Would you bother with free willow?

[Danny Boy]

It's free !!!!! and it burns!!!!!

 

exactly! and you have the space to let it dry...

 

if you feel too strongly about it, you could always spend some extra money on gas & electricity...

[Joy Yeomans]

no wood is bad, just needs drying out - when dry its good wood, if its free, collect it all and dry it off - free firewod for years sounds good to me

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

It's been said on here a thousand times - "Wood burns, water doesn't". Do it.

[openboater]

I take home a lot of willow from fallen limbs in rivers around Somerset. About half my winter work involves keeping our rivers flowing freely.

I leave the green wood in lengths of 3' to 4' but anything over 6" thick is split lengthways to firewood thickness before it goes on the stack, it's really satisfying to do, it's so easy.

I've found it will rot less, dry quicker, and when it goes from the stack to the logshed I don't show it the axe, just the saw.

Willow is great for getting the log burner up to temperature quickly, then if we want to sit back and watch a film on telly I feed it with lumpy hardwood so I don't have to get off the sofa every 10 minutes:thumbup:

[Kev P]

We have always liked willow ourselves and a few years ago I bought in about 56 ton of fresh willow,cut it at 40",split and stacked it in the open with tin sheeting over the top.8 months later we started to cut it on the bandsaw and sell.Every person that tried the willow wanted more.It was very dry.

[Big J]

Thanks for the continuing replies - I think that I will go to extract some. I do need to figure out a way of getting the truck in there. It's fairly non rutted track, but slippery as hell and fairly steep. Defeated my colleague's Hilux in the wet earlier in the year (only on all terrains though).

 

Perhaps I should just barrow it out.......

[farmer_ben]

Thanks for the continuing replies - I think that I will go to extract some. I do need to figure out a way of getting the truck in there. It's fairly non rutted track, but slippery as hell and fairly steep. Defeated my colleague's Hilux in the wet earlier in the year (only on all terrains though).

 

Perhaps I should just barrow it out.......

 

Quad bike and trailer would be cheap route i would of thought if you can borrow a quad? We have a trailer on the farm with road legal floatation tyres, i go into woods with this trailer and quad, then occasionally put pick up on it when taking any distance on the road!

[djbobbins]

I've helped my father fell a few willows, both on his own land and some roadside clearance for a local farmer. We cut it into log-lengths, split and stacked inside an open-ended concrete shed within 3 hours of felling.

 

Seems to be drying out nicely and burns okay in a stove or rayburn. Not tried it in an open firegrate yet though. Not a patch on ash though, or the seasoned eucalyptus I've just started on (felled in summer 2007 and 2008).

[s.varty]

Thanks for the replies gents. I do have a further free supply of good ash, sycamore, cherry and elm, but I have to fell and process it on my own time. This lot is already cut to metre lengths (thinking ahead you see) and awaiting pickup.......

 

Only problem is the access track is pretty boggy and somewhat oneway, so there might be wheel barrowing involved.

 

There is a lot of it though.....

 

The funny thing is that the site it's left on is so boggy that come three years the willow coppice will be outstanding from all the sprouted logs!

 

You keep the willow, its fantastic, but the ash,sycamore etc its total crap, i will do you a massive favour and take the lot away for a very small fee.

[Big J]

You keep the willow, its fantastic, but the ash,sycamore etc its total crap, i will do you a massive favour and take the lot away for a very small fee.

 

I've heard that Oak is total rubbish too - I've a good few cubic metres of that cut and split that I just can't give away!