THE PLEASURES OF  Solid wood SPLITTING by Robert G. Borsody

This is  dedicated to those happy few who split wood for pleasure . It will be a chronicle of my own delights, and few pains, typically minor, of 30 years approximately of wood splitting.

          At this point, splitting wood for centuries , the world over, has been  a task grudgingly undertaken by many, young and old, as a matter of survival, to give the fire. It’s been done with axes, by using sledges and wedges, mauls and, possibly at one time, with  stone axes. It’s merely in recent times when it was not required in survival, and by those who did not need to do it, that it has become done for pleasure.

          I have generally maintained that is one of the few physical exercises that has the  three characteristics of, primary good cardiovascular exercise, one could proceed up a good sweat; and second, definitely not boring, every log takes a different approach and one can see the improvement from a pile of wood logs to a nice pile regarding firewood; and, third, practical. The only exercise I know just like that is shoveling snow in my front yard. Again, cardiovascular, not tedious to see the gradual development of change from snow-covered driveway to wash driveway and, finally, certainly, useful.

          I have always tried to work out in  various ways, commonly in a gym, and that is solely cardiovascular. For me at least, it is definitely boring and, of course, never useful to anybody except, myself, for  keeping in shape, and possibly the fitness center owner who gets a charge for the use of the gym. Splitting wood, by contrast, is not only absolutely free, but often  people try to give me something for it, such as a bottle of champers. I explain to them that the only thing that I desire from them  is for them to retain their eye out  for more wooden because wood splitting, for instance snow shoveling ,also has one major drawback. For the  one you need to have wood to split and when you might have split it you need a lot more; for the other, you have to have environments to shovel which is, training course, particularly seasonal. At least a new gym is always there make use of.

          I have, through the years, developed a system of several score people, for whom I have split wood around Westchester and Connecticut ,who do contact me occasionally to tell my family that someone has had a pine down and would like some wood split. I also occasionally drive  by houses and see the tree down or a pile of logs left originating from a downed tree. I carry minor typewritten notes in my car which i sometimes leave in the address saying something to the consequence that I like to split wood for exercise and will take action for free and giving my address and telephone number. Occasionally people chunk, but most probably think offers some kind of a crank or, occur. I would never go to the doorway and knock since they would probably set the dogs in me. Most people cannot fathom why somebody would do something for free and for pleasure how they would otherwise have to pay for.

          I’ve met many, many pleasant people this way (and a  several grouches, but I don’t care provided they have wood) and I tell them they are all part of my ” wood watchers group.In . When they try to give me a thing I always tell him no, they are not getting off that easy, they have to obtain more wood for me.

What I tell them is that, if they know someone who has to have a tree disassembled on their property, get a quotation from the tree people then ask how much it will be as long as they leave the wood. They often times will find out that it might be a very little less because the gardeners, or wherever is taking down the woods, have to pay dumping fee to reduce the logs, unless they  are some of the few guys who generate and sell firewood themselves. Next, i instruct the putative member of my own wood watchers group to inform their friend or neighbor that I will come by, split up the particular wood and pile them anywhere they want or, as long as they don’t want it, leave it for the curb for others to take. It’ll usually be gone in a day as well as two especially, I jokingly tell them, if they put a sign on it saying “do not take wooden.” Then it will be used furtively, at night.

If I have the time frame (and the wood) I will break up a cord a weekend; half a cord on Saturday plus half a cord on Sunday. A cord measures, as everyone knows, Several x 4 by Eight feet ,closely stacked. It is a great feeling to walk up to a new pile of logs at a new splitting place size them up as a 3 weekend, five weekend or even ten weekend job. Generally, by now I can come rather close to guessing how long it will need. The variables are, in combination with my time availability, how tricky the wood is and in what way the owner of the property wants your wood split, if they attention at all.

 My “default” splitting mode will be ordinary fireplace size, that is certainly, a piece of firewood about 4 to 7 inches in diameter and, of course, 18 inches to 2 feet long. Which is a normal size of a piece of log that is convenient to be used in most fireplaces and in a good iron Franklin stove. I have found, however, that some people who heat  their home using a cast-iron stove, prefer more substantial chunks, since the smaller pieces burn too quickly. Obviously it’s going to take less time to split for those people.

