A crackling fire also reconciles with cold, damp weather. main thing, You have enough good firewood for it!
When clearing the trees in the garden, a lot of wood is produced. Small branches and twigs are, crushed with the foxtail, good kind of kindling. If you use the stove or fireplace often, however, you need more fuel, than the garden gives. Instead of buying expensive firewood ready-made, you can contact horticultural authorities, Forst- and landscaping- or horticultural companies get whole trunks and themselves 1 cut to size.
I use beech for the fireplace, Birch or oak are best: The slow-growing hardwoods burn for a long time. Softwoods should only be burned in the oven, because they contain resin, that causes flying sparks when burned.
HANDY SIDE IN UNIFORM LENGTH
How long the trunk sections will be, mainly depends on the size of the combustion chamber: The logs should be easy to put in and, if possible, not tilt, if you move them into a better position with the fire tongs. Pieces of about 30 cm length. Sections of will also fit very large chimneys 40 cm and more.
Try, to cut all the wood to about the same size, because that is useful when stacking. The right sense of proportion for this quickly develops when sawing. The only exceptions are very crooked pieces, because they are not good in the pile. Better cut them that short, that they can be used as kindling.
CORRECTLY CHOPPING AND CLEAVING WOOD
Trunk sections with more than 10 cm in diameter should be crushed, because then they burn more evenly. The smaller a piece is, however, the faster it burns. If you don't want to keep adding up, take care, that you always have logs of different thicknesses available – small, which quickly turn to embers, and big, which are then put on and slowly burn to themselves.
Sort your wood before chopping it: Hardwood is best shredded, when the cut trunk sections have been lying for about two years and are completely dry; Softwood, on the other hand, is best chopped fresh. In addition to a good splitting ax, you need a stable one, round 60 cm high chopping block, which you get like the tree trunks from forest companies, for example.
STORAGE FOR WINTER: THE WOOD STORAGE
Logs must be piled up dry and airy, so that they can dry out well. A wood store is usually not enough for this: Fresh wood from different years should be kept separate, so that you can keep track of the drying times. You should also have foliage- and conifers for one year should be stored separately, because the pieces of hardwood are not chopped until later. An airy woodshed is ideal for storage. You can also lay the piles in a corner of the garden. Either in wooden shelves with a roof, that you build for it, or in loosely layered piles, which are covered with an improvised roof. In traditional logs, the outer layer of logs serves as a cover. It is best to store the ready-to-use wood in a place that is protected from rain by the house, within easy reach. The way to a cozy fire is pleasantly short.
A stable sawhorse must be.
1 With the traditional wooden trestle, the trunk is pushed in after each cut, the interface is just in front of the box. The advantage of wooden trestles: The saw blade will not be damaged, if the cut goes wrong. From about 30 Euro.
2 The metal trestle with saw holder is more convenient. The saw can be guided with one hand and the wood pushed in with the other. About 154 Euro, Metabo.
3 With the “SmartHolder”, the wood is only clamped at one end and does not have to be pushed in for every cut. The clamp holder is adjustable and holds both thin branches and thick trunks. Around 122 Euro, Stihl.
4 A good metal buck has serrated flanks, between which the wood is pinched.
So secured and stored on three crosses, even long pieces do not slip. away 35 Euro, Atika.