neiln

'eckin' 'ell! So have all manufacturers put prices up similarly? Will they drop again, or.... I guess it's going to mean less new stove owners

Am I mistaken, or have stoves jumped in price? I installed a stovax Stockton 5 about 4 years ago. I'm fairly sure it was about £650 then. I need some spares so was on the web last night and it seems the stove is about 30% more now! What happened? Is this the impact of ecodesign test and certification?

I find a file gets a good edge, although I'm only splitting wood and doing odd jobs around the garden. No woodworking tools like a plane get a diamond grit stone or a whetstone.

Yes I think that's the aim of the smoke control kit, and I agree with the aim. I just think it seems like it could close down more then it does on the Stockton. It's hard to have any real control once the stove has been going a few hours and the flue is really warm and the draw it's very strong. If I put two dry logs then I'll get a flue temp of 280+C, if the wood is Holly or yew I dare not put two logs on. Although one log gets lonely and sulks so I need to mix Holly and yew with something like Oak. It's not a bad stove for the money, but next time I buy a stove I reckon I'd spend more. A Burley maybe. From stuff I've read there are a few stoves with more control then the Stockton.

Same Stockton 5 here and same burn. I agree it feels like it could shut a good bit more and still be clean.

Norwegian wood +1

Or soapstone?

I watched that and thought, : that's quick!' It would be.... When the video o is triple speed

Heave is a potential issue if the building is erected on pre desicated soil and then the trees are removed. Ie, the trees must be mature/sizeable before the building comes along. You won't have heave. Enjoy your new home.

Yes but.... If you don't have great access or big tools then it needs a lot of dealing with it just to shift it. Just getting it off the ground means it basically won't rot, not English oak anyway (Turkey oak... Maybe). Rain and snow etc aren't really a worry for a long time.

I thought I should be more helpful and give you an idea of how long it might take really. Clearly that's dependant on the size of the tree and your access to it but an oak with a 2' diameter trunk that is let's say 16m tall.... Rough guess I'd say 3-4 M3, maybe 5m3 of wood in the trunk and crown that might have been big enough to be worth cutting and splitting. When you say it's cut into rounds 2' wide I realised that might be the length of the rounds not the diameter so you need a chainsaw large enough to cut in half or thirds, ready for the stove/fireplace. With the right saw and a sharp chain this is done in a couple of hours. Oak splits very easily but hand when green. Down two years it may well be a good bit drier and harder, you'll have to try it to find out. I reckon on about 3 hours to split a cube but hand and stack neatly to dry, that's working in my garden close to the stack but the pick up, toss to stack and stack neatly is maybe 2/3 the time, at least half. You'll take longer to get it out a field. I'd probably just rough split, quartering big rounds just to make them easy to lift, and barrow them to your trailer/car/truck. Then finish the splitting as close to the final stack as possible. So it could be anything from as little as 10 hours work, more likely 20+, and as much as....who knows. If access is not easy or you don't have a tractor or such to move big pieces, then it will take ages. However, if you enjoy being out in the field it can be a pleasant task done an hour at a time. If it'll take ages then maybe take some pallets to the wood and get it off the ground, or use any long limb lengths to get the rest off the ground.

I agree about trying just hard enough, although I will err on a bit harder than too soft, freeing a stuck axe is a ball ache. I started trying the flick the other day, that sent splits flying!

Pfff, get at it with an x27. Should be done by lunchtime...... In late May

If the sap wood is punky, just split off the punk and leave it behind.

English oak is fairly rot resistant. If the rings are off the ground they will last indefinitely. I'm guessing they have been on the ground, if they've been bark down they will still be pretty solid, however if they've been cut end on the ground they may be starting to rot, and will definitely be quite wet. Just start cutting, splitting and stacking off the ground and ideally in a dry and well ventilated spot. They will then dry out and last until you burn it

As for Holly, I threw 2 shortish and average thickness bits in my stove earlier, albeit on a hot bed of coals where the previous logs were almost still flaming....and the flue pipe went to 375C! it came back down in 10-15 minutes, but flippin' 'eck, holly is powerful stuff. Yew is similar in my experience, I have to tread carefully with both these woods.

yep that's how I love to get mum's. Unfortunately my own stove needs the smoke control kit so I can only get vibrant dancing flames, not the lazy hovering!

If you have a bit of space to work and a pile of logs you don't use one block, you use several, just spread 4 or 6 or 8 of the rounds to be split out, and stick another on each. Split the lot before bending down to pick any up. If the wood is straight grained and easy splitting you don't need the block at all, just go with logs on the ground. If it's too d really easy splitting they don't even need to be upright, golf swing at them when laid over (watch some Buckin'to get the idea) BE CAREFUL though. ONLY SWING AT LOGS THAT ARE PAST YOU so a deflecting axe just sails safely into fresh air. Something I've not tried but thought of as I golf split a log that had merely toppled from my block....if you lay a long log, say 10', down, you could lay lots (10) to be split against each side, and walk down golfing away.... Might be efficient

Is the baffle in place?

Holly seems to be a very dense wood and gets my Stoves, very, very, very hot, so could well have quite a bit of resin in it.

I think the blue flame is carbon monoxide burning. Different gases burn with different colours, the cellulose in the wood first oxidises to form CO, and that then burns with the blue flame. The yellow flames you get from a fresh log are much more the resins/turps burning. For least smoke you want vibrant, dancing flames. I suspect the Stockton 7 will have an audible roar. My 5 with smoke control kit is always audible. Playing with mum's Franco belge (that stove is always quiet, vibrant flame or not) I love the 'constant lazy flash over' stubby refers to, the smoke burning several inches above the logs. I can set it so the flame looks clean and the chimney emissions are too to the eye, but I'm sure with measuring equipment this state is much dirtier. It does however seem to be more efficient, virtually as hot as with more air, but a couple of logs last twice as long. Anyway, for clean, vibrant, dancing flames.

Those bags are basically intended too be an evening fire. If you got a couple of m³ delivered, you'd use it over a winter doing fires like that a couple of evenings a week and a little more at weekends.

I've always thought that was a problem, all tyres have wire beads don't they? And if you hit anything in the tyre it'll be the bead surely. Does it dink the axe's edge?

There are many different eucalyptus. I've had the one that pops up in gardens as a decorative tree a few times. E.Gunni possibly. Never had to deal with it stuff past about errrrr 15" diameter maybe less. Can't say I found that hard to split. Split green. It splits itself loads as it dries iirc, it doesn't check, it just opens one or 2 big cracks.

And the yeast can go to make marmite.