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MtnDon
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# Posted: 29 Jun 2025 09:21am
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Seasoned dry splits nicely.
Frozen wet also splits good.
Some wood is difficult because of many knots or interlocked grain. I often toss a difficult knotty piece of ponderosa on the burn-n-dispose junk pile rather than fight it with the maul. No shortage of trees here.
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Malamute
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# Posted: 29 Jun 2025 10:37am - Edited by: Malamute
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Quoting: MtnDon Seasoned dry splits nicely. Frozen wet also splits good. Some wood is difficult because of many knots or interlocked grain. I often toss a difficult knotty piece of ponderosa on the burn-n-dispose junk pile rather than fight it with the maul. No shortage of trees here.
We had some pitch pinyon that was extremely pitchy and nearly impossible to split and too large to fit in the stove door at a buddies place. I ended up cutting an X into the top and leaving it out in the sun a year or more, it then split better instead of spitting the wedge back up into the air.
At my place I kept some full rounds for zero and below nights, one split if needed to fit in the stove, but since I started making fires wrong (upside down) I use much less wood, I still have a fair pile of full rounds left from building a place to sell and my own little place about 20 years ago, mainly door and window cut-outs.
The majority on my firewood has been construction waste/leftover pieces or mill slabs, the first cuts to square logs up into lumber. The mill let me get loads of it since I bought all my rough cut from him. Before injuring my back I could load the 16' flatbed with about 1 1/2 cords in an hr and a half, and cut it to stove size pieces either right off the trailer, or with a helper to throw it on the sawbuck. I only have to split small amounts as kindling, its effectively already split. I pick the thicker slabs when loading.
Making fires wrong greatly changed my wood usage and requirements, much less need for full rounds/logs/felling trees etc.
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paulz
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# Posted: 29 Jun 2025 01:07pm
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Thanks guys. Also I sharpened the maul, it was about like a butter knife edge, into a sharp edge. Didn’t help much, still tough split on oak chunks. Thinking about the same on the splitter edge. On oak often when it finally lets go there is a load bang, and the two pieces fly off.
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paulz
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# Posted: 3 Jul 2025 04:25pm
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My recycle yard pal gave me 3 new bottles of ‘Fire Starter Gel’. Just tried in the wood stove. Anyone used it? Like it says, no dangerous flare ups. Did seem to help the kindling get going though.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 3 Jul 2025 09:10pm
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Repackaged hand sanitizer?
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paulz
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# Posted: 5 Jul 2025 09:34pm - Edited by: paulz
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Bought this 110 ac log splitter yesterday at HFs 4th sale, $268. Its power surprised me, split this DF no sweat. Some hardwood bay gave it a little more trouble but anything under a foot around no problem. Uses a lot of juice, inverter wouldn’t power it, had to run the big lp genny. Best part is it fits across the tailgate, only have to bend down to pick up the splits.
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DRP
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# Posted: 6 Jul 2025 09:45pm - Edited by: DRP
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That's cool, I've wanted to make a small hydraulic kindlin splitter to mount to one of the back porch posts to make fine firestarter out of regular sized stuff. An electric/hydraulic power pack slung between the joists underneath and hose through the floor to a cylinder and plate mounted vertically on the post.
Going back to frost checks, the first 2 pics are of a frost check in some pine I sawed today. You can see bluestain is beginning.
The second pair of pics are of the bottlebrush Buckeye in the front yard, it is in full bloom today and attracting butterflies.
edit, forgot to mention the "massed pitch" in the frost check, the injury response in conifers. The crack is full of pine pitch and a good source of firestarter, waterproofing for ropes sails and between ship planking, varnish, etc. When you see massed pitch, figure out why, there is damage there. In this case there is a bad crack there filled with pine rosin.
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Malamute
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# Posted: 13 Jul 2025 02:59pm - Edited by: Malamute
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Quoting: paulz My recycle yard pal gave me 3 new bottles of ‘Fire Starter Gel’. Just tried in the wood stove. Anyone used it? Like it says, no dangerous flare ups. Did seem to help the kindling get going though. IMG_5216.jpeg
Just splitting some small clear pieces down is adequate, no paper or fluids really needed. Its the fun part of making fires to split down some smaller pieces with the hatchet on the outdoor chopping block, against the front of the woodstove or on the round I use to sit on to make fires, make a small fire lay on top of the tightly stacked wood, use one match, and have the fire going.
The last picture is the leftover fire the next morning, no other wood was added, only the initial stack shown. It burns all night with the airtight blaze king.
