Saturday, March 28, 2009

Firewood Pile Art

I doubt this is a functional firewood pile, but it's very impressive! Art meets function??

Monday, March 23, 2009

What a sight... shrink wrapped firewood

I know not everyone heats their house with wood and occasionally people want to use their fireplace once or twice a year, but I couldn't help but shutter when I saw shrink wrapped firewood bundles!

It's got to be the lowest of the lows for a tree; cut down in it's prime, split, aged, shrink wrapped in a petroleum derivative and affixed with a cute nylon handle and bar coded. Oh the shame...

Saturday, March 21, 2009

White Ash Firewood Photos

White Ash is an excellent firewood, easy to split and tops the BTU output list with White Oak. As you can see from the photos the wood has long parallel grain. You might notice the pattern, white ash is commonly used in baseball bat production. One easy way to identify White Ash firewood is to check out the grain. It will exhibit a diamond shape pattern in the bark. Click on each photo for a high resolution look.


Friday, March 20, 2009

Hard Work!

My Father & I split and stacked wood today for almost six hours. I give MAJOR kudos to anyone that splits wood with an axe and maul, because I'm hurting right now... more pictures to come!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Proud of your Firewood Pile?

Proud of your firewood pile and want to show it? Send me a picture of your pile, how you split it, your location and the type of wood and I'll post it to the blog!

Whether you split via axe and maul or hydraulic splitter, splitting firewood it a LOT of work. Splitting, moving, stacking, hauling, rolling... you'll use muscles you haven't used in a while! Personally I'm very sore, but a small price to pay for energy independence.

(unfortunately that's not my firewood pile to the left!)

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Coolest Firewood Splitter EVER!

Black Cherry Firewood Photos

Black cherry firewood is a GREAT firewood to burn. It's sad really, because it's so beautiful. The core of the wood is a peach/pink color grading out to yellow, white and then bark. It burns HOT and LONG and coals nicely. It gives off a little scent, a semi-sweet smell. If you find any, you'll treasure it for sure.

As a general rule any of the fruit woods (cherry, apple, pear, etc) are dense, hot burning firewoods. Click the photos for a high-res view:

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Firewood Photos Cross Section

I found this photo on a discussion group. It's great, but unfortunately too small. I hope to create something similar but in high res so you can really see the wood grain.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Norway Maple Firewood Pictures




I spent half of Saturday splitting and part of Sunday stacking this Norway Maple. This is approximately one cord. I'm including some bark shots along with center grain and multiple split shots. More to come of Ash, Black Walnut, Gum and more...

Norway Maple is a decent burning wood but tends to burn up quickly.