Many wood is easier to split in comparison with other wood. Counterintuitively, soft solid wood, such as pine or weeping willow, is harder to split, since the cutter just sinks into it. Tougher wood, such as oak, cracks more easily. Also, the frigid the weather, the easier the timber splits. It’s more brittle. There is some wood that is certainly tough and fibrous along with seems to just cling in concert, so each log takes a long time to split. Of course you would think that, since I am only doing it for the exercise, When i wouldn’t care whether it can take 15 min. to split 1 or 1 min. Having said that, part of the fun is the fast satisfaction and reward of seeing the log put into pieces.

          Then there are the records with branches in them. As one can imagine, when a huge sapling has a huge branch growing off it, there must be quite a few unusual situation that is out there where branch joins the spine. There is. There is a gnarly, twisted, dense configuration that nature has evolved and designed to continue to keep that heavy branch coming from falling off the tree. That may really be a challenge. Say there exists a tree three or Several feet diameter and, concerning 40 feet up there are three or four branches all developing from the same part of the shrub trunk. When that shrub is cut down, this section from the trunk where those organizations are coming out, can take everyone an hour or so to work over plus 10 or 15 sand wedges. A wedge  may be pounded straight into part of the wood right up to the finish, and with no effect. So that it takes another wedge then another, and one more and then another. I have 20 wedges of various sizes and shapes (all of them basically wedge-shaped) and sometimes, in a huge wood with several branches, I am going to get almost all of them in that room before it yields in order to my entreaties, and pounding. It is actually, of course, a great satisfaction to “conquer” a log like that. We have an art and a science with it. Knowing where to place the wedges, which kind of wedge  to use (there are some variants among wedges, thin ones and fatter ones, for example) and finding the fault strains and natural splitting guidelines of a complicated log.

 

Methods

          The tools one uses aren’t particularly sophisticated. Mostly, sledges along with wedges. I have a selection of sledgehammers; a 12 pound one;your 16 pound one;in addition to 20 pound beauty. When i looked long and hard for the second and I think it’s the largest engineered to be made. I use it uniquely for particularly recalcitrant logs. It functions wonders. I also have 2 mauls. One is a standard maul, about 14 pounds. (I should not have to demonstrate what a maul is  to anyone here. Anyone who has read this far has to be an experienced wood splitter and has learned.) The other is a “monster maul.” That had been the trade name this agreement it was sold, when I bought. I can’t remember where as well as when.  It is a sizable iron wedge of steel, about Six x 6″ that used to be  that come with an iron pipe, until I broke off the pipe. I took it into a machine shop and had these folks drill, tap and mess in (and weld it for great measure) a piece of 2 precious metal inch bar stock about a yard long. The whole thing weighs 22 pounds and is outstanding effective when needed .

ROTATOR CUFF PROBLEMS

I don’t use the monster maul or 20 pound sledge regularly, but I used to several years ago and all messed up my shoulder. For some reason, misplaced in the dim mists of historical past. I had gotten into the habit of splitting for three or 4 hours at a time and using mostly this monster maul; whaling away at firewood until it got darker and uneven to see and I would go home. Then I started noticing a good ache in my right make which developed into a pain when I lifted my shoulder joint up. It was, of course the actual dreaded  rotator cuff, a familiar condition to certain type of athlete.The classic symptom is an wherewithal to raise the arm more than 30° and also 45° out from the body without a sharp stabbing pain in the shoulder.

The rotator cuff, as a quick Search engines look will tell you, is a little room in your shoulder between the clavicle and the top of the humerus  where the  supraspinatus tendon happens and attaches to your arm to  lift it up. Although it is usually torn by accident, for example working out with a heavy thing over your head inside them for hours it go backwards, it commonly is injured by simply repetitive overhead arm movements, such as a squash player, your swimmer, a pitcher, or wooden splitter. Sure enough I had offended this supraspinatus tendon by overindulging in solid wood splitting and with too heavy a implement, the monster maul.

