Fuelwood - Firewood
Prepare your own fuelwood - preparing fuelwood
To prepare your on fuelwood is far from difficult. Find out what to look out for when preparing firewood and what to pay attention to when chopping the wood.
You do not have to be a trained lumberjack to prepare fuelwood, however as so many things preparing firewood has its perils. Especially physically unfit people can overstress themselves easily. Preparing fuelwood is much more straining than one would think.
Important!
Protective Gear!
It is very important to arrange for protective gear before setting off to the forest to cut down trees. Specialised shops provide protective clothing made of a special material charac- terised by its ability to stop chain saw sprockets. The chain gets entangled and the chain saw stops immediately. This special- ised material has saved many lumberjacks lives and one should not shy away from such an important investment. A complete kit including safety shoes with steel toe cap and helmet with visor should always be used and costs between €250 and €400.
Quality tools –Essential to preparing firewood
Another very important factor for preparing firewood are tools. To cut down a tree you need a chain saw and an axe for de-branching it. Before using the chain saw you may want to check that there are no loose parts, the chain is tightened and sharp and that the chain brake works properly. When buying a new chain saw it is worth considering between the classic ones with a pull starter or the ones with an electric starter. For beginners it might prove difficult to use a pull starter and people have injured themselves and had to be hospitalised trying to start their chain saw with a pull starter and never got anywhere near preparing their firewood. Please ask a specialist for an induction before using a chain saw. Local forestry offices offer courses on how to use a chain saw when working in a forest and in some areas this course is compulsory.
If you want to prepare your own fuelwood you should always consider the following tips:
• Always go full throttle when cutting. This way you get stuck less often.
• Always use the chain alongside your body. Never right in front of you.
• Only specialists should cut down large trees.
• Always make sure that you are standing with both feet firmly on the ground.
• Make sure that you know where other people are standing before you start sawing.
• Always wear protective gear and safety shoes.
How to split firewood properly
Once you have cut down the trees, chopped them into manageable chunks and transported them home you need to turn the wood into a more usable format. The first step is to split the trunks to make the sawing easier. If you want to turn this exercise into a fitness workout you should use a splitting wedge and a sledge hammer or a special chopper. Please note that physically unfit people can reach their limit quickly. For the ones who want a bit more comfort a log splitter is the tool of choice. These splitters use a two part pneumatic press and they chop the wood into 4 pieces. Log splitters make it much easier to prepare your own fuelwood but they come at a price. You can buy a good log splitter from a specialised dealer from €700. With this in mind you may want to check first whether there are tool renting facilities nearby.
Lets start the sawing
Having split the wood it needs to be cut into ready to burn sizes using a circular saw. Make sure that you are always well rested before you start your work, as this is tiring and you lose concentration easily which can have fatal consequences!
And finally, chopping firewood!
The last step is to chop the firewood. Chopping firewood is not particularly difficult and therefore there is not at lot to look out for. When chopping firewood make sure that your axe is sharp and the blade is wide which makes the chopping of the fuelwood much easier. If you have wood with branches make sure that you chop it lengthwise. Knots are very hard to cut through. Make sure when chopping your fuelwood that you wear protective gloves because it is very easy to get a splinter. It is important to have sufficient breaks as chopping firewood is very straining for your wrists and arm joints.
Once all work is done the only task left is to stack the fuelwood so that it can dry properly and you can reach a high level of energy efficiency. To find out how to stack your firewood properly click on fuelwood wood storage
Source: kaminholz-wissen.de