Fire lay
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Fire the next morning
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paulz
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# Posted: 19 Jul 2025 10:24am - Edited by: paulz
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My city house had a small redwood sidewalk section I tore out and saved years ago. This week a friend and I hauled it out to the cabin and used it to cover the last section of the cabin, formerly slide down the hill rocky dirt. It’s only 1x boards but still better than cut and burn. So now I can walk completely around the cabin shoeless. Sweet!
Should probably extend the railing..
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 19 Jul 2025 04:47pm - Edited by: MtnDon
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Oops.
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DRP
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# Posted: 22 Jul 2025 07:15am
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I think that code reads something like "If the ground 3' away is more than 3' below you, it needs a guard rail." That looks like it might  .
I had rejected a couple hundred feet of the red oak I took to work, although it had been through the kiln and heat sanitized, it had powderpost and oak timberworm bug holes. I'm not going there inside, that is asking for a callback. Last week the clients asked about oak for the outside entry ceiling. It will be stained very dark to match the doors, a good use for the rejects!
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paulz
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# Posted: 22 Jul 2025 10:01am
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Quoting: DRP I think that code reads something like "If the ground 3' away is more than 3' below you, it needs a guard rail." That looks like it might .
Sounds good. As shown in my photo the rest of the deck is railed with old branches, I’ll have to go find some, everything laying around was burned for firewood before my neighbor gave me all his rounds from his cuttings.
Speaking of which, I’m still busy splitting those rounds with the new electric splitter. Had my doubts about that thing but it has worked so well that I’m going to move the manual splitter back down to the shop. Still many rounds to go but gives me something to do when the wife blabs me outside.
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DRP
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2025 08:16pm - Edited by: DRP
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I'm so far behind, and there are several trees down, more fall than we can burn... but that plenty in the forest doesn't get them to the woodshed!
I've been detailing the framing and trying to stay ahead of the subs. HVAC starts tomorrow. Below is a pic of the guest bathroom. I spent a day putting blocking around the walls centered at 36". It should be easy to remember where to install grab bars, towel bars, cabinets and backsplash, etc. Look lower left, there is a TP holder block centered @21" above subfloor. I save a whole lot of cutoffs until late in framing, there are plenty of blocking opportunities as the job goes on. It costs more but I screwed everything, it is easier to align and pull things tight, or if not happy to back out and try again. I held a 6' level across the walls and marked the high studs. The power planer went upstairs at the end of the day. I'll do a little light wall flattening tomorrow.
My elbow and knee were seriously unhappy by end of the day. I might be designated key grip and donut shuttle tomorrow
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2025 09:47pm
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Yes, wall blocking is great. Kitchen and laundry areas are much easier to hand cabinets with good blocking. I did my garage workshop walls for cabinets all around at the suggestion of a neighbor (county bldg inspector) when we moved in many years ago.
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paulz
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# Posted: 25 Jul 2025 04:23pm
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Started mocking up fence railing over the new sidewalk. Should do two rails, need to go find more branches.
Still splitting rounds from my neighbors tree cuttings. I started neat stacking on the other side of the kindling jig but just wheel barrow dumping lately. As great as that new electric splitter has been doing, still wears me out. Still a boat load over there, I’ll keep flogging away but at some point will tell him to put it on Craigslist.
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DRP
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# Posted: 25 Jul 2025 09:40pm
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That looks very similar to here, jungle season in the mountains . I can't tell o the railings but bark on decays faster. I have a drawknife at the outfeed end of the sawmill to remove any bark, or really inner bark/cambium... food.
My pile is similar right now, its a dump pile of ready to split firewood lengths, but its hot and hotter this week.. I'll try to saw a few logs this weekend. There was a pair of longhorned beetles on the log pile that needed to get a room, the big wood munching larvae are probably days away. I may lose about 20 logs but it did open up the garden to sun. We will need cribbing for the boom truck when they deliver roofing materials at work. If all else fails I'll turn them into that.
I've got to brag on the electricians. I've known the "kid" since he was mowing the yard on a house I was building. The panel below was done by the kid under him now. I sent this pic to the building official, with the note, I believe that is the prettiest panel I've ever seen.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 25 Jul 2025 11:32pm - Edited by: MtnDon
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That is very nice work. It takes a little more cutting all the wires to the right length instead of cramming extra lengths every which way. I'd choose that electrician. Sort of the same thing as any workers who leave their workplace tidy at the end of the day.