 So When i duly  visited a succession of orthopedic surgeons, each one of whom, as expected, willingly offered to generate a hole in my shoulder with regard to arthroscopic surgery. It took a few different surgeons before I finally found one who claimed what I wanted to hear , there might be an alternative, and that became a course of physical therapy. I attended a physical therapist; religiously implemented the instructions and frequently performed a series of about a number of exercises three or four times a week and refrained from wood breaking for a couple of months. The pain diminished and then vanished and I returned to wood splitting,  yet no more three or  four hours using the monster maul.

THE FEW Problems

There are not many other dangers or perhaps injuries that result from solid wood splitting. When people see me personally doing it or ask myself about it they think  that it may seem dangerous. I tell him this, unlike skiing or playing golf, I don’t think anyone possibly got killed wood breaking. (I did actually read about anyone getting hit in the go with a golf ball and perishing from it, or at least they perished afterwards and maybe that was the cause of it.) Lumberjacking and chain sawing  is something else, but more about that will later.

I wear steel toed boots in case I fall a log on my base and, of course, safety a pair of glasses when hitting the wedges while using sledges, but that’s about it for safe practices concerns. Of course I put on gloves but still do have a number of calluses on my hands but I am not saying exactly horny handed. I purchase inexpensive gloves from one connected with my tool company online catalogs that cost about a buck  . 5 each when bought from the dozen. I wear them out inside of a couple of months, probably mostly by way of handling the split wood and stacking it. Safety glasses are a must while hitting the wedges because, after a while, the ends of the sand wedges that get hit by the sledges turn into deformed and pieces fly off these individuals. If one of them hits anyone in the eye, that’s it for that eye. I have had tiny parts hit me but they don’t do very much damage, but  it is rather startling.

One-time I was whacking away at a wedge as well as felt the sting in the shin of my proper leg; pulled up my pants leg and saw a smallish piece of steel sticking out regarding my skin. I pulled it out  and threw that away, marveling  at the fact that, out of a 360° circle, that small piece of steel could soar off  the wedge  and hit my calf.  It was not  much of a wound, such as a big mosquito bite, therefore i kept on and hit the wedge another mighty blow in addition to felt another sting at my left leg. Yes, you actually guessed it, same thing. What are chances of that happening, however it did. Again, if that’s the scariest thing that happens to you after Three decades or so of wood cracking, it’s not a very dangerous activity.

SLEDGELESS SPLITTING

Before talking about archipelago sawing and lumberjacking, let me express one more thing about the much less risky exercise of wood dividing and that is, “sledgeless splitting.” Effectively, what is that, one might ask? It’s something that, because i probably didn’t invent this, nobody else seems to have ever seen them, but then, who makes a analysis of these things. This can be done along with any log that can be heightened more than a couple of feet uphill. The weight of the log itself is used split it. Here’s how it is done. I grab some sort of log, say 75 excess fat, maybe 18 inches in diameter and the usual 18 inches tall to 2 feet long. When i throw a wedge into your center of it so it supports. Then I turn it upside down hence the wedge is on the bottom  in addition to lift it into the air and throw it concerning the wedge so that the excess fat of the log is forced all the way down onto the wedge. A small record of the right kind of wood, claim Cedar, will split the 1st or second time; really satisfying. A tough log might take 10 or 15 thumps.

 I get it done because it’s a little variation and it’s also very satisfying when the journal finally splits. Also, it uses different muscles when compared with swinging a sledgehammer or a maul. Interestingly, and when you think about it, logically, the heavier logs separate quicker. If I can muscle mass up a 125 single pound log just a foot or possibly even longer into the air, maybe 2 or 3 times, the great weight of the log, smashing down on the wedge will split the idea. So, that is sledgeless  splitting. At this moment let’s talk about really dangerous stuff, lumberjacking.

Lumberjacking and also Chainsawing

Lumberjacks and miners are in the most harmful occupations. Maybe those Double crab fishing boats in the sea  off Alaska are pretty dangerous as well, but I don’t really know the particular figures on the mortality prices. I, of course am just a city bred lawyer through New York and now a businessman, and I am probably considered simply by most of the people of the world rather effete. I actually certainly am not a lumberjack in addition to would certainly not want to be a single but I have cut down a lot of trees and done a lot of chainsawing.

This was a logical, or maybe irrational , as my wife would express, extension of my real wood splitting activities. After becoming greater to wooded areas, generally in Connecticut at the invitation of an increasing circle of your “wood watchers” and doing a lot of wood splitting, I began to get many opportunities to take down some aged dead trees. This was less so because the owners needed tree work done, but simply because I was running out of wood to split; saw the dead trees and shrubs on the property and requested if I could take them lower.

