Whether for a traditional open fire, the ever popular wood burner or for an outdoor pizza oven (so many people are getting into making an cooking authentic wood-fired pizza) you are going to need to chop, stack and store your wood. Many people opt for ready seasoned wood to be delivered or they buy it in plastic bags from DIY shops or from the local garage. In our opinion it's unnecessarily costly. However, with a few simple steps and a fiercely well-priced chainsaw, you can be providing your self with your own perfect wood pile, replenished at a far lower cost.
Which Kind Of Wood Do I Need?
You might be lucky enough to have a source of wood close by your home or even have a felled tree in your own garden. The basic thing is this: hard woods such as; beech, ash, oak, elm, sycamore and birch are the best as they are a slower burn and therefore last far longer. However, they require some dedicated time for preparation. Softer woods, such as pine, or cedar need less preparation time but you'll need a lot more wood - so if you can go for harder woods, all the better. Poplar is a soft wood that's the exception, it burns well and lasts for a long time in the same way as a hard wood.
Pizza Anyone?
With some preparation and the right kit you can cut and season your own wood at a much lower cost to you than buying it ready prepared. You can even find some clear designs for pizza ovens that won't cost you anything much apart from your time and some house bricks. We'd say that this one is the simplest - we've tried it and it works a treat. Just make sure that you get your dough right! You can find a really legitimate recipe here. You can thank us later.
Log Burners
Log burners have been so popular over the last ten years and continue to be so. Having a good store of seasoned (dried) wood will mean that you can get the best from your burner and have a good feeling of security; almost nothing beats the feeling of knowing you have a solid stack of wood piled high for winter!
When should I cut my firewood for Seasoning?
It’s not just a case of chopping down some wood and throwing it on the fire. If only! There is a general timeline which dictates when to chop, split and season firewood to ensure your firewood is at its optimum condition for you to enjoy it most and get the most from your firewood.
Late winter and early spring are certainly the best months to cut firewood. This is largely due to the fact that the trees will be bare, hence far easier to cut down without their foliage. It will also be the time when you might acquire uncut trees for purchase . It also gives the wood substantial drying time across the warmer months - let the sun do its work for you. Once the wood has been seasoned and had time to dry, it does become far easier to split so this task can be taken on towards the end of summer. The time taken to produce the perfect firewood does depend on the exact type of wood and local conditions, so this is a general guide.
How to Cut Firewood
Before cutting any firewood at all with a chainsaw, you need to ensure that you have the minimum PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). If you do not have PPE, don't cut wood. It's that straight forward in terms of your personal safety. Standard PPE is well covered here.
Thereafter, you should certainly use a saw-horse like the one pictured here. This gives the stability required and allows for a smooth squared off finish that will mean you can split your logs with ease.
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ParkerBrand specialise in chainsaws for all sorts of tasks; but for sure the current offers that we have on both our brilliant all rounder 45cc chainsaw, that gives you the flexibility of a 20" bar and chain as well as the 16" bar and chain and both operating oils- all in the same pack for our best ever price. Our nippy 10" chainsaw is also on a similarly best all time offer - coming complete with two 10" bars and four 10" chains and the oils (two stroke and chain oil) aside from our standard listing which you can also find here.
Seasoning the wood: Best Storage Tips
To season wood, stack it well, but not too tightly in a south or south-west, south-east facing direction. Obviously, this gives the best exposure to the sun and will optimum drying conditions. If you have no such spot, try to get the most exposure you can to the sun, but it is equally as important to ensure a clear flow of air. As well as aiding the seasoning process it also prevents fungus from growing in damp conditions.
In bad weather it does need to be protected - some people throw a tarp over teh pile and remove it in good weather, others decide to stack it under the eaves of a over hanging roof. If you are stacking serious quantities of wood, having a small roofed shelter of some kind is the best bet - just ensure that there's decent airflow and it's aligned as much south as possible.
You should certainly find that this process gives you well seasoned firewood in order to get the best from your resource. Get going - chop-chop!