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paulz
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# Posted: 26 Jul 2025 06:40am
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Very nice electrical panel. Reminds me of the one in my city house, built by the pros that did the whole neighborhood, and likely many more years ago. Far cry from the ‘do it all yourself’ mess my cabin wiring is.
On my deck railing, yes they are fully barked branches, but don’t seem to be suffering any advance decay. Maybe being redwood helps.
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DRP
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2025 08:00pm
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Today was a great weight loss program but I'm replacing lost water with Moose Tracks and sweet tea .
A large mockernut hickory fell across the cliff road, broke 2 small tulip poplars and lodged in a big beech tree. The top of one of the poplars is dangling precariously about 50' above the road. We will just have to be aware of that one till a wind drops it.
The hickory broke about 6' above the ground. I knew it had a "hare hole" and as is often the case when you see that, it was hollow at the bottom. Getting that end to ground took yesterday and happily twice I had 2 saws, a spare to free the pinched one. Once that end was on the ground I kept removing about 8' at a time, the top is still firmly up in the beech. Those pieces are about 20" diameter so might be some neat character wood. Mockernut is one of the 7 hickories, it is known as white hickory because it has a wide white sapwood band. The heartwood is smaller and to my eye more bland in color than shagbark. And everyone knows the domesticated hickory, pecan. In the cabinet shop we would simply order pecan/hickory and it would be any of them.
I mentioned the hare hole and hollow base, possibly from cattle in the woods and hoof damage. The pic is from one of the leaders up top that I firewooded at the end of the day. That is sapsucker damage, that is what might look either really cool when I saw it or, dimensional firewood. This is a good short article on the sapsuckers;
https://wiki.bugwood.org/Archive:Hickory/Sphyrapicus_varius
Then think about sawing patterns. I'll probably chase the white around the core for all white boards, then dive in and get narrower dark all heartwood boards. Vs through and through sawing with lots of stripey boards. Pioneer, Marantz, those 70's stereo cases were heartwood pecan. Of the cussedly twisty hickories, pecan is the tamest as it dries. Pignut has cool reds in the heart with the browns.
The bird peck would exclude this from a hickory handle buyer and they have another spec, no more than 6 rings per inch. This is a ring porous hardwood, more rings per inch is lower density and weaker. A faster growing tree is stronger, but that density and its nature means it is a bear to dry that strong one straight. ... going back to the comment on pecan drying calmer, it is domesticated for the nut but is also slower grown and lower density, wood substance, generally speaking density, is what shrinks. The pecan is lower strength marginally but is also lower shrinkage.
Notice the lower horizontal log in the pic, they pretty much girdled the stem. And you can tap hickories for syrup, they are on to good sap. Soo, were they a response to a weakened tree or was it random?
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2025 08:19pm
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I love hearing about and seeing the many different woods you have there. Out here, (@7 to 10 thousand feet) just south of the tail end of the Rockies we have ponderosa pine and more ponderosa pine with a some DougFir, white fir, aspen and gambel oak. And that is about it.
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DRP
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# Posted: 30 Jul 2025 07:48am - Edited by: DRP
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I've heard that the southern Appalachians is the 2nd most diverse forest on the planet. I see stuff I've never noticed before pretty often, which is fun. A neighbor at the job needed a few turned porch pickets. I chucked up some thick enough wood laying in the shop on the lathe, thinking it was cherry but not really sure. The gouge hit the wood and the apple smell made me reconsider the ID .
Below is a pic of the top of the hickory hung in the beech with a couple of poplar tops laying around. I'll pull from this side through a snatch block on the far side of the tree, pulling it backwards from one of the snapped poplars out of the beech... hopefully, hickory is et up with gravity! It smashed a young fraser magnolia, check out the size of those juvenile sun leaves. Oh and notice the cat faces on the hickory, those are limb scars. Pay attention to those when looking over and lining up a log to saw, one board in there is a knot behind those catfaces.
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DRP
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# Posted: 4 Aug 2025 06:03pm - Edited by: DRP
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The hickory is on the ground and I've begun the cleanup, boy they have a lot of top! The paneling behind my lathe in the pic below is hickory. I've made 3 of the 5 pickets my friend needs, inadvertently out of apple. It does turn nicely. A bag of lathe shavings is going with us to friends for dinner, it smokes good
The 2nd pic is from work, I ran into some borer damaged wood. It is a good example of the first "key" when looking up borers. The first question is "Flat headed or round headed?" A round headed borer makes a round hole, a flat headed borer makes a rectangular hole.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 4 Aug 2025 08:13pm
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Good size borer holes.
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