 This also another little bit of a back story. At the family place in the Adirondacks, going back a number of years, my then brother-in-law Brian owned or operated a few chainsaws and I used to use them to take down trees; divided them up; stack these individuals, and then the wood was used to the heat the place.

           I then got a hankering to buy my own personal and, you know how these kind of points go, I wound up together with five of them; each one bigger the last one. The biggest became a 28 inch Stihl. Which  ultimately had been my undoing. One of the reasons I had a great number of is because I have such a tough time starting them; usually flooded them out. If I delivered along two or three of them into your woods, I usually I could purchase one started. One old guy My spouse and i knew, can’t remember which, said that a two cycle website, in a chainsaw, is like many women. Very temperamental and hard to get started, but once it starts likely, watch out. Funny, but not exactly accurate.

      Although I absolutely am not an experienced woodsman I actually saw first hand some of the risks of taking down trees. It comes with an old saying that, anyone can pack up a tree, but the proficiency consists of making it fall in places you want it to. This is why I certainly not tried taking down virtually any trees except if they were in the forest away from every buildings or anything else expensive. A number of tons of wood will go the place it wants to go, as soon as it gets started as there was not much you can do to prevent the idea.

Felling a tree

           I bear in mind putting a quarter-inch steel cable all around a  dead tree  that I was about to take down and fastening that to another nearby tree to  maintain the tree that I was thinning out from falling on a playset on the grounds of one of the estates in which I was doing my information. The cable snapped being a string and the playset seemed to be history. The family didn’t attention, they got a huge woodhouse instead.

          Your skilled  woodsman can tell, from which way the actual branches are growing, where the weight  is and, hence, which direction the tree will autumn. It is very difficult to make it fall in any other direction unless, obviously there is real tree do the job to be done and another person goes up with ropes or possibly a cherry picker and lops off those organizations. There is a little pamphlet  that comes with chainsaws  and contains some directions on how to trim down trees.  It shows best places to make the wedge shaped reduce, pointing toward the track you want the tree in order to fall, and then to cut, simultaneous to the ground or slightly over a downward angle, just a little bit higher than the bottom of the wedge molded cut, on the other side of the woods. The best practice is to end with just a little bit left to cut (which is called the “hinge”) and then insert a splitting wedge straight into that same cut  and lb . it  with a sledgehammer so it will  spread the cut; lift  the tree; plus tumble it over. It’s really a little more exciting to keep lowering until you hear that kind associated with crack or groaning good and  the tree starts to word of advice over. Then you should proceed.

          A tree starts to drop over very slowly around the first 30° from vertical. During about 45°, or about half way down, it is falling pretty swiftlyand  at about 60° and 70° it really is slicing through the air. Which gives you plenty of time to get out of just how. I always found the best thing to accomplish was to locate an escape option before starting which was close by and in most cases behind another fairly strong tree. This would be either perpendicular to the expected, and had hoped for, line of fall or maybe about 45° in back of the expected distinct fall. The reason one doesn’t get directly in back of the tree, which might initially seem this safest place is that, firstly the “barber chair”effect and also because often, as I said before, a woods may not fall just that you want it to fall. It could fall backwards and you wouldn’t wish to be there. Best to be regarding a nearby thick tree.

 I have no idea why it’s called the” barber chair”, effect. Probably because a barber chair can be made to help lean way back. The effect is as follows: the tree is usually cut and, instead of just going down over, the lower part of the trunk area slides backwards on the stump in the opposite direction that the  rest of the trunk falls, so that the tree finally ends up with maybe 10 or maybe 20 feet of the trunk area on one side of the stump  and the most of it on the other side of the stump. This is the big problem if you are on either sides of the stump the tree footwear is on. Best to end up being off to one side.

It is very stimulating, at least to an amateur anything like me, to cut down a big tree. Currently, don’t get me wrong, while I wouldn’t contact myself a “tree hugger”, I love trees and shrubs and would certainly never trim down a tree just for a hell of it. The bushes I cut down are lifeless trees or, for some reason and other, if the owner of the acreage wanted a tree cut down I used to do it for them. That was before the accident, but a little more about that later.

