penetration with the first couple of swings, it seemed to take forever to get through.
I only actually attacked the branches that our friends prop branch on rock, throw/hit with other rock method wouldn't work on. Even with those I only got about half way through and decided to use the rock method on the now muck weaker branch.
 
Like with an axe, cut a nice "V" just a right / swing, plus a \ left side swing, so

\ + / = \/

after you chunk some out from one side, rotate the log a bit and commwnce...repeat as necessary.

Picked up the technique one day by observing a fine natural tree feller--the Beaver-- at work.
 
Yup...technique. You don't want to try to cut straight through like salami...it's dry wood after all!
 
I was out in the yard cutting this really well dried maple limb that fell from my tree with a khuk and it was going SLOW. Since this was one of my finer edged khuks I was amazed it wasn't going faster so I went upstairs and got my razor sharp Granfors Bruks Hunters axe. It was just as slow. Some really dried wood is just plain TOUGH! :mad:
 
When I realized that even the 2" think branches wouldn't go with one or two chops I did start taking Vs out. Even then it was slow going.
The khuk still has the factory edge which was sharp out of the box. It did ok while splitting the one larger but short pieces we had.
BTW compared to other hardwoods is alder harder or softer? I am thinking that it might just be that this wood has sat around for quite a while and got harder as it dried.
 
is about as hard as seasoned maple. Both are often used in guitar necks because of their rigitity.

Keith
 
Yoippari--chopping wood is hard work, even with a khukuri. It takes a while to chop through even fairly small branches if the wood is dry. Also, were the branches attached to a tree or did you have them on some sort of chopping block? If the wood you are trying to cut is not adequately supported, such as when a springy dead branch is still attached to a tree, the vibrations and movement of the wood itself will use energy that could otherwise be used for chopping through the wood.

--Josh
 
I cut a bit of old dried alder in Oregon that made sparks fly from my chainsaw chain. It was clean debarked wood too, not some piece of dirty crap that had been laying in the mud. I was sure happy that not all of what was left of the old tree was that way!
Didn't run into it until I got up into a couple of the upper branches about two inches in diameter or so.
Kinda reminded me of old dried up and well seasoned Okie blackjack oak it did. Struck me as being kinda strange that it had seasoned so well and not deteriorated like a lot of wood up there does. Maybe it's because it was cut and never delimbed, don't know.:rolleyes: :confused:
Alder is a good smoking/grilling wood! Not as good as Hickory but good nevertheless.:)
Ate some smoked whiteing up in Washington that had been smoked with alder, mighty tasty it was! Have to admit that hickory might've been a tad strong fer da fish.;)
 
I had one end of the brach proped up on a log and my foot on the other end. My foot was about 1 1/2' to 2' away from my chopping area so I wasn't too worried, but I was carefull. The branch didn't vibrate that much, just slid off of the rock a little each time I hit it.

All we used it for was a camp fire which we roasted marshmellows over and collected a smokey smell on our clothes.
 
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