          Bucking

          Once a tree is cut down it has to be “bucked”. Bucking can be, as I understand it, cutting just about any wood when it is on the ground. Usually, I start by cutting small branches since they are still connected to the tree and sticking right up and easy to cut. For a sizeable tree a huge tangle quickly effects and it becomes pretty dangerous to be stepping around one of several branches cutting with a chainsaw. This is when one of the most important security items comes in  handy that is certainly Kevlar chaps. These are, as the name indicates, chaps that strap onto the front of your legs and are supposed to stop the saw through slicing into the leg. They normally do just that, except for time it didn’t  for me.

After cutting off the branches and getting down to the trunk, the next step is to slice up the trunk into hearth length logs, as mentioned above, in relation to 18 inches to 2 foot long. One thing to watch out for here  is actually, as the saw cuts virtually through the trunk and gets down to the ground one has being careful not to let the chain hit dirt  or rock. A single touch against a good sized rock or even a couple of mere seconds in the sand and the string is dulled and has to be sharpened. It is great to chop with a freshly sharpened cycle and feel the saw just simply slice through the wood no fun to cut with a lifeless chain, and not good for a bar or the saw.. Of course the kind of wood determines this as well. Naturally harder lumber goes a little more slowly. And  a lengthy dead tree with experienced wood will go very slowly and gradually and will dull the cycle very quickly.

Dealing with a pinch

One other thing watch out for while cutting apart  a corner of a tree or cutting any time, is getting the sequence saw stuck in the solid wood. If the trunk of a shrub or, even a large side, is under stress, exclusively if it is supported at both ends and sagging in the middle and you are therefore cutting from the top and then, as you reach the bottom, the wood will pinch. There are 2 ways of dealing with this. Should the trunk or branch is large enough, then, after the tavern of the chainsaw has passed over the wood deep enough to leave a couple of inches of the reduce free on the top, you sludge hammer a splitting wedge into  a cut to keep it aside. Actually, if one is cutting the horizontal cut in a massive tree (after already acquiring opened up the felling iron wedge shaped cut on the other side) it is usually a good idea to put a removing wedge into the horizontal slice in back of the chainsaw knife because sometimes, even though you desire the tree to autumn in the direction of the wedge molded cut, it will lean back the other way. Once that occurs or, or for that make a difference, once the bar of the power saw is pinched in a pine, it  is very difficult to do anything regarding it. If you have a second chainsaw you can try cutting from the other side, naturally being careful not to cut all the way through to the first chainsaw and enjoy the chains cut into one.

In a situation where one is cutting a log, as mentioned, supported at both ends or a more lean (more about that later) rather than using  a splitting wedge to maintain the top of the cut open, a person takes at  out the bar with the chainsaw  and starts cutting from your bottom. Two problems with this kind of are, because, of course, it’s a lot easier to cut on the top with gravity helping you, it’s tempting to keep cutting from the top too long before the blade is pinched. The other problem, of course, is  that when slicing from the bottom, one does not possess gravity on your side and you have to keep the chainsaw and move it up against the log. As soon as cutting a log in this position, particularly a leaner, wonderful care must be used, because the sign will give way very suddenly.

          Leaners

The “leaner” occurs when you are cutting the tree down and, typically happens in the forest the spot that the area around the tree isn’t clear, instead of just nicely plummeting flat on the ground it declines over and leans using a nearby tree. This is a task and where lumberjacking can really have dangerous. One way to deal with this is certainly to throw a collection over the tree as considerably up the tree as one can certainly reach, and then pull the item with a couple of guys or  an effective ratchet off the supporting tree, the constant maintenance not to be under the tree when it falls, of course, which happens to be always preferable. That’s often not an option and so the alternative way to handle it is to accomplish as follows. Say the tree offers fallen over and is inclined, at a 45° angle, supported by a nearby tree. You find a place 6-8 or eight feet on the trunk to cut it, where you can comfortably reach. Considering that, you will ultimately be lowering the trunk into fireplace plans, it should be some multiple associated with two foot lengths, ideally. Okay, now you start decreasing, from the top and, as outlined above you try to stop before the pub is pinched in the wood, say about two thirds of the way through for good sized two  ft . thick trunk. Now the enjoyment begins. You start cutting from your bottom of the log, not surprisingly lining  up as close as possible while using cut that is coming from the leading. Here is the “exciting” part, if chance happens to be your excitement. Once you cut far enough in place from the bottom towards the cut coming down from the top, your log will break. Currently, here’s the problem. That record, being under stress, will certainly snap suddenly. Unlike taking a standing tree down which, as I mentioned, starts incredibly, very slowly and doesn’t tumble swiftly until it’s properly on its way down, the wood under stress will not only bite quickly but can go in several different directions none of which you intend to be in.

          If you are standing next to a 40 foot extended trunk of a tree, 3 feet in diameter, and you have trim two thirds of the way from the best, and now you are cutting up on the bottom towards that initially top cut, you have to be for your toes and ready to jump. You don’t hear a long cracking in addition to groaning sound like you do coming from a tree when it’s starting to fall over, it’s just a sudden soda and the log is in  activity. It’s not so much the bottom piece about 8 feet long along with perhaps 1000 pounds, it is the best part of the log, about 31 feet long, and a handful of tons, which might decide to move out towards you and give you a little kiss. As I said I don’t accomplish this stuff anymore.

          But, only one more illustration of an interesting phenomenon that I experienced. As I said, every time a tree falls it starts very slowly and there is sufficient time to get out of the way etc.   Having said that, when cutting the log under stress, such as a more lean, as discussed above, them snaps quickly. There is a further interesting situation where slicing can result in an almost instantaneous motions.  This occurs when a tree comes over naturally, i.e., not cut down by a chainsaw, and the roots remain to a certain extent in the ground. This often develops after a rainy spell then high wind when the ground is soft and the root base are loosened in the ground. Likewise, trees that grow throughout damp or wet soil usually don’t put down serious roots and are prone to slip over once they reach some size. This is also true for woods, such as those around my house that only have two or three toes of soil.

           So,  you have a scenario where there is a tree, inside an instance that I will illustrate, about 100 feet large and 5 feet within diameter  which happened to be growing by means of stream and which it dropped over in high wind tornado. Well, I started cutting from the top and got down to a few pretty large, two or three foot diameter branches, and had almost reached the trunk when I noticed an interesting phenomenon. The trunk in the tree rose slightly started. Then I cut off another numerous feet and a trunk went up up further, until rrt had been three or 4 ft off the ground suspended in the air. The simple truth is, the stump and the roots were still embedded in the ground on the side of this tree where it received fallen over. On the other side, on top of the trunk, roots had been sculpted out of the ground. What was occurring was that, as the top branches of the tree, many tons of wood, were slice away,the trunk was being opened up by the elastic, resilient force of the huge remaining roots on your lawn.

          I jumped up on the massive log of the trunk and also strolled around, taking in your situation. With my “fly like” weight this didn’t even stir. I observed that, if I kept on chopping the trunk then,  when clearly there was about 20 or so feet left on it, it would arise to about a 45° angle rising and I would not be able to reach the end of the trunk to cut off any more. So, what I decided to do was just shut down the trunk as far down near the stump as I could, thinking that if I did that, the particular 30 foot length of the start would just drop  down on the ground we would just finish slicing it down. What I didn’t realize was anytime the stump, with its remaining root base embedded in the ground, was relieved of the several tons of weight of your 30 foot long Your five feet in diameter trunk, it could instantly spring back pretty much flat on the ground at the same time the fact that huge trunk thundered to the ground. That took an instant and did not fling me or the chainsaw into the air. The first time this happened, with a slightly smaller pine only about 3 feet in diameter, I foolishly didn’t realize it would take place and was amazed when it did. The next (and final) time that it happened , with the huge tree, I was watchful and prepared and ready to jump absent as the saw approached the foot of the cut. I didn’t have enough to move; it happened right away.

Widowmakers

          Here is another way that lumberjacks get killed,  by “widow makers.In . Here’s how it happens. After the day of lumberjacking  and taking along several dozen trees, from the natural course of things, while some of these trees topple around, some of their upper branches snap off  as a tree falls over, on the way down, and get caught in the upper branches associated with other standing trees. Subsequently, later, say the next day, like a lumberjack is walking along throughout the woods underneath a woods containing one of these 200 or maybe 300 pound branches, 40 or 40 feet uphill, it slips out and falls down on him as well as, if he is married, helps make his wife a widow. And so the name “widow maker.”

          One more statement about the ancient and honorable occupation of lumberjacking. While there’s always a need for trees to be cut down, for lumber, wood pulp (even though Kindle and its ilk are saving a lot of trees) etc. the way trees are cut down as well as job of a lumberjack has modified considerably over the years. For example there is a gigantic machine mostly utilized for taking down smaller trees , maybe 2 feet roughly in diameter,which are probably used for lumber or pulp. The machine disks up to the tree and grasps it with enormous grabbers. Then  a circular found comes out from machine plus slices off the tree right at ground level. The machine offers off the tree and lowers it down somewhere and there well might be another device to strip off the limbs, but maybe that’s even now done by a human wielding any chainsaw.

          There is a series on television called “Axemen”, which, as we all know, is not to do with axes, but in order to be able to capture the attention of the community who think that all lumberjacks apply axes, that’s the way it had to be named.  It could not be referred to as “chainsaw men” , too long. I have watched that, of course, but really felt sorry for those guys working with that will equipment. Most of them must have recently been missing various parts of their structure and I’m sure a goodly element of them get killed.

          Although enough of the dismal plus dangerous possibilities of being a lumberjack as well as dancing with chainsaws. Those days are gone for good for me. But, before many of us return to the pleasures of wood splitting and making  a wood pile, a few phrases about chainsaws.

CHAINSAWS

While there are energy chainsaws that have to be plugged in (though there are some small battery-powered ones, primarily for nibbling away in upper limbs of woods that can be easily carried) gasoline powered  chainsaws  are by far the most prevalent, the most powerful and, by the way, the most deafening. They are old-fashioned two cycle gas engines, with carburetors like the outdated cars used to have before energy resource injection.. They are very changeable and temperamental and hard to start. That is certainly one of the reasons I had so many along with used to carry two or three of those with me into the woods, since i have could usually only start out one. Some, to me,felt easier to start. The Husqvarnas that I owned always seemed to act well, as did this Stihls. I always had trouble with your Poulans. Of course, not being a really seasoned and skilled woodsman or, as an example someone very familiar with not one but two cycle engines, I am perhaps not the best judge of this.

          I will usually be spending a fair amount of time adjusting and solving the chainsaws out in the timber. I suppose this is par for that course. One thing that often occured to me is that the chain might fly off the bar. Simply because it loosens up as them heats up and expands. A single cannot tighten it an excessive amount of to start out since it will  not move easily or, perhaps even is not going to start. On the other hand, starting very loose, and then after reducing for a while, will result in a chain traveling by air off. But  this doesn’t result in injury usually, especially if one has the actual elemental safety equipment: weighty gloves, the above-mentioned chaps, and a difficult hat with a face guard.

           No, that’s not the way one typically is injured with a chainsaw. Usually one runs the item into a leg, as taken place to me. Except when cutting down a tree, when the power saw is horizontal to the ground along with cutting into the trunk on the tree, one is usually lowering downward,” bucking” a hardwood, in other words, cutting up the tree and cutting off the limbs. As one is cutting downwards, say, cutting branches off of a felled tree, the power saw is cutting in a down direction and if it slides and continues going downward,  it is going to encounter some section of the lower body. That is what this chaps are for and, as well, I forgot to mention, metal toed boots.

In my case, I’m even now not 100% sure what happened, nonetheless as I was cutting in an awkward angle, underneath a new fallen tree, trying to cut one of the branches the chainsaw slipped and cut directly into my leg, just on the inside of my right knee. Without the need of going into the gory details plus, as you can imagine it was somewhat gory, my partner demanded that I get rid of my chainsaws which I did, selling them on eBay. By the way, I had put together on a pair of Kevlar chaps that the 29 Inch Stihl chainsaw simply brushed aside on its way into my knee. Fortunately there was no severe or lasting damage executed although the hole  in my leg seemed to be big enough to put your fist in. It healed up and i am  walking around but not using a chainsaw. Before we leave chainsaws, a different interesting phenomena, and that is the gyroscope result.      

The gyroscope effect, is a instead complex phenomenon having to do with vector makes but you can feel it when you have a heavy spinning thing and try to rotate it from right angles to it truly is spin. You can feel the rewriting object forcing its in the past against the way you’re looking to rotate it. That’s what will keep the gyroscope upright. The more substantial the object and the faster this spin, then the more pronounced  the issue. You can feel it almost all strongly in a large chainsaw, let’s say a 28 inch one, when you rev up  the website and then turn the whole power saw sharply to one side or maybe the other, rotating it all around an axis that extends along side line of the bar. A lot more sharply you turn the   power saw, the more strongly you feel the particular chainsaw resisting your convert. That’s the gyroscope effect in chainsaws. Now back to more peaceful projects.

WOOD PILES AND Sign HOUSES

As I mentioned, among the pleasures of wood breaking is seeing a nice woodpile when you finally finish. It’s evidence of the task done and exercise you have had. Your well-built woodpile is a thing of beauty to particular people, such as the readers in this. Usually, unless the timber can be stacked between a couple trees, there has to be a “block” at the end of the pile or the timber will be just be   heaped in a ungraceful mound. The real woodsman starts with some sort of “block” which is: pieces of firewood, normally three or four, stacked alternately crossways; for instance parallel to the direction of your wood pile on the bottom stratum, the second layer perpendicular to the next, the third layer perpendicular on the second layer and similar to the first layer, and so on. This can create a square piled about 2 feet on a part that can go four or five ft . high, which is about of up to woodpile ought to go. Of course the remainder firewood will simply be piled between the blocks. A normal woodpile will be as long as one wants in case there’s not enough length accessible, then several wood hemorrhoids can be  put side by side. Right now, I said a “normal” woodpile. And then, however, there are wood “houses”.

          Merely have at least three or four cables of wood ( remember, each one cord is 4 y 4 by where there are children from, say  half a dozen years old to the low teens, then I offer to build a wood house, instead of only a normal woodpile.

 A wood house  starts with any block, and then the firewood will be stacked, about 4 legs high in a single row, stopping in a second block may perhaps be 10 feet away. Here’s where it gets different.The firewood is then piled perpendicular to the first line for, say, another 15 feet to a third obstruct for an L-shaped structure. Then the third wall is built perpendicular on the second one for a U-shaped shape, completed by a fourth prohibit. Closing the square, the fourth wall is built but, making a doorway. That is, instead of completely closing the square, the fifth block is built about 2 feet from the first prohibit at the end of the fourth wall . At that point, the walls are way up for the wood house and you simply could leave it that way plus the kids would have a wood “Fort.”

However, to complete a fundamental wood house structure a single must put on a roofing. One builds a triangle of firewood pieces ahead of  the two walls opposite the other person, preferably one of the walls not one with the door, making it harder. Then at the optimum of the two triangles you lay down a 2 x 4 or some type of a long pole and drape a tarp over the whole thing. (I like to use a camo tarpaulin or at least a dark brown tarpaulin since it blends in with a landscape . I hate those vibrant blue tarps. They are offensive for the eye, especially on top of a woodhouse.) That is your basic woodhouse.

Even so there are variations. If you have far more wood, you can make a bigger residence. Then you have walls inside with one or more blocks and, perhaps a triangle peak parallel for the two outside triangle highs to help hold up the ridgepole as well as tarp. The reason, of course, that one needs the peaked roof is so the rain and also snow will run off the item. Without the peaks, if you simply drape a tarp across the flat woodpile walls then, as soon as the first heavy rain, a pool of water will form  in the middle and, when when it obtains big enough, split the tarp. I think my biggest woodhouse needed about 10 cords and had six rooms and a tent.

Again, I’m doing all this for exercise but also for fun. While it’s fun to develop a woodpile and satisfying to view it after I’m accomplished. It’s a lot more fun to produce a woodhouse and somewhat of an issue, not just the architectural elements, but also estimating how big to make it, based on how many logs I’ve and how much firewood will certainly result from those logs. I can’t stick around to see what happens any time, and if, the people start getting rid of the wood and have to look at down parts of the woodhouse. When i imagine there may be protests on the children.

 

By Robert P. Borsody-  April 4,2011